OK then, the dust has settled from Fastlane. For about a
week. I think there was some disappointment about the straight up loss of Bryan
and the move forward with Reigns vs Lesnar. But not as much. Perhaps WWE has
been plotting a strategic course to get fans accustomed to disappointment and
able to rebound more quickly. If so, job well done. As I have mentioned, I am
not that opposed to a Reigns vs Lesnar match; it’s definitely a more credible
physical competition. To me, the outcome
of the match is more important. Do they force Reigns through the door despite
lack of experience and a need to further develop his charisma and in-ring
arsenal? Or do they keep Lesnar, the more interesting and dynamic performer,
dominant either as an unbeatable heel or a turning face? This would require a
Reigns heel turn, which the WWE looks very unlikely to pull the trigger on
because they seem to so desperately want to market him as the next big thing.
This is ignoring some basic pro wrestling logic of the recent and not so recent
past: Heels get over. Look at when Reigns was most over, as a member of the
ruthless heel group, The Shield. Making him truly kick ass as a villain will
make him ease into the baby face role down the line that much easier.
Of course the decision of who wins is probably largely
dependent on Brock Lesnar’s future with WWE, one that is increasingly questionable
considering his walk out of a scheduled appearance on the last episode of RAW
and a reportedly heated argument with Vince McMahon. The card of Wrestlemania
and the future course of the WWE wouldn’t be so frustratingly up in the air if
they would get to doing one simple thing well: consistently make both faces and
heels appear impressive. One of the key words there is consistently. Had WWE been doing this over the past few years, a
Dolph Ziggler or Cesaro or even a Wade Barrett may have been able to step up to
the main event plate by now.
RAW had some terribly confusing storytelling when it came to
the Randy Orton/Authority story, resulting in an angle that could’ve
potentially charged things up coming off as very lackluster. It went something
like this…Randy Orton comes out mad as hell at Seth Rollins, telling Steph and
Triple H they can take their plan for reconciliation and shove it, and then
basically saying, ‘ok, sure, let’s talk.’ And then basically getting back
together for a run of the mill tag team match, with tease of Orton going on
crazy on Rollins when…We already KNOW he is going to go crazy on Rollins. It
wasn’t even a plan on Orton’s part to infiltrate the group and then hit Rollins
when his guard was down. It was an illogical way to drag a story out longer,
making Orton look lame, when they could’ve easily carried a program between
them to Wrestlemania out by having them cut menacing promos and win matches
against up and coming talent.
While I love NXT, this week was one in which I found some
serious missteps. Better said, there were some good ideas carried out with what
I felt was some shoddy execution. It’s a good move bringing in familiar faces
like Brian Kendrick (as well as Rhyno last week) to give the new faces some
seasoned work style to bounce off of. But having Kendrick suddenly face Finn
Balor was a rushed program, and ended up being a wasted match. NXT would’ve been
wise to bring Kendrick in for at least 1 match a week earlier, maybe more, to
reestablish who he is and what he does. For many younger fans, it would be the
first time to meet this character. That would give the audience something to
react to, as NXT’s raucous audience has come to be regarded as a huge bright
spot on the show. Instead, they mostly sat on their hands, and meanwhile on tv,
the match was distracted from by this confrontation being set up by Kevin Owens
and Alex Reilly. It was so painfully obvious what was happening, Reilly is not
a very natural actor, and at the end, you could see the commentators, who kept
going unnaturally silent to make room for this thing to happen, moving to set
up for the attack by Owens to happen. I feel that having these shows taped is a
tool that NXT should use to its advantage and edit bumps like this out.
NXT is still winning first place for its treatment of female
wrestling. Becky Lynch fought Bailey and looked extremely impressive.
Meanwhile, Sasha Banks and Flair are set to have a match that is sure to be
excellent. Instead of outing them in outlandish in-ring stories, like in Lucha
Underground, here they face each other in matches that showcase their skills
and tenacity.
Meanwhile, I want to take a few moments to mention how great
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s English weekly tv program on AXS. With a retro feel that
brings to mind grittier and less flashy days of Saturday afternoon wrestling
watching, the show has been introducing a modest cast of characters with backgrounds
free of complexity. Though watching old broadcasts of matches on a monitor, the
energy brought to the commentary by Mauro Ranallo makes it seem like he is
right there with Josh Barnett calling the match in person and seeing it for the
first time. It makes a huge difference in selling the action in the ring, which
is already very good. The decision to go back to 2013 and show pivotal matches
and rivalries has potential to bring the show up to the current day. A nice
situation ripe for cross promotion could occur, in which the tv show stays a
few months behind the up to date NJPW program. Then, the events shown on NJPW World or on PPV, which will reportedly
be arranged to happen again later in the year, can be promoted even better.
What does NJPW do so well, allowing the company to garner so
much praise and support in recent days? A few crucial elements stand in direct
contrast to what WWE is doing. One is the way the talent makes the matter of
winning or losing seem extremely consequential. Victories are always made to
appear hard fought, as though an extreme amount of effort was expended in
overcoming the opponent, even when the outcome was none too unpredictable. This
speaks to another stark difference in NJPW and WWE booking: New Japan matches end
and lose in decisive fashion. Even if there is cheating, and with heel factions
like the Bullet Club and Suzuki Gun there almost always is, the matches still
have a clear winner and loser. The winner is triumphant, the loser is
despondent.
That leads me to a major disappointment with much of the WWE
Fastlane special: there were so many matches with endings that were trivial.
Roll ups, disqualifications, and basically a bunch of calculated maneuvers that
set up rematches at Wrestlemania. Watching Fastlane was almost entirely like an
infomercial for the conflicts that might happen at Wrestlemania 31.
Finally, Ring of Honor is sitting on a goldmine of potential
greatness, with Alberto El Patron (fka Del Rio) joining their ranks, NJPW’s
Bullet Club members AJ Styles and the Young Bucks appearing often, and most
recently Samoa Joe signing with them. If Eric Bishoff were booking ROH, we
might get Joe and Alberto throwing on Bullet Club t-shirts and joining with the
popular team. But it seems more likely the company will realize the potential
rivalries that could be developed between the Bullet Club and these recent
acquisitions.
I feel that ROH has some serious momentum. But some of its
distribution practices are counterintuitive. Its TV product, for example, is
not available to me and let’s just say, my being located in a major metropolis,
that is a lot of potential viewers not getting to see their show on TV. One can
watch episodes on their website, and I often do, but the ones available to the
public are from the week before. That means if I were to, say, mention the
great match between ACH and Alberto El Patron, I would be talking about
something that happened a week earlier. That also means the episode that is
supposed to promote tonight’s PPV event will appear online after the event
happens(!?).
Content is well protected, rarely if ever appearing on
youtube or daily motion. Yet, when Lucha Underground becomes readily available
on such sites on a regular basis, it allows many more eyes to be on the show, giving
it a buzz and a bigger following than its home station’s limited cable carrier
access allows. While Ring of Honor does allow and encourage fans to subscribe
to a service that unlocks all episodes of the tv show, I and I’m sure others
like me are not drawn in when the viewing platform is just an in-site player.
This does not put the company up to speed with services like that of NJPW and
WWE, who make PPV events available as well as a huge array of archives and live
streaming content. I know ROH is restricted by a limited budget in comparison
so I am not suggesting they go into the streaming service game. But lifting the
curtain a little and allowing access to the product on a timely weekly basis
would no doubt get more people interested in the program, willing to order the
PPV’s and do other things to bolster their business.
