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There’s a ton of wrestling content nowadays and unless you’re a hardcore pro-graps fan, you have to decide what to watch when and what to consider leaving out. That’s where we come in to help.
Every week, we are going to run down the big in-ring happenings for the easily accessible US wrestling. This won’t cover your indie needs, but ReverendKain always has you covered in his weekly Sermon on the Mat for that.
Bear in mind, matches could be added after this posts that would definitely change how worth a show is to watch.
Monday
Monday Night Raw (USA Network)
The last two weeks has me worried that Raw really is going to spin their wheels until they get closer to the Rumble. And the Rumble isn’t until the latter portion of January.
Not that there aren’t things to watch for this episode. One bit advertised is that Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose will exercise their rematch for the tag team titles against Cesaro and Sheamus. Not that we haven’t seen some variation of this match for the last 5 months, but at least there’s gold on the line. (Or are those belts silver?)
Also, Paige and Sasha Banks will go one on, though I’d be surprised if that match even gets off the ground with the other members of Absolution like ready to strike.
Roman Reigns started his IC title open challenge last week, but that may already be derailed now that Samoa Joe has targetted him. And maybe the most interesting thing is that Matt Hardy is fast breaking now that Impact has given up the IP battle.
Verdict: Looking at what I wrote above, I like to think there’s a lot going on. But after the last two weeks of Raw were so lackluster, I can’t recommend watching this one live.
Tuesday
SmackDown Live (USA Network)
The big story on this show is the tension between Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon regarding the treatment of SmackDown degenerates Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. Shane wants to the duo fired while Bryan keeps protecting them, although he doesn’t seem to have any love for them (that we know of).
AJ Styles and Jinder Mahal are still building to their title match at Clash of Champions, which will be in two weeks.
And SmackDown has their own female trio of ass kickers. In a vacuum, everything is OK with that story so far, but with nothing yet to differentiate it from Raw, if you watch on Monday, this bit feels repetitive on Tuesday.
Verdict: SD has been solid as of late, though there’s nothing advertised on this show or anything that makes it feel must watch.
205 Live (WWE Network)
Enzo is still champion. They’re in the act of crowning a new #1 contender but that’s going on over on Raw. It says something when the most advertised bit about the cruisers isn’t on the dedicated cruiserweight show.
Verdict: If you like the cruisers or certified g’s, check it out.
Wednesday
NXT (WWE Network)
After two weeks of pre-TakeOver filler matches, NXT is back in the swing of things with the first episode from their episode of tapings last week.
There are spoilers of big things out there if you want to go looking, but I did my best to avoid that. They did announce qualifying matches for a fatal 4-way which will decide who will face new champion Andrade “Cien” Almas at TakeOver.
Verdict: NXT is back with some fresh episodes. It’s been a show consistently worth checking out.
Thursday
Impact Wrestling (Pop TV)
This week, Impact has a couple interesting matches advertised.
EC3 will defend his Grand Championship against Matt Sydal in a story that has been a really good one.
Also, Sienna, Allie, & Rosemary will have themselves a triple threat match to find out who will face Laurel Van Ness to crown a new Knockouts champion.
In the main event scene, Alberto El Patorn and Johnny Impact hate each other. Neither of them like Eli Drake, who’s championship they covet. Petey Williams is tired of Drake’s crap as well.
Verdict: So far so good for this new set of tapings. Things aren’t spectacular, but Impact has been a solid show since Bound for Glory.
If I could only watch one thing this week, it’d be:
NXT
With the tease of big happenings and overall a fresh set of tapings to kick off a new set of stories, this is what I’m most interested in this week.
There’s a ton of other wrestling out there and we can’t cover it all on here. So if there’s something you’re particularly excited for this week, let your fellow wrestling fans know in the comments.
See ya next week!