Read on for my thoughts on yesterday's Superstars and Smackdown.
Superstars:
The opening tag match was pretty good. They could have put in a really pedestrian effort but they didn't. Clay and Tensai make a nice team of quick powerhouses. Hats off to Primo and Epico as well. They're not bad at all; they just kind of get stuck in the "jobber" position.
Otunga vs. Kofi wasn't that amazing. If you take away his posing, Otunga doesn't have much going for him in the ring at all. If he wasn't a good talker and didn't have the Hollywood connection, I could easily see him being stuck in developmental. He's not "bad", but it's clear that he's still a work in progress. I think I'd switch his place on the card with Michael McGillicutty since it's clear that McGillicutty's working hard to earn his keep and wants to contribute. Where's Otunga's "fire"? At any rate, Kofi was impressive as he usually is. I hope Management took note of both men's performances when they decide who to get behind and who should stay as an afterthought.
Smackdown:
Sandow had a solid promo to start the show. The "caca" line from Alberto was dumb. Why must every top babyface be some kind of jokester?
Sandow continues to impress in the ring. No shame in his loss. Both men delivered. I want more like this and less like Otunga, Khali, and Hornswoggle.
Not really crazy that they're redoing the blindfold/arm behind the back thing. I sense another PTP loss in the near future.
Cesaro vs. Miz was pretty solid. Hopefully it silences some of Miz's detractors who think he "doesn't care about his craft" (I've seriously heard this).
Fine segment between Orton and Sheamus.
I liked the Swagger/Colter segment. They're doing a good job of building up the World Title match.
That was an unexpected outcome. That said, it looked like something of a fluke that PTP won. Kind of a clustermess.
Fine post-match to get back on track with the angle that's been kind of inconsistent lately.
Fine Show promo.
I liked the Fandango promo ok. Not sure why he's not debuting tonight unless there was some kind of rewrite and they ran out of time to have him in a match.
Not a bad main event. Obviously it wasn't as quickly paced as Del Rio vs. Sandow, but they did alright.
Interesting segment to conclude the show. I'm curious to see where things go from here.
More wrestling coming up, including hopefully a Blue Echo podcast later in the day.
With your stance on Otunga, I have to unfortunately mostly agree on it. I know we've talked about Otunga a good amount, but a lot of his issue could be his mind frame. I think he's too caught up on the "out-of-the-ring" aspects (movies, red carpet events, tv shows, etc..). Out-of-ring credentials are important with this being World Wrestling ENTERTAINMENT, but his in-ring skill level really hasn't improved much since his debut in 2010. He can't expect to be a force in this industry when his skill level still isn't yet up-to-par. Though John Cena is considered more of an "entertainer" than "wrestler", Cena still has more "fire" and skill in the ring than Otunga currently has to combine with his charisma and star power. Otunga is a bit "incomplete" right now.
ReplyDeleteYou made a good point before that Otunga needs to focus on being a "wrestler" for now. WWE has noted his experience in tv and movies coupled with his personality, so he doesn't need to prove that aspect.
It's like work experience versus education: If someone young has a master's degree and just a couple years of relevant work experience, it makes little sense to go back to school to get another degree. The experience is the weak link, so build on that.
You mentioned last time that your inclination was that PTP would stay where they are currently for the near future. I know you mentioned this win as a possible fluke, but any chance you view this to be a chance for PTP to be in the title hunt? I was shocked at their victory on Smackdown, and I know they have been struggling mightily, but with how fickle WWE is with the ranks of its tag teams, it's interesting to keep watching.
I think the match did make things more logical. It opens up the door again for Bryan and Kane to feud, and if they do feud, the titles would inevitably be handed to another team. Therefore, with PTP winning against Hell No (though Hell No was "handicapped") gives them a chance to be "that team" to win the titles.
One thing I see PTP going for them versus Clay and Tensai is that PTP is one of the only heel tag teams that has gotten decent tv time now that Rhodes Scholars have all bit disbanded. With Hell No being faces, it makes a feud, storyline, or title change more logical in that sense.
One thing is for sure and that's that if PTP won the titles, it proves what we already know in that there is little integrity with previous match history!
Obviously I can't know for sure what Otunga's mindset is, but you could certainly make the argument that he's more about making appearances and being a character than being a wrestler. I've seen fans imply that the only reason he still has a job is because of his celebrity credentials. I think he's notably improved since his debut on NXT, and he's still relatively new to the business compared to others on the roster, but I'd like to see him improve more and work harder. The fact that he has about 18 months of experience advantage over Kaitlyn and she's become a more impressive worker says something to me. She knew she was getting a shot that she was in some ways lucky to get based on her experience, so she made the absolute most of her opportunities.
ReplyDeleteThe major difference is that Cena was a trained wrestler before he got picked up by WWE, and showed fire and skill since his first match on the main roster (it wouldn't shock me if he did really well in developmental, too). Honestly he's still a pretty solid wrestler (though he hardly gets credit for it). Until he got the rapper gimmick, he was pretty much a straight-up wrestling machine with not much of a gimmick.
I think PTP could very well end up champions, but not because WWE thinks highly of them or the titles. They'd kind of "luck out": Hell No's presumably breaking up, The Shield is involved higher up on the card, Rhodes Scholars might be broken up, and Rey Mysterio's basically out of action right now. Even if they become champions, I don't see them getting too much of a push (at least not as much as Hell No and The Shield have gotten). Don't get me wrong; it'd be important and would raise their status, but they'd only be getting them because of those other circumstances.
Kaitlyn is a great example to relate to Otunga. She had her first match on NXT with NO prior training at all and she makes it to the top of the rung in that division. Obviously the men's division is a bit tougher to move up the ladder, but that is still impressive. I think if Otunga had that determination to be a hard in-ring worker like she has, he'd possibly be in better favor with the WWE. I've seen some minor improvements from Otunga in the ring since 2010, but for having three years to improve, minor improvements are not impressive to me.
ReplyDeletePTP gaining the titles but not really receiving the air time and storyline traction that Hell No has gotten is probably what will happen. Notice...just months ago, there was Tag Team Turmoil matches to decide the Championships with a dozen or so teams in contention. It seemed like the Tag Team Division would be back to being credible again. Now, teams are either disbanding or are a victim of injury or violating the drug/PH policy. It's a shame.
I can remember about a year ago when Primo and Epico were champions and also about a year and a half ago or so when Otunga and McGillicutty were champions. Those times are good examples of what could happen with PTP, unfortunately, if WWE cannot come up with good storylines for them. It's usually hit or miss with the tag division in WWE with it being miss fairly often.
On paper, having those titles means a lot, but it doesn't mean too much if you're not gaining much traction as a team. Let's hope that doesn't happen with PTP. You never know with WWE's decision making, however! I think PTP as a team are entertaining and have good storyline potential, but it's up in the air.
Half of a dozen teams in contention***
ReplyDeleteI will say that Kaitlyn had something of an advantage since she had such an athletic background. I think WWE saw so much in Otunga as a character that they were willing to put him out there without much training. Something similar happened with Khali and Sin Cara (though honestly I don't know how much training would have helped Khali, and Sin Cara skipping FCW might have been in his contract). At any rate, I definitely think it's hurt him to not get more work in developmental to improve his game. It's not like they haven't had a lot of people who had made it to the main roster go there to get fine tuning, and it's not like they're doing anything with him now. If they're not going to push him in relation to his movie coming out in under 2 weeks (he hasn't even been on TV to promote it!), they must not think too much of him. So yeah, maybe taking some time off of the main roster to up his game would be good for him.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see a repeat of the reign of Otunga and McGillicutty. Without Hell No, Rhodes Scholars, or The Shield (with Mysterio/Sin Cara questionable), the other teams are: Brodus and Tensai, 3MB (basically jobbers), Primo/Epico (also pretty much jobbers), The Usos (not super credible), Kofi/R-Truth, and CoBro (comedy team). So yeah, not really much for them to do. I don't know how high they are on any team from NXT (no teams are working live events with the main roster at any rate), so that might not be the answer. Pairing up guys who aren't doing anything sometimes works and sometimes falls flat.
At any rate, it looks like the tag team "rebirth" could be at a standstill soon. I always knew that WWE cared more about singles stars, but it seemed like they were really turning the division around there for a while. Maybe after Mania season they bring some more attention back to it.