WWE went rolling right on through Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York last night (Sat., Oct. 3, 2015) with Live from MSG, the latest house show to be given the Network special treatment. Like Beast in the East before it, it was all about Brock Lesnar taking someone to Suplex City.
Let's not waste any more time with pleasantries and get right to reactions to the show (click here for the live blog with full match coverage).
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Hello suplex my old friend
WWE had two choices when deciding on how exactly it wanted to promote last night's event:
1) Rely on Brock Lesnar's name and Brock Lesnar's name alone
2) Spend a few weeks building up a match to sell Brock Lesnar against whatever opponent would be chosen for him
They went with option two and that opponent turned out to be Big Show. So they spent those couple weeks putting Show over by having him squash Mark Henry and Cesaro on back-to-back episodes of Raw, then had him intimidate Paul Heyman while bringing up that one time he beat Lesnar in the same arena over a decade ago while ignoring the reason why he beat Lesnar in the same arena a decade ago.
Then, the match happened and it was a glorified squash. Show got in some early offense in the form of three consecutive choke slams but when that didn't earn him a pinfall he went for the KO punch. Lesnar, of course, ducked and went into the squash portion of the match, where he did what everyone watching paid to watch him do: throw a dude around and pin him clean in the middle of the ring.
He did, and he did, and that was that.
It was fun for what it was. This isn't a complaint against how they booked the match. In fact, I quite enjoyed that brief moment when Show was allowed to feel good about his chances before meeting the same fate of all those before him. And I suppose he needed to be booked the way he was in the weeks leading up to this to allow for that to be the case.
But considering the end result, it feels senseless. It feels like they could have used option 1 -- and it should be pointed out they did so at Beast in the East when Lesnar squashed Kofi Kingston and the rest of The New Day and it was wildly successful -- and avoided jobbing out Mark Henry and Cesaro just to, in turn, job out Big Show in slightly more spectacular fashion.
They could have accomplished the same goal without doing that damage.
Again, the match was fun -- it's always fun watching Brock Lesnar be Brock Lesnar -- it was just surrounding by booking that, in hindsight, is baffling.
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All the best to all the rest
John Cena vs. Seth Rollins: These two consistently put together good matches but they were hampered by the steel cage here. It wasn't bad, necessarily, but it's difficult to buy into the spots when guys are climbing the cage too slow or someone recovers from a move far too quickly to make a save. It's a problem with all cage matches and they can no longer make up for it with big spots. Plus, this was always going to be about keeping the title on Cena with interference from THE DEMON KANE. Said interference made Rollins look like the stupidest wrestler imaginable. As he was climbing out of the ring to win the US title, DEMON KANE came down and stood outside the ring. This meant that if Rollins dropped down, he would win the title but end up right in front of his biggest enemy. So he decided the better plan would be a death defying splash off the top of the cage onto Cena, which missed, and he was pinned following an AA immediately after. Guess what happened next. Yep, Kane got in the ring and Rollins took a choke slam and a Tombstone anyway. Amazing.
The New Day vs. The Dudley Boyz: It sure feels like these teams are destined to fall into "if you've seen one New Day-Dudleyz match, you've seen them all" territory. Not only that, they're rehashing the finishes they've been using so New Day can keep the tag team titles with disqualification finishes while Bubba and D-Von put someone through a table only after the match is already over. It works in a sense, considering the rumor they're building to a tables match at the next pay-per-view, but I've never been a big fan of booking like this. They piss you off on the finish then get you feeling a little better about it with the post-match table spot. It feels far too much like they want me both pissed and happy when I'd rather they push as hard as possible in either direction. Just, you know, pick one.
Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho: This was about as well put together as we could expect. Jericho cut a great babyface promo pre-match -- he even got Lance Storm to smile -- before Kevin Owens, the big bad heel, came out and cheated his way to win with an eye poke after a fun, if a bit run-of-the-mill, match. Owens wishing him "happy anniversary" on his way to the back was delightfully evil, the kind of nasty we need more of from our bad guys in today's WWE.
Team Bella vs. Team PCB: This match confused me, mostly because Charlotte & Becky Lynch are consistently so surprised when Paige acts selfishly after her promo weeks ago. At least this time out they answered it by returning the favor, which led to a Paige promo that was probably written to be "emotional female acts crazy" in response to betrayal. My hope is she's working a late 90s Chris Jericho gimmick. The only thing noteworthy from the match itself was the fact that cameras seemingly refused to cut away while Brie was clearly calling the match with Paige. I'm not saying it was intentional but it sure seemed odd to stay in so tight when it was so obvious what was happening.
Neville vs. Stardust: Fun house show match? Fun house show match!
Dolph Ziggler & Randy Orton vs. Rusev & Sheamus: A completely forgettable match with a baffling post-match angle. Rusev berates Sheamus for costing them the match and being a stupid non-American like cold fish Lana before Sheamus gets in and Brogue Kicks him to death and bails off. The start of a babyface turn? Earning him some good will now because the Money in the Bank cash in is coming soon? Just a cheap way to get the Brogue Kick spot in there? I didn't get this, though it gave Summer Rae a chance to be the most entertaining part of the show just standing in the corner reacting to everything.
There wasn't anything about this to justify even the modest hype it was given. And considering how they booked the Show-Lesnar match, I'm not sure it makes any sense to do the Mark Henry's and Cesaro's of the world like that.
Still, it was a decent enough show.
Grade: C+
That's it from me, Cagesiders. Now it's your turn to sound off in the comments section below with all your thoughts on last night's show. How did you like it, if you liked it at all?