Weekly Wrasslin’ Wroundup (11/26-29)

It’s A T Party

Pretty dull week, but that’s to be expected. Smackdown is getting ready for a pretty weak Clash of Champions, looking like it’s going to feature Styles-Mahal, Corbin-Roode, Uso’s/Gabenjamin, and Charlotte/Natalya. Raw is spinning its wheels until the Rumble. Events Of Minor Significance:



The Invaders Have Names And Similar Plans

Remember the two three-woman factions, mostly NXT callups, that debuted on Raw and Smackdown last week beating everyone up? Well, they got names this week. Smackdown has The Riott Squad, so spelled because someone at legal took a look at Ruby Riot’s name and decided it needed the Taz-Tazz/Rhino-Rhyno treatment. Other than the surplus T, it’s a solid name. Paige, DeVille, and Rose, on the other hand, are called Absolution, which sounds like a perfume for goths. Anyway, they beat up their opponents again - on Raw, by beating up Bayley and Mickie James before they could get to the ring, and on Smackdown, by driving Natalya off and then playing the numbers game against Charlotte and Naomi.

Roman Reigns Is Back To Being Mostly Over

The new IC Champ and mandatory John Cena replacement did the John Cena thing on Raw, having an open challenge for a midcard belt and then trying to make said midcarder (Elias) look credible in defeat. Between the Shield reunion and Elias being great at making people hate him, this meant a 95-5 cheer-boo ratio for Roman, which is unheard of. Only problem is, they’re setting up Samoa Joe as Reigns’ next challenger, and the people who traditionally hate Reigns LOOOOOVE Samoa Joe. So I suspect that ratio to change back soon.

Seth Rollins New Knee Finisher Still Doesn’t Have A Name

This drives me insane. Rollins is consistently in the upper midcard of the company, he’s part of the biggest faction in the company, and his already weak-looking knee finisher is just called “The knee” by the announce team. It’s bad enough when it’s used in Shield matches as a transition move to Dirty Deeds from Ambrose, but when he beats Cesaro with it like he did this week, it comes off as anticlimactic. Weird move, no name, no real visual flair from Rollins that he’s even hitting a finisher. Maybe they’re trying to treat it like the RKO, but if so, it needs to be played up more.

The Cruiserweights Need Their Own Commissioner

There’s a solid argument to be made that keeping the cruisers segmented the way they are is bad for them, and it’s an argument I mostly agree with. But if you’re gonna keep them separate, give them their own commissioner. Kurt Angle asked “what’s a Zo Train” on Raw this week, then apologized for not running the division properly. If you have to do that in your narrative, something needs fixing. Shame they let Aries get away.

The Hype Bros Broke Up

Mojo’s the heel in the breakup. Whee.

Jinder Mahal May Have Turned On The Singh Brothers

He beat them up after they lost to AJ Styles with an admittedly awesome second rope Styles Clash of one Sing onto the other. But they’re lackeys, so who knows?