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Worst 10 Of 2015
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
*Graphic by Angel Alcantara*
As we all know, not all pro wrestling storylines ideas are gems. There were times this couldn’t be more true in 2015.
Whether it was the overhyped, underwhelming “invasion” of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) by Global Force Wrestling (GFW) or the debacle that was the Slammiversary 2015 Pay-Per-View, there were countless moments that we’ll revisit so you can shake your head yet again.
Pro wrestling fans are plenty of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.
Check out our list of the “Worst” 10 moments of 2015.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 10/26/15: No One But Reigns
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 10/26/15)
No One But Reigns
– The opening segment with Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns was a good way to shed light on the previous night’s happenings (Rollins defeating Demon Kane to fire Corporate Kane as Director of Operations, Brock Lesnar defeating The Undertaker in a brutal Hell In A Cell encounter) and set up matches throughout the night to give this show an immediate goal – find Rollins a new number-one contender. Of course, given how the night ended up, not having Reigns in this segment would’ve made things less predictable, but he held his own here. Boy, could you feel the crowd’s energy drain when The Authority’s music hit? We were also surprised to see that Michael Cole was quick to talk about the bloody HIAC main event, even as we saw multiple still shots, with blood quite visible on both guys’ faces. On a storyline level, we saw Trips/Steph be proud of their little architect and announce an unofficial tournament using the previous night’s winners, where the winners of those matches would advance to a number-one contender fatal four-way main event to determine Rollins’ next opponent. With Lesnar not in the building, we were awaiting an explanation as to why he couldn’t be involved, but we never got one. Horrible. You guys couldn’t say The Authority sent him home because of the low blow or something of that nature? The Rollins-Reigns interaction was solid, as Reigns laughed off the idea of Rollins making it to the WWE Hall Of Fame and made it clear he was going for the Title.
Notes In Observance – WWE Smackdown 10/22/15: Prince Pretty’s Here
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 10/22/15)
Prince Pretty’s Here
– The opening segment with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins-Corporate Kane saw both guys rub in each other’s faces about this show being potentially the last for each as respective Champion or employee. Corporate Kane informed Rollins that he had a match coming up next and if he tried to flee, “somebody” would keep him right where he was. After Rollins walked away, New Day’s Big E/Kofi Kingston approached Corporate Kane and said how disgusted they were that Xavier Woods was taken out and they were “only two unicorns now.” Um, okay, these are supposedly three badass/funny heels? It doesn’t work in this instance. Anyways, this was a good way to set up the main event, as Corporate Kane booked them to take on Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose to “cheer them up” as he played the world’s smallest trombone. That said, there was also high energy in this segment, to give the impression that the show was starting off with a bang.
Notes In Observance – WWE Smackdown 10/8/15: A Playdate In Purgatory
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 10/8/15)
A Playdate In Purgatory
– The Dolph Ziggler-Big E match stemmed from New Day’s opening promo fresh off their Raw-ending four babyface beatdown. Sure, their promo was loud and obnoxious, but they made it work by name-dropping past wrestling stables they found themselves better than and insulting the Philly faithful’s beloved football team. The gist here was that while they could be funny, they could also be ruthless and cold. It kind of works and it kind of doesn’t. These are heels that carry trombones after all. They need to either go all the way in one direction or the other, but dipping in both ends of the pool won’t work for long. We learned that Ziggler asked The Authority for the match and brought out the Dudley Boyz for an insurance policy to keep things fair. Considering that Big E and Ziggler were once paired together, we were expecting some solid chemistry and the selling here was actually great on both ends. We expected shenanigans on the outside with the two budding teams and that played out in the finish. Kofi Kingston/Xavier Woods also kept the New Day outside bits fresh by mock commentating the match in between ridiculous dancing and trombone notes. In the end, Kingston played it dirty by getting in the cheap shot and holding Ziggler’s foot down to keep New Day hot.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 10/5/15: Tons Of Boss
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 10/5/15)
Tons Of Boss
– The opening video again focused on last week’s Raw developments, as Ashley HR found Corporate Kane “sound of mind to fulfill his duties” and WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins took him out, until Demon Kane came out of the ambulance and attacked him. Yup, like nothing happened on Smackdown or the freakin’ MSG special.
WWE Network – Live From MSG Reaction
Image courtesy of Ringside Rumors Dot Net.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
With another installment of recent exclusive WWE Network live specials, this time we had the spectacle of seeing Brock Lesnar make an appearance in the “World’s Most Famous Arena” – Madison Square Garden in New York City, in action against The Big Show, a match 13 years revisited in the same arena.
Also on the card was The New Day defending the Tag Team Championships against the “hometown” Dudley Boyz, who were going for their 10th Tag Title reign.
Ultimately, this ended up just being a glorified house show, with nothing out of the ordinary occurring.
Notes In Observance – WWE Smackdown 10/1/15: The Demon Fights
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 10/1/15)
The Demon Fights
– The opening video highlighted the Raw “Kane Job Evaluation” segment where Ashley from HR (that’s human resources in case you weren’t sure) found Kane “in full sound of mind,” leading to WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins to go in full denial mode before essentially taking out Corporate Kane’s leg and put him in an ambulance, who broke out of said ambulance as the Demon, exacting revenge. Watching what unfolded for over 20 minutes on live TV condensed into a two-minute video was a relief, but the video also made Demon Kane’s ambulance rising look awfully kooky. Yep, TV ratings are slipping and you wonder why. Stuff like this is leading the program. Yes, we like Corporate Kane and it’s nice to see Demon Kane back and we expected a “challenger of the month” out of this, but it didn’t have to be the lead storyline.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 9/28/15: Believe That It Ain’t Over…
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 9/28/15)
Believe That It Ain’t Over…
– The opening video highlighted Corporate/Demon Kane getting into WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins’ head and literally dragging him into hell. Strange we didn’t see anything from Smackdown that happened with the feud. Guess Rollins got out of hell okay?
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 9/21/15: Raging Paige
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 9/21/15)
Raging Paige
– Not even two seconds into the show and we got The Wyatt Family sounder. Bray was in all bragging mode, Roman Reigns his subject, who was quick to come out alone to suggest he and Bray fight one-on-one, just like how it started. It was sort of odd that Bray accepted a challenge and ended up getting laid out, which only drew Luke Harper and Braun Strowman to his rescue, which in turn drew out Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton. The “brawl” was entertaining enough to stray from the ordinary, yet restrained enough from being extraordinary. We got a few things here – Strowman was finally vulnerable to a degree, when the face trio cleared him from the ring, though he fell to his feet. Orton drew his “line in the sand” so to speak, which made sense since he was getting revenge on the people who attacked him. We know a six-man tag with these guys is down to happen now, perhaps at the 10/3 WWE Network Live Special at Madison Square Garden? What was odd though was a lack of followup on the tension situation with Chris Jericho, who bumped shoulders with Ambrose on his way out of the ring the night before. Perhaps they pick it up on Smackdown? The crowd chanted pretty loudly for Jericho before Orton came out, which was interesting.
Notes In Observance – WWE Smackdown 9/17/15: Keeping Your Enemies Closer
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 9/17/15)
Keeping Your Enemies Closer
– The opening video looked back at Raw, where The Authority hyped Sting’s first in-ring match on Monday nights, mixed in with them looking at Big Show as the “problem solver.” We saw the match highlights play out of John Cena making the save when WWE World Heavyweight and United States Champion Seth Rollins came out. Cena/Sting won the impromptu tag match.
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