Posted in: Doctor's Orders
Doctor's Orders: WWE Month in Review (May 2015) (Part 1 - Payback and NXT Unstoppable Reviews; Embracing the Excess of WWE Programming)
By The Doc
May 26, 2015 - 12:24:08 PM

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QUESTION OF THE DAY: Would you like to see more NXT stars show up on Raw in the same vein as Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn?

The following is a case study of WWE’s product for the month of May 2015.


Embracing The Excess Of WWE

It's been a busy month for WWE and its fans. By Sunday, a regular Network viewer will have had three in-ring specials to view in the last two weeks alone. Call it excess on the one hand, but call it a better than average month on the other. Why better? Simply, there was something perceivably important happening. In five hours of WWE TV per week and one PPV per month, a memorable happening occurs infrequently. When it does, it usually takes place outside the confines of the weekly television shows. So, while WWE should be guarding against the disease of more, isn't it at least nice that the excess is in special programming that costs us no additional fee?

Years ago, WWE tried to up the ante with a number of new PPVs. It was just too much money to spend with the PPV model. With the Network model, it's not only cost effective for fans but it also, in this era of relatively meaningless television shows, gives fans a reason to pay attention on nights they might otherwise be looking for other forms of entertainment. For me, this is NBA Playoff season. However, Elimination Chamber looks so good on paper that even the purely hypothetical Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals would get bumped from my schedule. The interest adds up, too. I was that much more intrigued for last night's Raw because I was hoping to be sold a bill of WWE goods that would alter my original Sunday, May 31st plans.

Fortunately, the increase in quantity did not necessarily decrease the quality. There were a couple of new wrinkles added to the marriage between WWE Network, Raw, and Smackdown this month, most notably the introduction of current NXT male roster members onto Raw broadcasts in prominent positions. Sami Zayn showed up to valiantly battle John Cena in the US Open Challenge. Two weeks later, Kevin Owens made his debut in impressive verbal fashion. Both looked like (and were treated like) stars though neither was hyped to be there. It was a smart move from WWE, as NXT is one of the best things about the monthly Network subscription. Owens enhanced the interest in his NXT title match with Zayn and quickly developed major intrigue in a match against Cena. Suddenly, a ho-hum end of the month after a ho-hum Payback event became perceptibly distinct.

Having the ability to watch NXT is an enticing reason to order WWE Network. It's akin to watching players in NCAA basketball before they make the transition to the NBA. The games are different, granted, but they're similar enough that you can get a decent representation of how a performer's skills will translate to the next level. That's not always been easy to do with ROH or TNA, the Euro League basketball equivalents in wrestling which suffer from a lack of accessibility. Plus, the quality of the NXT Takeover specials - the March Madness of the WWE Universe, continuing with the basketball analogy - has been so high that you're doing yourself a disservice to miss any of them.

The blending together of the WWE and NXT stars increases the allure of both sets of programs and provokes some rather exciting possibilities about the future of both products. Owens vs. Cena this weekend feels like "have your cake [NXT Unstoppable] and eat it too" scenario. The NXT Champion has been so well booked on the Network-exclusive show and has not been corrupted, to use a very cynical term, by the "live in the moment" creative stylings of the WWE main roster. Adding arguably the best character in the WWE or NXT to a PPV card is fresh; it's re-engaging for fans that are jaded with WWE after a calendar year full of mundane television.

I wish neither to get my hopes up or prognosticate about the NXT trend that emerged this month, but I sure am enjoying the interactions.



NXT Takeover: Unstoppable Review

One of the things I most look forward to on NXT specials is Finn Balor's entrance. Unique doesn't do it justice; it has an all-time caliber cool factor to it, in my opinion. Tyler Breeze had a great entrance, as well. They started off the show with a good match. Breeze's finishing move - a spinning heel kick - is going to take some time to make me believe it should actually end a match after so many years of seeing it as a transition move, but it popped the crowd strongly when Balor kicked out of it during the climax. There's a tendency to overrate everything that happens on NXT for a variety of reasons (faster pace, hot crowd, indy offense, its different from WWE, etc). I've seen some people hyperbolizing this match already when, in reality, this was what you'd expect from (or slightly better than) the typical WWE PPV curtain jerker. (*** 1/4)

The middle of the show did not do much for me. The NXT Tag Team Champions are skippable acts, though their frequent challengers are entertaining. The Women's division tag was standard fare, but as good as most of what we regularly see in the Divas division on Raw and PPVs. Rhyno vs. Baron Corbin was OK. I'm just not seeing "it" in Corbin right now.

The highlight of the show was the Women's Championship match. I made a comment on Twitter last night that NXT was redefining the perception of women's wrestling one match at a time, to which some countered that other promotions have already been doing what NXT has done these last 15 months. Do not mistake, ladies and gentlemen, laying the groundwork (see Shimmer) and changing public perception (see NXT). WWE is the only wrestling promotion on earth with the influence to alter how the world views women's wrestling. And it is through matches like Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch that NXT - and time will tell if by proxy, WWE - changes the long-held modern view of women in Titan Land. 15-minutes of psychologically sound, highly athletic action with a legitimately interesting back story? Before NXT, you'd have to go back to Royal Rumble 1988 to find another women's match in WWE that lasted a quarter hour or longer.

What a truly outstanding performance. It would be a significant knee-jerk reaction and would involve the heavy use of hyperbole to suggest that Banks vs. Lynch was the greatest women's match in modern WWE lore, but the mere fact that such a thought even crossed my mind is a testament to the sheer quality of that performance. NXT Takeover specials routinely offer excellent work from the female roster members, so last night was nothing new. Yet, the more it happens - the more feature length matches we see from these women - the more they're changing the game. Bravo. Three cheers. (****)

The anticipated rematch between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn was quite intense and a reaffirmation of what was told in the story three months ago: Owens owns NXT right now. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for more from them at TO: Unstoppable, but it was always going to be difficult for the sequel to top the TO: Rival original. (***)

Samoa Joe making his debut was a nice surprise. I've been ignoring most of the rumors lately, so I hadn't seen anything about him joining WWE since around WrestleMania. I'll be curious to see what kind of impact he makes. He's not the prospect today that he was ten years ago. For a few years, he was one of the hottest acts in the business not featured in WWE. What does he still have to offer? I honestly don't know, but I'm definitely curious to find out. Joe vs. Owens could be quite the match, as could be many of the hypothetical matches against the top flight members of the NXT roster.

All in all, there have been better NXT specials, but Unstoppable did well to uphold the standard that fans have come to expect.


Payback Review

My expectations for Payback were as low as they'd been for any PPV since last year's Battleground in July. I was somewhat disappointed a month ago by higher expectations and lower output; I was hoping for the reverse to be true this month.

Dolph Ziggler and Sheamus have embraced the challenge of having matches on PPV that differ from the ones we would normally see from them on television. Ziggler is known for taking the best beating in the business, but he's developed a penchant as a babyface for high octane comebacks that feature the usual hero-discourse of a steady palate of signature moves (and counters to those moves) in a particular order. Week in and week out, twice per week or more, it gets a little monotonous. Since the Celtic Warrior is still defining his new persona, I highlight this point mostly about the Show Off. Well, cheers to Ziggler and Sheamus for delivering something extra again. Extreme Rules saw more an angle than a match and Payback saw more a fight than an exhibition in sports entertainment skill. Give these guys 18-minutes and they might put together the complete package with all of the aesthetically pleasing, crowd-popping sizzle to go along with the steak they've grilled us for two consecutive months. (***)

If it is sizzle that you desire, then look no further than Tyson Kidd and Cesaro against the New Day. The degree of difficulty for the moves performed in the 2/3 Falls Tag Title match was very high and, sans for one Cesaro botch that saw him uncharacteristically not be the Swiss Superman of Strength, they connected on everything that they tried. This was about as good as you could expect of a 13-minute match with the maximum three falls. There was not much steak, though, despite all that vitrious sizzle. The Tag Team division will continue to rely on making up the stories that they're telling in the ring as their matches move along, as there's just nothing being offered to them in terms of an actual feud with clearly defined motivations. The New Day is an outstanding gimmick, however, and it has gotten over as an outstanding gimmick should. Strong candidate for Match of the Month from these five, as was also the case in April. (*** 1/4)

Bray Wyatt vs. Ryback was the most balanced tale of the evening, believe it or not. I mentioned in my podcast last week that I was mildly intrigued at best by this match from a hype standpoint, but that I had a sneaky suspicion that we were in for a damn good brawl. Ryback has been all power, all the time in his career; Wyatt's impactful moveset seemed like a potentially good marriage for him. Thus, the surprise of the night was Wyatt-Ryback. If the opener lacked sizzle and the second match lacked steak, then the clash of what I can only assume will become this generation's "big men" was a steady dose of both sizzle and steak. It was a great performance from the Big Guy, who made the most of his opportunity in a featured singles match with a nice pre-match video package. Wyatt delivered nicely and picked up a good victory. (***)

The night was humming right along until John Cena and Rusev happened. On the one hand, I think you could safely make the argument that this was a solid match. If you look closely, though, it was a turd covered in rainbow glitter. The rainbow glitter came in the form of decent enough high spots spaced out in OK fashion over 26-minutes. The turd was in the details. After every move - even a drop kick - the referee asked the downed man if he wanted to quit. That's like asking a pro basketball team down by 10 points in the first quarter if they're ready to forfeit.

The stipulation calls for sheer brutality and yet nothing close to the sort, predictably, occurred. So, you could say that the match was doomed before it started, but these wrestlers have the creative flair and selling ability (body language and facial expression) to overcome that inherent obstacle of the era. Unlike their ho-hum effort in April, Rusev and Cena got plenty of time to open the playbook and offer us something memorable. Instead, they rehashed everything in the Cena go-to manual. The match dragged as "I Quit" matches tend to do, but even the "think outside the box" stuff came across as silly. For instance, Rusev was given an AA onto exploding pyrotechnics and had not a scratch to show for it despite the announcers heavily playing up that Cena's finishing throw hadn't missed its electric mark.

Perhaps the detail that sets the tone for my review is that there was so little left to get excited about for this feud. They had three PPV bouts prior to last night, the final two ending cleanly in favor of the Golden Boy. Why the third match? Did we need further establishment that Rusev isn't as good as Cena? Much like last month's Last Man Standing match, the "I Quit" had some pre-match questions to overcome. Unfortunately, Cena vs. Rusev were unable to catch lightning in a bottle in the same manner that did Roman Reigns and Big Show at Extreme Rules.

After such a languid affair, it was difficult to sit through the Divas tag match, which wasn't particularly well executed. Neville vs. Barrett had a chance to pick things back up, but they suffered from the "same thing we see on TV 5 hours a week" disease talked about in the curtain jerker review.

The main-event simply had to deliver to keep this show from being a dud. And it did so adequately at best. An entertaining scrap involving four stud talents was to be expected, but forgive anyone who quietly wanted more than that if they didn't see it as anything beyond "worth a watch." It did have some fantastic highlight moments, particularly the storytelling by the former Shield members; I'd be remiss not to point those out. The triple powerbomb on Randy Orton elicited a reaction from the audience that hopefully said to management, "Let's make sure we strongly consider this for next year's WM main-event." Rollins putting his arms around his former stablemates in a happy-go-lucky state of mind was great, as was the aggressive response it drew from Reigns and Ambrose. The two babyface Hounds offered us a nice preview of what they're capable of producing together some day, as well. "Loser buys the beers?" I dug it.

The Kane element continues to interfere with what should be much better all-around production from the men currently occupying the top spots. That angle needs to go somewhere fast because, as we sit here treading water for the second month in a row, Seth Rollins' initial championship reign is faltering. This is a man who had the chance to bring us memories of HBK in 1996, Triple H in 2000, and CM Punk in 2012 for all-time level modern WWE quality from a World titleholder. The introduction of Kane into the mix has allowed the likes of Big Show, Roman Reigns, and the much-maligned Tag Team Championship division the chance to steal the Architect's thunder. If there's an excuse for that (like, perhaps, Kane's imminent retirement), it hasn't yet shown itself on WWE TV.

All in all, the Fatal Fourway was a good match with a few great moments and a lousy finish that was a by-product of the thus-far ineffective Kane element and Rollins ineffectually using the Pedigree. (*** 1/4)