Blog Archives
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 1/31/17: Chamber Music
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 1/31/17)
Chamber Music
– Given that the Royal Rumble was won by a SmackDown guy (that’s Randy Orton, The Wyatt Family-Friendly version in case you didn’t know), the opening video gladly reminded us of all that jazz. WWE took it upon themselves to quote various media outlets with the most generic sentences on planet Earth. We’ll give an example. “That was a Rumble!” – Forbes. No kidding. You’d also be crazy if they didn’t sprinkle in footage of the epic rematch between WWE World Heavyweight Champion John Cena and AJ Styles where history was made and such. However, the Rumble madness is over and thanks to WWE’s killer Pay-Per-View schedule, we’ve got Elimination Chamber in a mere two weeks.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 4/4/16: The Energy Of Change
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 4/4/16)
The Energy of Change
– Another year, another loud, vocal crowd of “international marks.” Such is the usual with the Raw after WrestleMania, which is now hyped up to the point of a spectacle of itself. As you could probably imagine, the opening video highlighted various happenings of WrestleMania 32 to the tune of Flo Rida’s “My House.”
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 3/28/16: Bombs Away
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 3/28/16)
Bombs Away
– With a hyped-up Brooklyn crowd, the show got off to the right start with the hot opening segment with Shane McMahon and The Undertaker. Again, while this whole feud/storyline severely lacks strong logic, it does hold a certain entertainment factor to it that can’t be denied. Say what you want. You’re looking forward to this match. That said, their exchange on the mic was entertaining, with Shane proclaiming he was fighting to win to bring change, while Taker was fighting not to lose. Also some nice jabs at Taker’s legacy tarnished two Manias ago. They amped it up by having Shane walk down the ramp and into Taker’s face, to which Taker called Shane his daddy’s bitch, which started the memorable physical exchange. Didn’t think they’d take a chance with Shane’s signature elbow drop through the announce table, but they did it and the crowd went bonkers. This feud actually needed that “aha” moment to get people even more excited and gave us a taste of what could potentially come at Mania.
Open Your Mind To A Divas Tag Team Championship
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Anthony Zevoteck
Tag team wrestling – regarded as one of pro wrestling’s best forms, allows multiple wrestlers to work together and come up with fitting movesets for fast-paced in-ring action. When performed right, it can make fans excited, especially when their favorite team gets the “hot tag.”
For a long time, it has only been the men who get Championships to display any tag team excellence. The women haven’t gotten that chance since 1989, yet how many times have we seen a two-on-two or three-on-three Divas tag match?
For many years, this topic has been thought of as unnecessary or ridiculous, but nowadays, there’s a strong case for it.
The branded “Divas Division” has seen its ups and downs (mostly the latter) over the years with poorly written storylines and characters with “all hair and no care” or “all face and no grace.” There was a time that little fans cared about the Divas and looked at their in-ring time as a bathroom break.
In the modern era, we’ve seen a resurgence of genuine fan interest in women’s wrestling thanks to the uprise of hard NXT workers like Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Bayley. There was a time where any of those four ladies could be counted on to steal the show and were thus, even given the main event of a WWE Network Live Special.
In 2015, with a higher demand for women’s wrestling, the main roster tried to emulate this by bringing up three of those four NXT ladies and teaming them with and against some already-established main roster Divas, all branded the “Divas Revolution.” Although this was an experiment that had its few highs and many lows, the aftermath has started to show some positives that came of it.
It seems lately there are too many Divas going after one Title and causes a lack of fan interest because of mindless feuds over a Title that honestly doesn’t change hands often.
With a stacked roster with talent like Paige, Natalya, Tamina, Brie Bella, Alicia Fox, Cameron, Naomi, Summer Rae, Lynch and Banks, you have all these ladies (with the exception of two) currently involved in a feud for the Divas Championship. Give them another Title to compete for. Give other Divas matches some meaning.
Don’t forget, there’s even more talent on NXT due for an eventual call-up, like Bayley, Asuka, Eva Marie, Nia Jax, Carmella, Alexa Bliss, Dana Brooke, Emma. Some of these ladies are already notorious as duos – Naomi/Tamina, Brie Bella/Alicia Fox, Emma/Brooke, Jax/Eva, etc. They can easily fill spots necessary for such a Division.
Many fans will probably disagree with this based on the grounds that the men should get another singles Title to allow more guys opportunities to get over with fans. I fully understand that point of view, because I’d absolutely love to see the day where the Cruiserweight or Light Heavyweight Championship are resurrected. However, with that not happening anytime soon, give that spotlight to the women.
They could easily knock this out of the park. New ideas give ladies new motivations, new reasons for fans to care about them and thus, they would go hand in hand. Maybe a Diva isn’t primed for a Divas Championship match and can develop skills in a tag team until she is. Either way, there need to be a second level for the Divas because the storylines alone aren’t enough to go off of.
There’s an unexplored side of modern WWE waiting to be discovered, almost 30 years hidden away.
WWE, give a WWE Tag Team Divas Championship a chance.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 3/14/16: Changing Of The Guard
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 3/14/16)
Changing Of The Guard
– The idea of WWE World Tag Team Champions, The New Day, turning babyface isn’t bad. Their growing popularity is hard to ignore and they’re three guys being themselves and having fun, nothing forced. That said, they’re turning without “officially” doing it, simply feuding with other heels, The League Of Nations stable. They played babyfaces at Roadblock when they successfully defended against Sheamus/Rusev, but when they came out with their Booty-O’s box and their trombone on Raw, they still drew heat at first. However, the idea of naturally seeing people you don’t like going against people you don’t like even more, you’ll root for the more liked team. Also liked the little backstory of social media bickering and New Day wanting to prove themselves, with Xavier Woods taking part in the match to argue against being called a “Cheerleader.” Did JBL really compare LON to The Four Horsemen? Now, that’s a stretch. Anyways, New Day played for cheers and the action was fine for what it was, but nothing was particularly good or memorable until the end, where New Day used a heelish tactic by having Kofi Kingston distract the Referee on the apron so Woods could score a school boy pin pulling the tights. The money part of it and what’ll make it pay off was the well-done post-match beatdown on New Day by LON, which made the Champs look sympathetic and put big heat on LON. Even liked the little moments where LON humiliated New Day by pulling on each guy’s gear and using it in their attacks.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown 3/10/16: Time To Go Wyatt Hunting
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 3/10/16)
Time To Go Wyatt Hunting
– With a lot of WrestleMania’s build on the back burner to Roadblock, at least it was a treat to see some main roster attention paid to the Sami Zayn-WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens feud. Both Owens and Zayn were introduced as guests on MizTV on this show. Did get a kick out of the interaction between Zayn and Miz, as Miz inquired about Zayn’s side of the rivalry and then “directed” him to cut to the chase. Zayn’s side of things were well-covered, as he explained how him and Owens were essentially brothers and it was Owens who turned on him out of jealousy that he received his big break first. Owens’ portion of the segment had him try to portray himself as the victim and that what he did wasn’t personal, but that Zayn made it personal when he eliminated him at the Royal Rumble. They bickered until Zayn challenged Owens to come to the ring, to which Owens complied, but backed out last moment. Neville interrupted and he made it known to Owens that they had unfinished business. Since this is SmackDown, you know what that means – brief scuffle between the segment participants and an impromptu tag…
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 3/7/16: R.I.P. Y2AJ
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 3/7/16)
R.I.P. Y2AJ
– The opening video chronicled Vince McMahon’s promo last week on Raw where he’d confidently recognize Shane McMahon as someone who’d lose everything if he lost to The Undertaker at Hell In The Cell at WrestleMania. Taker made it clear Shane’s blood would be on Vince’s hands, with nice archival footage of Taker wreaking HIAC havoc. Not sure why they dragged out a short segment for a three-minute video because it didn’t have the emotional impact for it but either way, it’s Raw from Chicago, so let’s get to it.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 2/29/16: The League Of Authority
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/29/16)
The League Of Authority
– The opening video highlighted WWE World Heavyweight Champion Triple H’s walloping of Roman Reigns at the end of last week’s Raw in a bloody assault, the Champion christening himself as the almighty, untouchable authoritative law in WWE.
WWE Fastlane 2016 Reaction
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
Another year, another chance for Roman Reigns to get into the WrestleMania main event and another year where he wins said chance.
Last year, it was against a heavy fan favorite in Daniel Bryan to take on the WWE World Heavyweight Champion at the time, Brock Lesnar. Fans were so into Bryan’s return that they actually forced Mania plans to change again, with Reigns needing to beat him to get to Mania and be bought as a “main-eventer.”
This year, we have Reigns (who already had a World Title run) gunning for the same position, only Triple H is Champion, Lesnar’s in his way as is his “brother” Dean Ambrose, the heavy fan favorite.
Predictable booking squandered all a great main event could offer and despite some good matches, an odd final few segments/matches won’t leave Fastlane 2016 in the “classic shows” conversations.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown 2/18/16: Here Comes The Pain
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/18/16)
Here Comes The Pain
– The opening video hyped the big triple-threat Fastlane main event between Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar – “Brother Vs. Brother Vs. Beast,” if you will. The video primarily focused on Ambrose talking about being in the “fight of his life” and how him wanting Lesnar turned into suffering an F5, Stephanie McMahon style, when she made him defend his WWE Intercontinental Championship against four other men and ended up losing the belt to Kevin Owens without even being pinned. The main question was what the Title loss did to Ambrose’s psyche.
Pro Wrestling Opinion 