Impressions on Wrestling

This week was the true start of the "New Era" according to the WWE, and it certainly seemed like it after Monday Night.  Tuesday brought us the first Smackdown Live after the brand split.  The "Blue Brand" had a lot to live up to, which was a truly impossible task. I will get this out of the way... Smackdown was nowhere near the quality of RAW this week.  But to be fair, next week's RAW probably won't be anywhere near that high bar either.  Smackdown has a much smaller roster, with very little depth in the mid card (as of now) and they have two divisions with nothing to fight for in the tag teams and women.  That being said this show had some highlight moments and has some things to look forward to.  They also did some questionable things too. Before we do that let's talk about the new look and feel for the show. Much like the other show, Smackdown got a new intro with a new song to boot.  They had a new set and had a lot of blue everywhere,

This week's WWE Raw was a big deal. It was the first episode of the new era.  They needed to bring something different. They needed a good show to get the brand started off right.  They didn't deliver a good show... They delivered a great show.  To start off the new feel, they had a much improved opening video/song. They started the show with a talking segment to establish the evening, and then never looked back.  But the question isn't whether or not this show rocked, but why did it work so much better than the last year of RAW?  Well there are quite a few things that worked in this episode's favor, so I am going to break it down a bit. 1.) Making Stars Holy cow, this has to be the first thing I cover.  They made two stars tonight and also highlighted other talents effectively.  Finn Balor and Sasha Banks came out of this show looking like a trillion dollars.  The crowd was into Finn Balor, but I don't think they believed he would win the fatal

The dust has settled on Battleground.  Starting tomorrow, we enter a "New Era" in the WWE with the brand extension in full effect.  The show was very entertaining from top to bottom, and did a good job at setting up stars for this new era. This show had very few low points and held interest for over 3 hours, and that includes the Kickoff show.  They started setting a good foundation for the new era with Breezango beating the Usos on the Battleground Kickoff show. This sets them up nicely as a meaningful team in the Smackdown tag division. Bayley and Sasha celebrate The main card started off with a bang. We got the first appearance of Bayley on a WWE main roster card.  This was billed as a one night rental for Sasha Banks.  This may be an extremely smart move to introduce her, let her finish her NXT run, then bring her on after Summerslam.  Bayley received an enormous pop from the Washington D.C. crowd, and all the ladies gave a good performance for a very solid o

The WWE Draft is done. The landscape has been set for the new "war" in WWE... Raw vs. Smackdown. On one side, we have Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley running the "Flagship show" in RAW. On the other side, we have Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan running the "underdog" show in Smackdown. Let us look and see how the draft went down and then we will analyze the outcome. RAW Seth Rollins Charlotte - WWE Womens Champion Finn Balor (NXT Callup) Roman Reigns Brock Lesnar The New Day- WWE Tag Team Champions Sami Zayn Sasha Banks Chris Jericho Rusev w/ Lana - United States Champion Kevin Owens Enzo & Cass The Club (Gallows & Anderson) Big Show Nia Jax (NXT Callup) Neville Cesaro Sheamus Golden Truth Titus O'Neil Paige Darren Young Sin Cara Jack Swagger The Dudley Boys Summer Rae Mark Henry Braun Strowman Bo Dallas The Shining Stars Alicia Fox Dana Brooke Curtis Axel Smackdown Dean Ambrose-WWE Champion AJ Sty

Wednesday night kicked off the opening of the 32 man tournament known as the Cruiserweight Classic. This is an extremely significant venture for the WWE and the WWE Network.  Growing up a wrestling fan, I didn't think I would see something like this happen in a major North American promotion, and certainly not the WWE.  The fact that most of the talent lineup are not under a WWE contract makes it even more fascinating. What also makes this tournament fascinating is the presentation.  This show is being treated like a sporting event with serious discussion on weight cutting, fighting styles and the representations of their countries.  They even did a Bracketology special.  This is a complete departure from the WWE presentation style.  This isn't sports entertainment, this is professional wrestling, and they are pushing that fact.  Mauro Ranallo and Daniel Bryan bring a feel of legitimacy and excitement to their announcing that this show feels even more special. They are pur