Posted in: Doctor's Orders
Doctor's Orders: WWE Month-in-Review (July 2016) - The Final Deletion, Battleground Review, Wrestler and Match of the Month, and August Predictions
By The Doc
Jul 31, 2016 - 5:20:14 PM


Third Edition: Summerslam Week


”The Doc” Chad Matthews has been a featured writer for LOP since 2004. Initially offering detailed recaps and reviews for WWE's top programs, he transitioned to writing columns in 2010. In addition to his discussion-provoking current event pieces, he has written many acclaimed series about WrestleMania, as well as a popular short story chronicle. The Doc has also penned a book, The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment, published in 2013. It has been called “the best wrestling book I have ever read” and holds a 5-star rating on Amazon, where it peaked at #3 on the wrestling charts.



QUESTION OF THE DAY: In a month full of huge news stories in professional wrestling, which do you feel was the most noteworthy?

The following is a case study of WWE’s product for the month of July 2016.


The Final Deletion

This column temporarily dropped "WWE" from the "Month in Review" title because I could not in good conscience let the entire month go by without ever discussing the now infamous Final Deletion seen on the July 5th episode of TNA's IMPACT Wrestling. Admittedly, I resisted watching the "Broken" Matt Hardy vs. "Brother Nero" Jeff Hardy home video-style production despite all the hoopla surrounding it because I have not been a fan of TNA Wrestling in a long time. I reasoned, "Even if it is brilliant, it could not possibly be interesting enough to make me want to tune back in, so what's the point?" Yet, everywhere I turned (even very high profile wrestling coverage avenues that rarely if ever mention TNA), someone was talking about the Final Deletion. I caved.

I've read everything about it from "it was the dumbest thing ever" to "it was the greatest thing ever," but my main takeaway from the Final Deletion was that it was a bold attempt at doing something radically very different and, to be quite frank, the main reason why I stopped watching TNA years ago was because it stopped being different; when it started becoming WWE Lite, I saw no further reason to invest my time. The Final Deletion in some strange way reminds me of WCW's Cruiserweight Division in the mid-1990s or TNA putting the NWA World Championship on tiny 'ol AJ Styles in 2003. Thinking outside the box should be celebrated in all walks of life, but when you're a company that has been rumored to shut down every year for the last four and your TV show is bouncing around from network to network because the ratings are so bad, you have to think outside the box or accept defeat.

I applaud the Final Deletion. I give it a standing ovation for thinking outside of the box. Though it was utterly ridiculous, it worked. Once upon a time, giving so much air-play to cruiserweights or putting a World Title on a high-flyer with limited charisma was thought ridiculous, but both of those things worked too; they were different and interesting enough to me that I tuned into Nitro and that I bought TNA's weekly PPVs on occasion. Oddly enough, the Final Deletion was different and interesting enough to get me to tune back into IMPACT the last two weeks and I have been faithfully watching their Bound For Glory Playoffs. The Final Deletion changed my perception of TNA, so I'm giving them another chance. From what I've been reading, I'm not the only one who was lured back.

Not much can be said about the Final Deletion that hasn't already been said these past four weeks, but I just had to share my thoughts on what has proven to be one of the biggest wrestling stories in a month (and year) full of major news.

WWE Battleground Review

I had every intention of doing a full review of this show last Monday, but I was so disenchanted by the presentation of the Shield triple threat match that I could not bring myself to do it. The internet features all sorts of hypercritical opinions for you to sift through; that's never been my role here. If I am utterly disappointed by something, I'd rather not jump right into thinking more about it via writing a review. Thus, I let the last week go by and was fortunately re-energized by the fantastic episode of Monday Night Raw to kick off the new brand split. I feel well enough about the Battleground situation to now briefly comment on it here.

Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose should have been saved for another time. It's that simple. WWE gave away the biggest match involving current roster members that it had on a PPV that lived in the shadow of the WWE Draft and the Brand Extension. I had hoped that, come match time, WWE would re-focus solely on a scenario that many of us had been itching to see for years and let the story of "Who's the best from the Shield?" carry the main-event. Unfortunately, WWE cast the Raw vs. Smackdown shadow ever further over the triple threat. If I was an ABC producer and, during Game 7 of the NBA Finals, I had representatives from each team picking high in the NBA Draft a few days later come out prominently before the starting line-ups were announced, then instructed my announcers to focus 50% or more of their attention on the potential draft picks instead of the Cavaliers vs. Warriors, it would be very difficult to tune all of that out and lock in only on the game.

You know, I'd have dropped everything and traveled to the WrestleMania that made the Shield triple threat it's headliner. No lie. I thought that highly of it. I was terribly disappointed in WWE for that presentation they offered last Sunday. It was still a really good match (***3/4) but the presentation - from being on Battleground in the first place to not changing gears when Roman got suspended to casting the Draft shadow over it to having the GM party share its spotlight to the commentary making it as much about Raw vs. Smackdown as it was about the enormity of Rollins vs. Reigns vs. Ambrose for the first time ever - was so bad that it truly never had a chance.

Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens stole the show instead. Their presentation was fantastic - from the pre-match video package to the commentary. It was one of the Top 3 matches of the year thus far (****1/2). John Cena and The Realest Guys in the Room vs. The Club was a lot of fun, but wasn't much more than that (***). The Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho segment was quite effective and Orton seemed to be in a much more relaxed state of mind than usual, almost like he was out there being Randall Keith Orton instead of the Legendary Apex Viper Killer. The fourth best match on the show was New Day vs. The Wyatts, with the story of Xavier Woods overcoming his fear of Bray adding a nice, unique element to the usual New Day routine (**3/4). I had absolutely zero investment in Becky vs. Nattie or Miz vs. Darren Young and neither match did anything to engage me, while I had similar disinterest in Ryder vs. Rusev and thought that they had a solid match (**1/2). Bayley's somewhat surprising guest appearance was a lot of fun in the opener, but her and Sasha's defeat of Charlotte and Dana Brooke came at the end of an average performance (**).

Match of the Month: Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn at Battleground

Owens vs. Zayn has been the story of the year in WWE and a great example of how WWE TV is decreasingly important in creating a deeply emotional rivalry. Real life, NXT, PPVs, Network specials, and TV in combination helped Zayn vs. Owens achieve a back story that has no peers in 2016 and, when you have that good of a back story, it sets the stage far better for a payoff match to deliver. And, of course, they delivered in spades at Battleground. In a hybrid of their matches from NXT last year and the match they wrestled at Payback in May, the former best friends put it all together in a performance that offered anything you could possibly want from a pro wrestling payoff match. The early botch from Zayn was adapted to perfectly on the fly and actually served to then make the bout that much more compelling. Otherwise, the execution was fantastic, as was the selling and psychology from both of them. Zayn is underrated at letting his body language and facial expressions do a considerable amount of his talking for him and Owens remains the best heel in the business even if the audience rarely treats him like one. Just a tremendous outing and a legitimate Match of the Year front-runner that I prefer to Zayn vs. Nakamura because of the story.

Previous winners: Ambrose vs. Owens at Royal Rumble (Jan), Ambrose vs. Reigns vs. Lesnar at Fast Lane (Feb), Dean Ambrose vs. Triple H at Roadblock (Mar), Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn at Takeover: Dallas (Apr), AJ Styles vs. Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules (May), and Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank (Jun)

Wrestler of the Month: Dean Ambrose

The Lunatic Fringe vaulted himself back into the poll position for WWE Wrestler of the Year in July with a stellar month of character work and a pair of high profile, successful WWE Championship defenses. Rollins gave him a run for his money, but Ambrose was simply better overall in July. One thing you have to love about Ambrose is how ultra-committed he is to the persona that he's crafted over the years. It has often been said that the best characters in wrestling are the real guy (or gal) times ten and if that description doesn't fit Dean Ambrose to a "T," then I don't know if it works anymore. I'll remember the month of July 2016 for Ambrose's promo after Seth debuted the "Rollins Report." That entire segment of TV time was awesome, but nothing during its quarter hour was better than listening to Ambrose passionately and concisely recount his journey and reaffirm his desire to maintain the spot he'd most assuredly earned.

Previous winners: Dean Ambrose (Jan and Feb), Chris Jericho (Mar), AJ Styles (Apr), AJ Styles and Roman Reigns (May), and Seth Rollins (Jun)

August Predictions

Summerslam is shaping up to be a tremendous PPV that could easily be the best of the year if WWE can continue the momentum that they built through a pair of strong showings on Raw and Smackdown last week. The shocking choices of Dolph Ziggler and Finn Balor as World and Universal title contenders respectively has the "New Era" feeling more like a reality and less like a tagline. How the feuds between those gentlemen and Ambrose and Rollins take shape over the next three weeks will go a long way toward cluing us in on whether or not Summerslam can surpass some of the other solidly unspectacular shows in 2016. It would seem ridiculous not to expect that Balor vs. Rollins and Ziggler vs. Ambrose won't be in the conversation for August Match of the Month, but if they can get some really strong hype behind them as the first two shows of the new brand extension suggest they might, then Summerslam would have a leg up on other PPVs that had much more marginal storyline quality behind them.

Being flanked by the Women's Championship match that we've all wanted to see for the duration of the Revolution certainly won't hurt and neither will the presumed addition of AJ Styles vs. John Cena II; both matches will push the aforementioned World and Universal Title bouts and Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton for best of the night honors. Five matches contending for best of show? That's a heck of a foundation for a PPV, but add in the aura of the second biggest PPV of the year and another hour of run-time to the equation and you've got the makings of something special. You also have the expected WWE Tag Team Title match between New Day and The former Club members, which could be a great opportunity for Anderson and Gallows to finally show why they were such highly thought-of recruits.

I'm curious to see what WWE does with Roman Reigns. I would love to see him engage in a multi-month feud with Kevin Owens, as I think it'd be good for them both; good for Reigns because it'll give him a chance to work a non-main-event program with someone on the cusp of being in the main-event and good for Owens because Reigns is the highest profile opponent he'd have faced since John Cena last summer. If Summerslam can add to a four hour show Reigns vs. Owens, Zayn vs. Rusev for the US title, and something for Bray Wyatt perhaps, then we're talking about a PPV with all-time caliber expectations.