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Hand-stitched Leather and Suede Brogues
HAVING spent last week heaping praise on two Englishmen at NXT, it was nice to see a return to form from WWE flagship TV show RAW this week.
Of course, we are building up to the Extreme Rules show on Sunday night.
In truth, we saw two matches on Monday which were better than anything on Smackdown’s Backlash a fortnight ago.
One of them, dear readers, exemplifies why Roman Reigns is doing main event business in the WWE.
The man everyone loves to hate is at the peak of his powers at present, and this is all despite a desperate personal tragedy in losing his brother not long ago.
His main event with Seth Rollins was excellent, as good a TV match as we have seen from WWE in some time – if, of course, you don’t count the one an hour beforehand involving Balor, Wyatt and Joe.
In our review of the WWE live show in London last month, FT used the term “tepid”. This was a timely return to form for RAW, which has looked a bit anaemic in recent times, short of beef and top-class acts.
It’s understandable with three hours every week to fill in one sense, ¬Ê ¬Ê ¬Ê ¬Ê but nothing will ever satisfy the masses like an excellent match and this week WWE nailed it. Twice.
Reigns and Rollins know each other inside out.
What was interesting about Monday’s encounter is that they went out to steal the show having been inspired by what went on before.
Of course, all five protagonists in the weekend’s Fatal Five Way match were involved in the best matches here. No-one should be surprised at that.
Finn Balor looked a shadow of himself a month ago in London but seems to be hitting his stride after recovering from a shoulder injury. Samoa Joe has been a dream for the booking team as he is an experienced professional who knows his own game and delivers every time.
Bray Wyatt will most likely be delighted to be away from Smackdown and the disastrous House of Horrors debacle with Orton. They tried something new but it failed with fans.
The good thing about wrestling is that it moves on so fast the memory will likely fade swiftly.
Now, the only issue with Sunday is that under the extreme rules stipulation, we can only hope the five men don’t get carried away with the furniture. There are plenty of other matches on the show that can do that.
The Bayley and Bliss segment on RAW came across poorly but that’s life. Ambrose and Miz will want to steal all the plaudits but do they have enough between them?
The potential gem that shines out is the Hardys against Sheamus and Cesaro in a cage. That could be a classic. Aries and Neville will be very, very good, but winning the crowd over for a submission match on a show where you can jump off 20 feet of steel might be a tough ask.
Nice to see Noam Dar getting a bit of the spotlight.
That mixed tag match too has some talent in it, particularly with the addition of Sasha Banks.
ticketmaster.co.uk for tickets.