To start right off with, the big story this week, was, of course, Jerry Lawler's sudden heart attack during the show on Monday and his following recovery, which has been incredible and surprisingly quick so far. It's been great to see the outpouring of support from all over the wrestling world, and Girls Watch Wrestling continue to hope for Jerry's full and speedy recovery.
Monday Night Raw
1. Team Friendship. So the logical progression of Kane & Daniel Bryan's anger management storyline put them together in a tag team match on Monday. Not only were they tag team partners, they were competing for the #1 contenders position for the tag titles. Predictably, they ended up not getting along very well in the ring. But also predictably (weirdly enough), they ended up winning. The best part of this was the way that it happened. It wasn't because, during the progression of the match, they ended up learning that Friendship is Magic and that Sharing is Caring. It's because Daniel Bryan was being a cocky prick and the chokeslam Kane delivered to him just so happened to land right on top of Darren Young. It was an accidental win, which I think makes this infinitely more interesting, because now they will have to force themselves to learn to work together. As a team. With each other. Hell Yes.
2. Sheamus' Interrogation. So, there are mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, bits of it were really entertaining. On the other hand, Brogue Kick. My stupid work schedule last week prevented me from writing my reviews, which means I didn't get to bitch and moan here about how stupid this story is. So they banned the Brogue Kick, so what? It's not that big a deal. Really. Sheamus still has a moveset filled with finishers: Celtic Cross, Irish Curse Backbreaker, White Noise, and now Texas Cloverleaf. ALL of those are suitable finishers. In fact, all of them (yes, even that damn Celtic Cross) are better finishers than the Brogue Kick. This segment pretty much just served to show us how much Sheamus isn't taking this ban seriously, which set us up for later when he kicked David Otunga after their match and Booker T came out to declare that if he did it again he'd be stripped of his title. Which at this point I would be okay with. I just don't have any interest in Sheamus anymore at this point. They want to paint him has the new Cena, but first he'd have to be entertaining when he speaks, which I haven't gotten from him in a long time.
3. Storytellers. After commentary stopped on Monday, the other match we got that was silent was Cody Rhodes v. Rey Mysterio. And if there was one match on that card that could tell its story just as well without someone telling us how to feel or think, this was it. As much as I'm tired of Rey Mysterio as a character, and as much as I really don't care for the 619 as a move, he's a good worker. Cody Rhodes is excellent as well, and he's very good at telling the story that's supposed to be told: Who's the hero? Who's the villain? Why is he reacting that way? We didn't need Michael Cole to tell us any of that, so it was a blessing in disguise that these two had to go out after the commentary went dark. They came out, they got interrupted by the Miz, Cody quickly put him down for getting involved, and then he declared without ever having to say anything that he intends to take HIS Intercontinental Championship back.
TNA Impact!
1. Tag Teams, Playas. Hogan gold Kazarian & Daniels that two teams had the right to ask for a rematch, so each one of them would be facing a member of one of the teams to determine which, if any, got a rematch. Naturally, both champions lost, so it looks like we're headed for a Triple-Threat of Kaz & Daniels v. Guerrero & Hernandez v. Angle & Styles. It's not like we didn't see those outcomes coming. Honestly, this was pretty predictable... but then the show as a whole was not all that great.
2. Joseph Parks Thinks He's Onto Something. So right after Hogan told his daughter that he was going to find her two bodyguards and that he wanted her travelling with two men at all times, Joseph Parks showed up to announce to Hogan that he's on the verge of breaking this case with Aces & 8s wide open! He thinks he's got evidence, and conveniently enough, it will arrive next week! The exchange that happened afterwards was sadly the most entertaining part of Impact this week, and that was the delightfully awkward and short conversation between Joseph Parks and Brooke Hogan after Hulk asked him to stay with her and protect her for the evening. Parks was... starstruck, I suppose... and suitably honored. Brooke was just... a little weirded out. Which seems like an illogical state for someone who's grown up being raised with a Nasty Boy as her babysitter.
3. Smark Tease. The main event of the evening was a rematch between Bully Ray and Jeff Hardy from No Surrender (which I also didn't get around to writing about, but was also an overall bland show). Halfway through the show on Thursday, Bully Ray challenged Jeff Hardy to put his spot at Bound For Glory on the line, which he unsurprisingly did. But this was cruel, and maybe I shouldn't label this "Smark Tease" so much as "Heel Fangirl Tease", because I'm sure the real smarks knew that Jeff Hardy would come out on top of this again, because he's Jeff Hardy, and that Bully Ray would be pushed aside for the title yet again... Because Jeff Hardy. Please, please let ONE of these guys be the leader of Aces & 8s.
Friday Night Smackdown!
1. The Intercontinental Title. So we finally have our Intercontinental Title match at Night of Champions, and not surprisingly, the last couple of weeks since Miz & Cody took on Rey & Sin Cara have been setting up for a fatal four-way. With Miz and Cody both in this match, I'm really torn how to feel. Cody, as I said before, is a really good storyteller, and that's why he did so well as the intercontinental champion before. Whenever you saw him with that belt, there was no question that it's a significant honor and needs to be recognized. Miz treats it with almost as much respect, and I feel like his presence has only gotten better recently. I could watch a Miz/Cody rivalry all day long, really. I feel like they're good foils, and it doesn't even matter where their alignment falls. I really like Miz in a champion capacity, so as much as I love Cody, I guess I'm rooting for Miz to retain. I feel like there's more that can be done in his story, and I want to see it continue.
2. Dr. Shelby for Superstar of the Year. When Dr. Shelby showed up on the stage after Kane's match with Kofi Kingston on Friday, at first I wasn't sure what he was trying to convey. And then Mehe yelled, "They're going to hug!!" and it all clicked together. I couldn't place his facial expression because "get back in there and hug that man you just murdered" isn't something we get normally in wrestling. The look on Kofi's face when Kane hugged him was priceless, and appropriately terrified. And Dr. Shelby doing his little golf clap was yet another one of those perfect little details that people take for granted. I feel like he's got more work to do with this pair. A lot more work. But every moment that Kane, Daniel Bryan, and/or Dr. Shelby are on my screen together, all I know is that it's pure magic.
3. Nothing Else Was Really Relevant. Well, okay, Kaitlyn beat Beth Phoenix, which was cool. Randy Orton demonstrated he was Genre Savvy by averting a sneak attack by Dolph Ziggler, which was actually kind of entertaining. Everything else was stupid and had no real bearing on the plot. Daniel Bryan asked for a rematch against Sheamus, since the Brogue Kick is banned now, and that was the main event and it ended in Sheamus putting Daniel Bryan in the Texas Cloverleaf. So... yeah. That's what's taking us into Night of Champions.
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