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UnWrest (Week of August 9th, 2018)- TV Reviews, Rewind, Recommendations, All In, and RAW Changes

What's up everyone?

As usual, I will be reviewing the TV shows for WWE, NXT, and ROH. Then, I will offer my Rewind match and Podcast Recommendation. And I'm finishing this up with some thoughts on All In and the late breaking news of Renee Young on Raw. Here we go!

Raw Thoughts
- I thought the show was too Roman Reigns centered. It felt like WWE was trying to shove Roman down the throats of the audience even more than usual. Granted, I did like the way Roman gutpunched Baron Corbin. But between the first 30 minutes, Roman being involved in a couple segments involving Seth Rollins, the sitdown interview, AND Paul Heyman's promo (more on that later), WWE went too far to try to get everyone to cheer Vince's boy. I think Vince has obviously decided to triple down (or is it quadruple down at this point?) on his investment in Roman. But at what expense? Oversaturation and overexposure is not good exposure if it starts working against your investment.
- I absolutely loved Paul Heyman's promo, however. Heyman was at his best selling the emotional turmoil that he is facing as a result of the end of his business relationship and possible friendship with Brock Lesnar. Heyman's eyes and facial expressions just told the story to an even better degree than his words even conveyed. This week,I heard people say that "good acting is when the audience is able to tell what is going on with a character even when they can't hear a word." That is what Paul Heyman accomplished on Raw.
- I hope we don't get another Ronda Rousey TV match for a few months. I think the less we see of Rousey, the better it is for all of us and Ronda. I liked her match with Alicia Fox, but I don't think it was the right call for the match to even exist. There are other ways to promote Rousey than giving away matches of hers on free TV, even against glorified enhancement talent like Fox.

Other than that, Raw didn't make a big impression on me. And I was not a fan of most of the show to be honest. As I mentioned, it was too Roman heavy. And I felt like a lot of the other segments just didn't work. Definitely check out the Heyman promo though as it was excellent.

SmackDown Thoughts
-Um... when Randy Orton said he wanted to make people want to change the channel, I thought we were getting another House of Horrors match with Bray Wyatt.  Thankfully, he was just talking about beating Jeff Hardy that bad.
- The IIconics are officially over... as in done. They need repackaged or rebooted. I think the selfie promos on digital are one thing, but doing their impersonations and mockery in front of the live crowd is simply not connecting. So, do pre-tapes... and get them some more ring time on house shows. Because those girls need work. As for Charlotte and Becky, Charlotte just feels so padded on this whole match with Carmella. She really does not need to be on this match or this show. Even Queens need to stay on vacation.
- R-Truth saying he's "going to get his title shot the way that everyone else does: beat Carmella" was one of the greatest lines on TV this year. Then, the icing on the cake: Shinsuke says an insult in Japanese, and R-Truth completely understands it and says he can't repeat it on TV. Lol. And on top of that, R-Truth had a solid match this week with Shinsuke Nakamura. R-Truth may just be nuts enough to wrestle Nakamura. Make your own jokes there, folks.
- The ongoing drama between the members of Rusev Day and the tandem of Almas and Zelina continues. Lana has gotten a lot better in the ring, and it's showing. She takes a lot of garbage for not being on the level of a Charlotte or Asuka, but she's growing in her in-ring skills.
- While I disagree with the way it ended, The Bar vs. The New Day was another excellent match for both teams. I'm glad WWE gave them the time to tell a great story in the main event. Cesaro needs to be on TV more, and when Sheamus does retire (as has been rumored for a year now), Cesaro should finally get another singles run. I'd love to see Cesaro face Joe, Nakamura, Styles, Bryan, and some of the other wrestlers on SmackDown in singles action.

Overall, this edition of SmackDown gets a thumbs up from me and is my show of the week.

ROH Thoughts
- The Fairfax Tapings. Empty seats. Read my previous thoughts on these taping. Just terrible to notice those empty seats and not be able to avoid seeing them. Is this ROH or some local promotion in Wyoming?
- Chris Sabin and Silas Young had a good match to start off the show. Good to see Sabin get the win as he's still a solid hand to have in the ring.
- The Hurricane still has a few tricks up his sleeve. I liked the match with Marty Scurll, but it was obvious to me that Scurll was slowing down in order for Helms to keep up. That's not a knock on Helms but a praise to Scurll for adapting to his coworker on this. Helms is still great in his 40s, and I hope to see more of him on ROH TV.
- Glad to see EVIL and Sanada leave Japan in the midst of the G1 tournament to wrestle in ROH (I know they taped this a month plus in advance folks). Same goes for Hangman Page. Thankfully, they didn't bring the Tongans with them.
As for the match between SCU (SCU!), LIJ (EVIL, BUSHI, and SANADA), and the Bullet Club (Page and Young Bucks), it was your typical fun main event you would expect from these teams. The fact that BUSHI scored the pin against Daniels for the victory was a little bit surprising all things considered.

Overall, this was an excellent episode of ROH, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to watch a 51 minute wrestling show without any filler.


NXT Thoughts
- I enjoyed the hell out of the EC3/Velveteen Dream segment where EC3 was invited to Dream's estate to discuss their match at Takeover Brooklyn.
- In general, I thought this show did a good job building up to the Takeover event with the previously mentioned segment and the Adam Cole (BAY BAY) beatdown of Ricochet among other things.
- I've never seen Keith Lee wrestle before this week's NXT show. But seeing him move the way he did makes me optimistic about his future. With that mix of charisma, brute force, and aerial ability (with AJ Styles like offense?!), he can be a future NXT... OR WWE Champion.
- The main event was ok, but it felt like they were just stalling for Ciampa to run out for the DQ finish. Regal announces the triple threat match for the NXT Championship, but after the show, they ran an angle on WWE.com where Aleister Black was found unconscious outside the building after what appeared to be an attack. The truth is Black has a groin injury that will not be healed by the time NXT Takeover happens. So, this may have been something they did at a house show somewhere to set up the explanation for his not being in the main event. So, this probably means we're getting Gargano vs. Ciampa III this time for the NXT Championship. Ode to joy. Please no stop signs hidden in fan signs this time. That singlehandedly ruined my enjoyment of their last match.

Overall, this was a good, serviceable episode of NXT that accomplished what it needed to do, but it didn't excel or anything. It was better than Raw, but that's like saying rain is wet. You just know it to be true.

_ _ _ _
<<Rewind<< Match of the Week
Well, for the first time, I really have nothing to say about this week's Rewind match. The reason? The thoughts are all here....
WWF SummerSlam 1989- Hogan/Brutus vs. Savage/Zeus
I reviewed the match already this week when I covered SummerSlam 1989. So, check out this review for my thoughts on the Rewind match.
Next Week: 6 Men. 3 Teams. Tables, Ladders, and Chairs: OH MY!

_ _ _  _
Podcast Recommendation- I could go ahead and repeat my recommendation for the POST Wrestling Patreon coverage of the G1 Climax. But if you are looking for something NSFW and hilarious, I'd recommend What Happened When's episode from last week when Tony and Conrad watched ECW Heat Wave 1998. Tony watching ECW is my new favorite thing in podcasting. He never watched any ECW before this podcast started, and this is just his second show watching the extreme promotion (ECW Barely Legal 1997 being the first). It's something I might return back to later this weekend.
(As a side note, I still like Something to Wrestle. But it is not as entertaining to me as it was in the past. I am afraid it may have jumped the shark. I'll still listen as I like Conrad and Bruce's commentary on past events. But I just haven't been feeling it lately from that show.)

_ _ _ _
Breaking News Reaction
- It was announced as I was preparing this blog that Renee Young will be the guest commentator for next week's Raw. This is huge for a few reasons. 1) I don't think there's ever been a female commentator to call the entire episode. 2) It's the go home show for SummerSlam weekend. 3) Renee deserves this opportunity. I'm rooting for her to succeed in this. She's already working the Mae Young Classic as a commentator, but if this works, maybe Renee can make the transition to commentary.
I'm not advocating the firing of Coach. Just the opposite: I think Coach has been miscast in commentary. I want to see Coach assume more of the Renee Young role in interviewing wrestlers in live and pretaped interviews. I'd like to see Coach even get his own show ala SportsCenter or Prime Time Wrestling where he can demonstrate his impressive journalist style in a style that fits him more. But if Renee is really good as a commentator, why not make the transition? It's not as if Renee can't still do interviews from time to time like Michael Cole has done for big moments.
- ALL IN will be broadcast on multiple platforms next month, including Fite TV and on Honor Club (which is how I'll likely watch the show IF I get it). All In is a historic event in wrestling history, undoubtedly. An independent show ran basically off a hot internet show and its equally hot performers putting together a 10,000 seat sell out in 30 minutes. I'm still fighting with myself as to whether I'm going to add even more to the streaming services I already pay for my monthly wrestling fix for a show that's basically a one-off. The fact that it's on Honor Club now makes it more possible for me to invest in the show. But it's far from a guarantee. If I do watch it, I'll cover the show live on here. But don't count on it yet.

Blog News
- A special UnWrest G1 Climax Edition will be added to the website sometime next week. I'm going to collect my thoughts on the tournaments with pros and cons, favorite and least-favorite matches, a tournament MVP, and a tournament LVP. It'll probably be up by the middle or end of next week as I start getting a lot more busy going forward.
- A reminder that tomorrow at 5:30am, I will be up providing LIVE coverage of the A Block finals of the G1 Climax. I will be doing the same thing Saturday for the B Block. And I'm still leaning towards doing the same for the Sunday show (though 2 am for a wrestling show for me may be pushing it; I'll update the blog if I change my mind and chicken out due to desire for sleep).
- I'm still behind on Extreme Rules 2018, but given what the next 72 hours (and afterwards) have in store for me, this may be one that just gets lost in the shuffle until further notice. From what I hear, it's not like I'm missing too much.

Well, that does it for today. Again, I hope you check out the website tomorrrow morning for the live coverage. If you want to sleep in or are working that day, I got you covered. Just check out the blog whenever you get a chance, and the results should be up there.

Until next time, my fellow wrestling fans of any and all companies, take care of yourselves and spread some awesomeness.

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