By:  Jason Stuart

It’s Royal Rumble go home week.  Both shows have had their struggles recently in using the go-home shows to get you excited for the special events.   Surprisingly RAW brought a very strong effort to the table.  Smackdown was a bit more uneven than usual but still solid.  So what did I like and what drove me crazy?  Well let’s find out as we go into my 3 ups and 3 downs for both shows.

Click the link below to read more!

By:  Jason Stuart

Well that was an interesting week.  We had attacks, injuries, cage matches, title matches, and a whole bunch of crap in between.  For my money Smackdown again was the better of the two offerings.  Raw has really been stagnant with little to no new developments or turns leading us into the Rumble.  Smackdown continues to turn up the heat despite the smaller, less marquee roster.  Both shows offered some good and some bad this week.  Here were my takes on what those were.

1. Cedric Alexander vs. Brian Kendrick - This Cruiserweight match was very good.  This didn’t play into either guy’s current story, but it didn’t hurt them.  Dar watched from the back, and I guess Alicia did her terrible acting at ringside, but the in-ring work is what landed this here.  These two guys busted their asses, and it ended with a SICK lumbar check for the win.  Cedric avoiding Fox after the match was a nice touch. 
2. Neville Attack on Swann - Usually I am not a fan of sneak attacks before a match starts.  Also, given they did a similar angle with Sasha and Nia this could have been bad.  However, these guys made it good.  It felt real and surprising.  It made sense given Swann embarrassed Neville last week.  I like that these guys aren’t having non-title or tag matches against each other every week, but they are still staying relevant.  I would be happier if they hadn’t had any matches at all, but it is WWE so that wasn’t going to happen.  I thought this segment added a nice bit of fire to their match at the Rumble. 
3. The Club vs. Cesaro and Sheamus - I enjoyed the work in this match.  I thought all 4 guys brought...IT! There was a logical reason to think a title change was possible, so the near falls were more impactful.  Also, this is the first time I can remember a Dusty finish where it’s the heels that get screwed over, so that was a nice touch.  All in all I am looking forward to another match and hopefully the reign of the Club getting underway because it is long overdue.
   

Honorable Mention - No Authority figures at all.

1. Charlotte/Bayley Promo - This was a train wreck.  You want to know the worst result of over scripting talent?  Just watch this segment.  Charlotte had moments, but she was not on her A game.  Also, don’t ever offer to read something unless you know you can.  It’s a really bad look on live TV when you scramble to try to recover from that.  Then Bayley came out and…well…Bayley is not good on promos.  This has been a weak point of hers all the way through NXT.  She’s gotten a little better but still feels nervous and flustered.  Those poems were horrible and made a loveable character seem dumb and contrived.  I give them credit for really pushing the “Bayley as a fan vs. Charlotte as a legacy” angle.  I actually really enjoy that they are going in that direction with the build.  This was just not a good way to do it. 
2. Titus vs. The New Day - Why is this happening?  Are we that bereft of tag team talent and ideas that we can only take our 3 man tag team and feud them with a singles guy?  These bits haven’t been funny or clever.  Sticking Titus next to New Day only makes his total lack of charisma stand out and sucks the charisma out of the New Day.  This is a pairing that has only made both sides look worse.  The only direction this could go would be Titus making a 3 man group.  Maybe a new Prime Time Playas.  He just doesn’t have the IT factor for a singles push.  
3. Opening Segment - I am never a fan of segments like these.  First off that was a waste of a Brock appearance.  He had little to no impact on the show, and once he was done he was forgotten.  Second it never works when you just have all these people come out constantly interrupting.  It always looks like a giant cluster and nobody really gets over.  We had Brock beat up your “Main Event guys” and a tease of a match that isn’t happening anytime soon.  If I were a regular fan nothing here would make me care about the rest of the show or the Royal Rumble.
   

Dishonorable Mention - The backstage skit with Rollins, Reigns, and Zayn made Sami look like a total moron.  You have been telling a story of him as a lovable underdog and a guy with a never give up attitude.  Now on TV you make him a bad comedy act?  I get the segment was a play on a Jericho podcast when they said Sami acts like that in putting together a match, but why damage his on screen character for a joke?  His part of this segment reminded me of old Santino bits, and that’s not a comparison you should want the fans making.

By:  Jason Stuart

With Smackdown coming off of two of their best episodes in the last decade, RAW had a lot to prove.  Not only was RAW coming off a bad show, but they were following another top notch episode of Smackdown, and they were up against the National Championship game for College Football.  RAW made every attempt to set themselves apart, advertising the US title handicap match as well as appearances by HBK and Undertaker.  Did all the efforts of RAW swing the momentum back in their direction?  Time to break it down and find out…

By:  Jason Stuart

Before I begin this week’s column, allow me to extend the warmest of Holiday greetings to all of you that read this column every week.  I was hoping for these shows to fill me with holiday cheer.  One felt more like a lump of coal in my stocking.  The other show was kind of the nice gift that isn’t quite what you want but still you realize you can use.  I like to be topical with my analogies.  Anyway, to the lists…

1. Opening Segment - For the first time ever I had to include the same segment in both the Up and Down section.  As good as Owens and Jericho were Foley brought the whole thing down.  First, saying the wrong City during the cheap pop gimmick was cringe worthy and uncomfortable.  Then the fanny pack segment was tedious and unfunny.  Then the payoff was the Shark Cage gimmick that just flopped in NXT.  The second half of this opening segment really took a lot of the enjoyment away from a very good start.
2. Charlotte vs. Bayley - Charlotte’s promo to open this segment was tremendous as most of her mic work is.  Then Bayley came down, and things fell apart.  Bayley seemed to be reciting lines more than speaking from her heart.  It came across here that she is nowhere near Charlotte’s level on the mic.  Then you get to the match, which was ok, but once again you establish a top contender by beating the champion on RAW.  Of course it is well established how I hate casual losses for the champion in non-title matches.  Even worse than the actual match result was that Charlotte’s shoulder was up.  For those of you that may have forgotten it was a few months ago in a very similar spot with Bayley and Sasha leading into Night of Champions.  During that spot Sasha got the win, but both women had their shoulders down.  These finishes are way too similar way too close together. 
3. Cass vs. Rusev/Sensitivity Training - Two words: HOT GARBAGE.  The sad truth is that with Enzo having to cut promos weekly or multiple times a week rather than once or twice a month, as in NXT, you are seeing the quality really drop off.  The match was terrible in that Cass got himself disqualified about 30 seconds in for beating Rusev beyond the ref’s count.  So, clearly this story will continue.  That in and of itself would have made the 3 down list, but then we sent Enzo to sensitivity training with the misfit toys.  Darren Young, Bo Dallas, Jinder Mahal, and Bob Backlund were his fellow attendees.  There were just awful jokes here.  There were bad sexual innuendos.  This was everything that was bad about the attitude era.  The segment ended with Jinder and Rusev working together to destroy Enzo.  If this results in League of Nations 2, I may tap out on RAW.

Dishonorable Mention - Noam Dar vs. Cedric Alexander.  This is the most forced and contrived angle I have seen them do in a while. You have to establish the relationship between Cedric and Alicia as special and get the fans invested in that before you have the heel coming in to try and steal her away.  Fans don’t care at all about the pairing of Cedric and Fox and couldn’t care less if Dar breaks them up. 

1. La Luchadora - This type of angle is tried and true in wrestling.  However, this sort of thing usually only happens when one guy is ducking and dodging the other.  Alexa has not been refusing to wrestle Becky.  Becky has the match next week for the title already.  Add to that the fact that Becky kept yelling during the match and has a pretty distinct voice the thing was way too obvious.  So aside from being predictable and non-sensical it was fine. 
2. Miz vs. Crews - This match was centered around a Gabriel Iglesias selfie.  It had all the heat you would imagine a match with a build like that to have.  The In-ring work was fine, but with no energy in the crowd and nobody buying the possibility of a change it just came across as a match that meant nothing which should never be the case for a title match. 
3. Ambrose vs. Harper - So last week Luke Harper was a top guy worthy of a spot in the #1 contenders match.  This week he does the job to Ambrose. I wonder why I said he didn’t feel like he belonged in the match last week.  The post-match beat down was fine and I loved The Miz coming out to pick the bones.  The issue here is that Harper is the latest guy to be booked in a stop and go fashion.

​So those were my bests and worsts from RAW and SmackDown this week.  I'd love to hear your opinions, so visit our forums and let me know what you think.  Also, listen to The Rundown this week as I am sure I will be arguing some of these with my fellow co-hosts.

By:  Jason Stuart

​I had high hopes for this week’s shows.  On Raw we were coming off an episode with pretty good stories and in ring work.  On Smackdown we were coming of a PPV, that I though far exceeded expectations.  So did the follow up shows this week meet my expectations?  Well check out my thoughts below and find out.

1. Love Rectangle - The Enzo, Rusev, Lana, and Cass bit has been much discussed.  Some people loved it, and some people hated it.  For my part I loved this for many reasons.  First we got a story that threaded throughout the entire show.  Every character played their role; nobody acted in a way that you wouldn’t believe that their character would.  Perhaps my favorite part was the moment when Cass is standing in the ring and recognizes what is going on.  His reaction probably fit many of the viewers who at that point realized where this was going.  I loved him stealing the phone from the timekeeper.  Nice touch to have Enzo say it’s Unknown so he didn’t answer it.  Yes the “Face” was sneaking off to have sex with the “Heel’s” wife, which is a bit confusing.  That said they covered it well enough by making it obvious Enzo was uncomfortable with it.  All in all I really enjoyed the work of everyone involved here.
   
2. Rollins and Owens - I liked a lot of things about this segment.  I enjoyed the fact that several months after the fact, Seth has finally decided to announce he wants to fight Triple H.  So yet again they throw a breadcrumb for a story that likely won’t pick up until after the Rumble.  I have not been a fan of the total lack of follow-up on that story, but I get they are holding the match off until WrestleMania so I can at least appreciate the periodic reminders.  Also this was the first time I thought Seth cut a believable face promo.  For too long since turning he has still come across as a heel.  This was the first time I thought he held a segment as the leading face and did it well.  Then Owens came out and played his role very well.  My particularly favorite part was the logic he inserted when Seth challenged him and he said, “No, I already beat you two weeks ago.”  Everything here worked and furthered the storylines.
   
3. Jericho vs. Roman - This was easily the best match of the night.  I wish the finish had been booked differently.  I would have liked to see the title switch here, and I think it would have helped everyone.  Jericho and Rollins, at Roadblock, would be bettered by adding the US title to it.  Roman not having the US title makes his match with Owens more interesting.  I also think Jericho would increase the profile of the US Title.  All that being said, the in ring here was fantastic.  I bought the false finishes because I believed they were doing the switch.  The crowd was really hot for this.  Everything in this match worked well.
   

​Honorable Mention - Charlotte’s promo was great.  The whole setup was very old school Flair.  Charlotte took the torch and ran with it and executed the in-promo heel turn to perfection.  Yeah, you could see it coming, but it was still done well.

1. No Sami/Mick Follow-up - One of my favorite parts of last week’s show was the promo with Mick Foley and Sami Zayn.  Aside from Mick’s teeth falling out, I thought it worked beautifully.  They were clearly building to something and even giving me a reason to care about Braun and Sami as a match.  So to follow-up this week they apparently do something on the pre-show (because everyone is watching that).  I guess in this unseen footage Sami asks for Braun again, and Foley tells him Braun is too dangerous and Sami can’t handle it.  Foley’s solution to Braun being too dangerous for Sami to get in the ring with was simple.  Mick decides to put Sami in the ring with a pushover like the Universal Champion Kevin Owens.  This was a horrible burial of your champion.  Sure the match was good.  Sami and Kevin will always have good matches.  The issue here is twofold, 1) YOU told us that Braun was more dangerous than the top guy on your brand, and 2) We had the match between two guys who were supposed to have had their final battle at Battleground.  This whole storyline is being fumbled in front of our eyes. 
   
2. Bayley vs. Alicia Fox - This is how far Bayley has fallen?  She is now involved in an angle with Alicia Fox revolving around a stuffed “Bayley Bear.”  Alicia is not the best worker, but she is a decent personality and could do something interesting with Bayley.  Instead we get one of those old school approaches to the women’s angle where it revolves around a man or boyfriend.  Everything they have done right with Charlotte and Sasha, this was the exact opposite.  Yeah, Bayley wins and that’s great, but my fears of WWE mishandling the Bayley character, when she got called up, are being realized. 
   
3. Tag Team Contenders Match - So take two teams that have already lost to the New Day, and have them face off to see who gets another chance to lose to them.  Well they pulled a swerve on us because, due to the non-finish, BOTH teams get a chance to lose to The New Day next week as they break the record.  Can’t envision the New Day losing next week unless Demolition backs out of the lawsuit against the WWE.
   

​Dishonorable Mention - The Big Show with 2 more turns in the same show.  It’s sort of like the WWE is in on the joke. 

By:  Jason Stuart

​Allow me to start this week's column with an apology for not getting an article up the last few weeks.  Sometimes real life gets in the way as has been the case for the last few weeks.  However, I am back to give you my unique view on the happenings of this week's RAW and Smackdown.  Let's get right back in the saddle.

1. Opening Promo - It seems a stretch to have Owens and Jericho here every week.  That said they were once again one of, if not the best, part of the show.  The skit in the beginning where the tension was teased was tremendous.  Then the way they worked that thread through the whole show had me hooked.  They told a great story where after they split off they both got beat on their own (even if one was a backstage brawl).  I assume that was done to highlight that they are more powerful as a unit and will lead to a reunion next week.  That said I thought the Owens and Reigns match was very good.  On a side note you can say what you want about Reigns’s reactions, but by the end of his matches the crowd is largely with him. 
2. Sami Zayn/Mick Foley Promo - Finally it seems they are telling a story with Sami.  What appeared to be a one off squash at the hands of Strowman is turning into a compelling story.  What really sold this though was the passion that came across from Sami in his promo exchange with Mick.  Hats off to Mick for not getting flustered when his teeth fell out mid-promo.  I loved the breadcrumbs of Stephanie wanting to fire Sami.  I am hoping this payoff is Sami being fired and showing up on Smackdown.
3. Charlotte vs. Sasha - I know what all the critics will say: “They are doing too much hot potato with the title,” and they are right.  “They are fighting too often,” and they are right.  “They used Ric Flair as a prop to try and get Sasha a cheap pop,” and they are right.  So you might be wondering why this match ends up in the 3 Up?  Well it’s quite simple, these women are magic together.  No, this match was not a classic.  Not everything was smooth.  What made this match was the fact that they set a new standard for physicality in women’s matches in the WWE.  I enjoyed this match even more than the Cell match.  The ending was creative, and the visual of Charlotte bent around the railing was amazing.  Hopefully we can get on a consistent roll with the women.  From here Charlotte and Bayley should go into a #1 contenders program while Sasha moves on to Nia.  They have a great story to tell where two times Bayley was going to be next in line Sasha cut in front of her and took the title.  Hopefully this will lead to Bayley and Sasha and Mania.

Honorable Mention - Not one segment of Stephanie McMahon.

1. Cedric Alexander - There have been two moments with the cruiserweights on RAW that have felt special.  The first was Noam Dar’s debut, the second was Cedric's return home.  The reactions from the fans made these guys seem special and important to fans, who are not familiar with them.  The problem is WWE Creative remains unable to envision these moments.  They continue to kill any momentum you could get off of these moments.   Cedric had this great moment then lost in 3 minutes.  This is similar to Dar, who was on the losing team in his debut.  I will never understand the hometown losing thing that Vince has a hard-on for, but when you skip moments you never get them back.  This was just the latest case of them not knowing the crowd and missing a great opportunity.
2. Cesaro and Sheamus Skit - Everything about this was bad.  It looked cheesy, it made no sense, and the ending was lame.  The worst part about this was that it seems these two are staying together now that they have gotten on the same page.  I will give them credit for the Tessa Blanchard cameo, but otherwise this was hot garbage.
3. Rusev – I just don’t know anymore.  I have no idea what the issue with Rusev is.  This is a guy that should be in the main event picture.  He would breathe a much needed breath of fresh air to the top of the show. Instead he gets jobbed out to Goldberg and Reigns.  Now we get the next chapter.  Rusev is now feuding with a tag team.  Enzo and Cass should be wrestling teams, not feuding with a singles guy because his wife saw a penis.  This is another great example of how talent gets wasted on this main roster.  I can tell you for sure nobody will come out of this program in a better spot.

Dishonorable Mention - The New Day have gotten so incredibly stale.  They appear to be in the middle of a heel turn, and nobody really seems to care.  The best thing that can happen to them would be to drop those titles ASAP. 

1. Tag Team Wackiness - Is there anything more contrived in wrestling than two guys teaming up to face the two guys they have singles matches with at the next PPV?  The answer is probably yes, but this is pretty bad, too.  The match was fine though Corbin's character probably should have just left Miz on his own and walked out.  Match was fine but did nothing to get me excited for either match at TLC
2. Kane vs. Luke Harper - Pretty much any time Kane is given a two segment match, you can count on it being in 3 Down.  I'm a fan of Harper, but his character has had zero development and is still the same guy he was when he showed up.  Neither of these guys is particularly interesting at this point.  While there was nothing overtly bad about the match, there was nothing here that I cared about at all. 
3. Ambrose Asylum - Crazy Uncle Dean is back.  I hated the banter between Dean and Ellsworth.  It did nothing to further the angle.  Things got better when the brawl broke out, but AJ focused on the guy who wasn't his opponent at TLC.  He had Dean down and weakened yet passed on the chance to take his real threat out.  The Styles clash off the stairs was great, but I thought the segment as a whole was flat and made little sense.  They did redeem themselves later with the brawl to close the show.

​So those were my bests and worsts from RAW and SmackDown this week.  I'd love to hear your opinions, so visit our forums and let me know what you think.  Also, listen to The Rundown this week as I am sure I will be arguing some of these with my fellow co-hosts.

By:  Jason Stuart

​This week was once again a solid win for Smackdown.  Both shows delivered non-title matches with their Champions.  Both shows featured promos with their top women.  Both shows featured the mid-card champs and contenders in a promo battle.  That said Smackdown crafted the show together better than Raw, so once again the edge goes to them.  How did I reach that conclusion?  Well, let’s take a look at the best and worst of this week’s shows.