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Welcome back to the EXCELLENCE IN COLUMN WRITING exclusively here at LordsofPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com. Been a long week and a long few months for me personally, but now it's time to put on the Tito mask and escape into the world of wrestling. Lots to catch-up on... I was unable to review WWE Background timely and as a Hulu viewer, RAW and Smackdown is Next Day for me. First and foremost, WWE Battleground... To me, this show was "meh". Just nothing to see here as the WWE cared about launching the Brand Extension for Monday and Tuesday. Worse yet, the show proved to me that WWE should NOT be splitting their roster into 2... As I've argued for months now, this is hardly close to the 2002 Brand Extension which had a deep WWE roster thick with former WCW & ECW wrestlers, WWE Attitude Era wrestlers, and the famous Ohio Valley Wrestling "Class of 2002" creating all kinds of depth to sustain 2 rosters. Even then, RAW and Smackdown had their shortcomings I've argued following the 2002 split. Besides the OVW Class of 2002 guys, not many stars were created because of the brand extension. It doesn't "give opportunity" as it seems, particularly under the Creative Team in place since 2001. Team full of McMahon "yes" men and women. Can we get something else for Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to do already? I feel like I've watched the same match about 100 times now. Sure, each and everyone are good... That's not my point. Outside of fighting each other, both wrestlers are booked poorly by the WWE Creative Team. It's as if WWE Creative has nothing for either guy and thus puts them in an endless feud. Theoretically, the Brand Extension should provide opportunity for both guys... But both wrestlers work for RAW. Intercontinental and United States Championship matches were awful from WWE Battleground. What was the point of immediately rushing guys who have been jobbers, Zack Ryder and Darren Young, to wrestle on Pay Per Views? And this is twice for Zack Ryder as he won the Intercontinental Title at Wrestlemania 32 only to lose it the next night on RAW. Don't get it... The hilarity of Mojo Rawley coming down afterward for the save on Ryder getting beatdown to ZERO POP was hilarious. WWE keeps debuting these NXT wrestlers with ZERO hype and ZERO video promos ahead of their debuts. Gee, no wonder why these guys aren't over. NOT EVERYONE WATCHES NXT, guys. The highlight of WWE Battleground was Bayley making her WWE main roster debut, although this was a one-night only deal. Bayley tagged up with Sasha Banks to take on Charlotte and Dana Brooke. Bayley was OVER... Why? I think that the reputation of the Sasha Banks vs. Bayley battles has earned both ladies a reputation as many publications (including me) gave either of their Takeover battles "Match of the Year" awards. The Takeover Brooklyn match, the night before SummerSlam 2015, was my Match of the Year and the video package before the match taught any newcomer NXT fan what Bayley was all about. Despite Bayley being on NXT, her merchandise outsold all other Women's wrestling merchandise. Unlike many others coming out of NXT, she earned a reputation that exceeded what happened in NXT. Thus, she was over... That tag match had full fan interest because of Bayley's participation. By the way... Bayley went UNDRAFTED during the Brand Extension... Thought the Main Event between ex-Shield members was OK, but I was really happy to see Dean Ambrose winning. Dean will do JUST FINE as long as he's allowed to defeat big names as WWE Champion. So Smackdown has Randy Orton, AJ Styles, and John Cena and he gets to feud with Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam 2016. How funny is that? I did not like the Wyatt Family demolishing the New Day. What, Erick Rowan can't eat a pin? The fact that WWE is thinking about breaking-up the New Day is a JOKE. Just shift Big E to a singles wrestler, as he's now more than proven, and make Kofi/Woods become the tag team. Think about how much they could brag as WWE Tag Champs and Big E as US Champion? Rusev vs. Big E could really work if Lana vs. New Day rip each other on the microphone. ---------------------------------- On Monday Night, I was seeing Tweets of "GREATEST RAW OF ALL TIME"... The Internet Wrestling Community was in LOVE. First and foremost, the announcing team. Becoming an NXT fan last year, I really began to enjoy Corey Graves as the color commentator. It was a great announcer shake-up to promote Graves to the 3 hour RAW and give Michael Cole some fresh blood to work with. The IWC, I've observe, really hates JBL. Seemed to me like getting JBL off RAW was a sense-of-relief for many online fans who have been critical of his commentating for years now. I know a guy who does Podcasts who probably threw a big party for JBL's exit. But was it the GREATEST RAW OF ALL TIME? Was it the BEST RAW OF 2016? Yes, if you are a Finn Balor and Sasha Banks mark... Otherwise, NO! RAW was a good show, but it hardly moved mountains for me. Lots of BAD WWE Creative Team decisions actually deducted from the enjoyment of this show. First and foremost, I did NOT like hotshotting the WWE Women's Title on FREE television for the first edition of the "New Era" RAW with Sasha Banks beating Charlotte for the title. That completely throws away all of the WWE's work on keeping Charlotte so strong as champion. Why couldn't this happen at SummerSlam 2016 instead? Why give this away for free? Felt like an incredibly desperate attempt to help pop a big number for the first edition of the "New Era" RAW. Vince McMahon has been critical in the past of Sasha Banks, as he expressed concern over her style opening her up to too many injuries. Then, Finn Balor on his first night of RAW gets a "WWE Universal Title" shot at SummerSlam. The guy comes in, debuts, and wins a World Title shot. HELLO?!? The WWE does realize that not every WWE fan watches NXT, right? With WWE Network having just under 1.5 million subscribers, it's a proven fact that non-Pay Per View shows are not getting majority viewings on the network. I know that NXT also airs on Hulu but that show isn't on any top Hulu charts either. Aside from Bayley, whose "Match of the Year" honors made WWE fans look for her matches, nobody knows who Finn Balor is and they really don't know who Nia Jax is. Ditto for Baron Corbin and Apollo Crews who also just appeared on WWE shows with LITTLE hype as to who they were. Do NOT assume that everyone cares or follows NXT. It is a foolish mistake, WWE! But let's talk about that JOKE of a "WWE Universal Title", shall we? For one, consider how this title will be determined. Seth Rollins is automatically in the WWE Universal Title match at SummerSlam 2016. How hilarious is that? Yeah, I know that he's the #1 draft pick, but you're instantly killing the credibility of the WWE Universal Title by not letting Seth Rollins earn it. Instead, you're essentially replaying 2002 when you just handed Triple H the World Heavyweight Title and that title took a while to catch on. They even had to merge it with the freakin' Intercontinental Title just to make it mean something. Here, we're ripping pages out of the 2013-2015 Authority Playbook and placing Seth Rollins into the Universal Title match. That's a JOKE, with due respect to Rollins. PUT HIM IN THE 4 WAY MATCHES! And then the 4 way matches... Can't we do those next week? Why not have qualifying matches THIS WEEK to determine who gets in the pair of 4 way matches? Nope, let's hotshot this entire tournament this week and give fans NOTHING to look forward to next week. That's how WWE works... So Stephanie & Mick Foley, whom I dislike as a team already, handpick the 8 wrestlers to wrestle in the 2 4 Way Matches. Fine. But how does Finn Balor get a shot? I don't care what he did in NXT, the farm system of the WWE... Get in the back of the line, buddy. Have some impressive matches to introduce yourself to mainstream WWE fans before getting any World Title shots. Then, when Finn Balor is announced, he stands next to Chris Jericho and looked SMALL. Jericho just hits 6'0" and Balor was giving up inches in height to Jericho. Worse yet, he looked much thinner than Jericho. Jericho is wise enough to know that he needs to look thicker to help enhance his look in the WWE. Later in the night, the announcers mentioned that Finn Balor was "coming in at 190 pounds". I thought that the main event was for HEAVYWEIGHT wrestlers? And of course, Finn Balor wins his 4 Way Match and actually beats Roman Reigns to earn the SummerSlam 2016 title shot. Beat Vince's boy, Roman Reigns! Man, the WWE must be really pissed at Reigns for his failed drug test to eat 3 straight losses. By the way, for once, I cheered Stephanie McMahon when she called Roman a "loser". Right on, sister! I guess the Internet Wrestling Community is (a) happy Roman Reigns is NOT main eventing SummerSlam (as am I) but (b) thrilled that Finn Balor is instantly getting pushed. Vince McMahon has been critical in the past of Finn Balor, as he expressed concern over his size and style of work in NXT. I was reading Scott Keith's "Blog of Doom" recently and it suggested that RAW episodes following Pay Per Views are usually good-to-great because Vince McMahon, at 70, is tired from preparing the Pay Per View that he sort of takes a night off for the following show. It's a good chance that he left the booking responsibilities up to Triple H for the night as his girl Sasha Banks won and his boy Finn Balor became #1 contender. But then a rested Vince took more control of Smackdown the following day. I applaud RAW for FEELING DIFFERENT... But in my opinion, they did some long-term damage by attempting to goose the smaller group of internet fans by making Sasha Banks Women's Champion on a random episode and overpushing Finn Balor from the start of his WWE main roster career. They run a real risk of pissing off mainstream WWE fans who will simply ask "who is Finn Balor?!?". I also think Vince McMahon will have a kneejerk reaction on both Balor and Banks once a few more "under 3.3 million" viewer nights occur. The Roman Reigns MEGA PUSH will then resume. But hey, if Finn Balor doesn't work out as a WWE Main Eventer, which I predict is the case (wait until you see that Jeff Hardy-like paintjob for big matches), there's always the new Cruiserweight Division coming to RAW! ----------------------------------- More IDIOT booking occurred on Smackdown. Because Smackdown has the WWE Title, there is no phony tournament necessary... But because we're trying to pop a strong Week 1 number, they shoved in an entire #1 contender process into one show. Can't we announce it one week in advance? Geesh! Then, Shane McMahon & Daniel Bryan handpicked the 6 wrestlers. YIKES - After the first 5 were picked (Corbin, Cena, AJ Styles, Wyatt, and Ziggler), the Smackdown roster is proving to be THIN with that Battle Royal. WWE had to make Kane look strong in that royal because they seriously had no other choice! By the way, Alberto Del Rio has to be wondering "what the hell did I sign up for?". Quickly eliminated in the Battle Royal. But of course, two guys were missing from this "6 Pack Challenge" booked match. Randy Orton and the Miz. Both are former WWE Champions and Miz is presently the Intercontinental Champion. What, Rusev as US Champion is allowed to fight for a shot but Miz isn't? Yes, I am well aware that Orton is wrestling Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, but don't you want to stack your #1 contender's match with the absolute best and most accomplished stars? Better yet for the Miz, he gets to lose a non-title match to Randy Orton instead. Not that I'm the world's biggest fan of the Miz, FAR FROM IT... But don't let your Intercontinental Title holder lose a match to a guy who doesn't want his title... Come on... Ugh at the 50/50 booking with Becky Lynch beating Natalya on Smackdown after Natalya beat Lynch at WWE Battleground. Nobody is allowed to build momentum on this roster. Speaking of women, the rest of the roster introduced themselves... Alexa Bliss came out and looks even smaller in a larger arena. I still say that Carmella should have joined Enzo & Big Cass on RAW. Call me crazy and a drinker of WWE Koolaid, but I think Eva Marie will be a big star in WWE. On top of being stunning and showing the goods off, she is a natural heat magnet. Once WWE figures out that she can be booked like Sable (Rena Mero, now Lesnar's wife), as Sable had the same qualities as Eva, she'll be fine. Just let Eva stir the pot as a personality and the heat will follow. Then you have extreme cases like Dolph Ziggler who has last repeatedly for the last 3 years and becomes #1 contender for SummerSlam 2016. GO FIGURE! He'll get to wrestle Dean Ambrose who before Money in the Bank 2016, was losing repeatedly on Pay Per View matches. Ziggler will fit right in... By the way, Shelton Benjamin is going to join Smackdown soon. That's right baby, another member of the AMAZING Ohio Valley Wrestling "Class of 2002" is returning to the WWE. That makes FOUR active OVW Class of 2002 wrestlers on the WWE roster with John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, and now Shelton Benjamin. Technically speaking, Batista is still under WWE contract so that makes FIVE. For anyone ripping me for bringing up this GRAND developmental class, how do you like me now? How do you like them apples? WWE signs Benjamin despite his 41 years of age. ------------------------------- LAST WORD: And I was justified in criticizing the WWE for splitting up the brands. Why? Because as I suggested, (a) the roster was too thin and (b) the Creative infrastructure did not change. RAW's numbers came in and we remain UNDER 3.5 million viewers and Smackdown was under 3 million. Considering everything is new, live, and following a Pay Per View, WWE is off to a rough start. HOWEVER - At least Smackdown is different and no longer the obvious B-Show (although the roster is really thin). Viewership should be higher than what the taped shows on another day were providing and once NFL Monday Night Football begins to clobber RAW, more wrestling fans might opt to watch Smackdown instead. RAW had better matches, but I like the top level Smackdown superstars (Cena, Styles, Wyatt, Ambrose) better than RAW's top wrestlers. Smackdown had a bad start and was more exploited for a thinner roster, but their top guys can be booked around on a 2 hour show. RAW gave up a lot of free sugar for week #1 and I doubt that they can keep up the momentum. SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2016
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