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WWE SummerSlam 2016 Reaction
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
Within the “New Era” has been an attempt by WWE to showcase new talent on the precipice of an ever-growing content generator known as the WWE Network, where fans can not only tune in to live Pay-Per-Views (seven of more which were announced to be added to the already-stacked yearly 12 to make an absurd 19) but go back and watch almost everything WWE has ever produced.
That said, sometimes more new content isn’t necessarily the best scenario.
If you count the two-hour pre-show, SummerSlam clocked in and six hours and three minutes with 13 matches.
On a stacked Supercard, only a third of it was deemed excellent. The rest of it couldn’t have been more filler if we tried.
SummerSlam was the personification of having too much of a good thing and not knowing how to properly utilize it.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 8/16/16: Styles Crash
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 8/16/16)
Styles Crash
– The opening backstage segment with Commissioner Shane McMahon, General Manager Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton and Heath Slater was a fine open to the show, as we saw Orton officially sign off on the contract that ensured that he and Brock Lesnar would battle at SummerSlam, only five days away. Slater continued to use his “Free Agent” gimmick more to the comedic side, as he presented Bryan/Shane a fruit basket (likely stolen from a funeral parlor, funny) since he recalled them close to signing him, before they said no because of how they were dissed. We were left with how Orton “had an idea.” Wonder what that could possibly be. At least there was a tie with Slater to Lesnar. It’s actually pretty smart to have the one guy who could bounce back and forth between shows interact with the two feuding guys on separate shows.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 8/9/16: Channeled Energies
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 8/9/16)
Channeled Energies
– The backstage segment with Randy Orton and Alberto Del Rio provided nice hype for their match later on in the show. as Orton mentioned he was focused on his SummerSlam opponent Brock Lesnar and looked forward to taking Lesnar to Viperville, to which then Del Rio walked up and made light of the city name. It was basically a little war of words between the two. On paper, Del Rio was a notable name that Orton could defeat en route to SummerSlam.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 8/2/16: Returning The Favor
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 8/2/16)
Returning The Favor
– The backstage segment with SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon, General Manager Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton was a good follow-up to Raw’s ending, since we saw Orton’s surprise RKO on his SummerSlam opponent Brock Lesnar, before he was chased away by security. Luckily and logically, we opened up as Shane reprimanded Orton for his actions. That went down the drain once Shane praised it as “awesome.” Really, Shane? Anyways, with all the security presence to keep Lesnar out of the building, that basically meant that Lesnar would appear. The part that followed where WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz/Maryse complained to Bryan/Shane about the way they were treated was okay, but one big hurt to his argument was that while he complained about not being celebrated by the locker room in the ring after he retained the IC Title at Battleground like they did with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was that Miz himself was one of the people holding up Ambrose on their shoulders. Yikes. The lack of logic here. Anyways, this led to a half-assed announcement where Bryan booked a triple threat between Apollo Crews, Kalisto and Baron Corbin to determine Miz’s #1 contender. This was then followed by the authoritative duo running into Ambrose, who made it known that he was about to head to the ring to address his #1 contender, Dolph Ziggler.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 7/26/16: Superkicking The Glass Ceiling
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 7/26/16)
Superkicking The Glass Ceiling
– On the SmackDown side of the WWE Brand Split, we were promised live shows on Tuesdays and a crew led by Commissioner Shane McMahon/General Manager Daniel Bryan. As for the announce team, gone were Byron Saxton and Jerry Lawler, replaced with JBL and David Otunga. Mauro Ranallo is great as always, but that’ll take some getting used to. SmackDown started in similar fashion to Raw, but with Shane/Bryan backstage as they led the camera to the ring, already filled with roster inhabitants. Of course they hit Bryan’s music so the crowd had an excuse to chant “Yes!” and act all crazy on camera. SmackDown also had new generic rock music and a montage for its theme. Shane revealed that SmackDown would have its first exclusive Pay-Per-View on Sep. 11 entitled “Backlash.” After that, they introduced WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose and announced the goal was to find him an opponent for SummerSlam, which would be done via a Six-Pack Challenge, that’d involve Dolph Ziggler, John Cena, Baron Corbin, Bray Wyatt and AJ Styles thus far. The last contestant would be decided though an impromptu Battle Royale. Not a bad start to the show, since it set the table for what we could expect and this played into the “Break The Glass Ceiling” mission objective of the show.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 4/27/16: The Kinshasa Swan Song
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 4/27/16)
The Kinshasa Swan Song
– We were warned about the NXT Women’s Champion Asuka-Eva Marie match from last week, so no surprises here. What should’ve been a quick, two-minute squash was instead dragged out to make Eva look “on par” with Asuka, which is completely unbelievable. An odd matchup to begin with, with little chemistry early on and the only thing that kept our interest was the crowd’s growing disdain for Eva and Corey Graves’ entertaining commentary that fanboyed all over Eva. It appeared that the bigger story was planting the seeds of an Asuka-Nia Jax feud by the way she stood by Eva’s side past the midway portion of the bout. This lasted longer than it had any business being, but seeing Eva get kicked out cold might’ve been a lukewarm consolation prize. The post-match interaction between Jax and Asuka was a bit woody, but established that Jax wouldn’t be scared of Asuka’s techniques.
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.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 3/16/16: The Arrival Of Strong Style
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 3/16/16)
The Arrival Of Strong Style
– The opening video (as it should’ve) showed us highlights of the NXT Championship #1 Contender’s Best-Two-Out-Of-Three Falls between Sami Zayn and Samoa Joe, which opened that show and ended up taking the whole hour by the third fall, an even-handed bout where Joe emerged victorious two falls to one.
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.
Pro Wrestling Opinion 