Very curious to see where both shows progress moving forward. Both of them seemed to take different approaches (apart from the obvious one was excellent and one was mediocre at best).

Raw just unloaded on Monday giving us a big title win by Sasha and hotshotting Finn directly into the main event of Summerslam by beating the US champ and Reigns clean in one night. It was awesome.

Smackdown took a patient approach. We got a video package for American Alpha to debut next week. The entire womens roster came out and introduced themselves after the Becky/Natalya blowoff. I believe every single member of their roster got air time (Raw's didn't, but that could also be due to the thinner roster). It was pretty mediocre (and I'm being kind by saying that).

I mention it because we were told the shows would be booked differently, so I'm interested in seeing if it plays out where Smackdown is much more of a slow burn booked show while Raw is more of the instant gratification one. It of course might not (and I'm not saying one is obviously better than the other).

Seems like there's no reason to go back and watch SD.

I don't even understand what kayfabe reason Dolph was automatically placed in the 6-way instead of having to qualify. By my count, the guy is 3 for his last 14 in PPV matches (not even counting Royal Rumbles).

Kayfabe reason: Smackdown is all about giving the fans what they want

If Smackdown was all about giving the fans what they want, then Corbin and Crews wouldn't have been in the 6-way.

In any case, giving the fans what they want is a silly internal logic here. Not just because it can never be applied consistently, but because the athletes that win competitions earn championships; championships are not just handed to them in some kind of explicit popularity contest.

Good thing this isn't an athletic competition then!

(I do agree that at least giving it the veneer of one is generally a Good Thing, but that's not now nor has it ever been the case.)

It is a scripted/fake athletic competition.

Am I wrong, or is this by far the most underrated theme in the WWE

You're not wrong at all. Most of the best theme tunes around right now are from recent NXT guys - Zayn, Crews, Finn, Bayley, Shinsuke.

I think people are obsessing way too much on the Dolph and Finn things. They're trying something new. Now I won't get my hopes up, but perhaps they'll have good booking that can create stars on SD! So, I'm willing to give it a chance before instantly shooting everything down.

At the same time, AJ took the pin. AJ is a star. AJ should've won. Dolph is in a WWE title match at a SummerSlam ffs. Still, I'm reserving judgment until after SS.

Really hope AJ goes over Cena, CLEAN.

That Apollo Crews music sounds awfully generic to me. Nothing wrong with it in particular, but just would never stand out to me and doesn't have any big-time feel to it.

Basically the theme matches Apollo Crews. Happy, generic undercard character.

After a day to think about it, I still think they did more damage to Ambros/the title than the good it did Ziggler. Ziggler has spent the year on pre-shows getting over new talent. You can't just put him in that spot when he wasn't even mid-card belt worthy last week. Really think that would have been a great spot to go to Cesaro if they were going to do something like that. Do something slower with Ziggler. Turn him heel. Have him working for Steph secretly or something.

I don't think Dolph's victory is based on a new booking philosophy. It is based on the same principle as Ryder winning the IC title at Mania. Beat a guy that some crowd members like over and over, then suddenly give them a big moment. Dolph even talked about the "glass ceiling" that was keeping him down in a promo; same old 'company has been trying to keep me down but here I am!' meta storyline.

Ascension is my vote for that.

I don't think that Ryder and Dolph are that comparable. Dolph's pushes have always been backed by the people in power and apart from time off for healing from injuries, he's always been featured prominently on TV/Raw. Ryder on the other hand had get himself over, get reluctantly pushed for a hot minute, have Cena emasculate his popularity with no comeuppance story, get unceremoniously pushed off the ramp and off TV, and completely put into a joke jobber role. Before WM32 Ryder wrestled on Raw at most twice a year. I don't even particularly like Ryder or his awful videogame wrestling style and I see the difference.

Ziggler has been a JTTS on the lower midcard for a years. He really needed to earn the opportunity to be considered a highcard player again. Ideally, he needs to pick a series of hardfought wins to establish him again, challenge at a lower PPV, or turn properly heel. These, of course, would have been preferable before giving him the SS! WWE title slot.
It is what is now, and at the moment I don't have any ****s to give about that title bout. Dean vs Ziggler would have been bogstandard Smackdown matchup three weeks ago, which you wouldn't even tape. How do they want to elevate this matchup for the title at their second biggest PPV?

I don't think Ryder and Dolph are that comparable either, yet WWE used the same hotshot from the bottom to the top booking tactic (with the meta storyline of 'company has been holding me down') with both of them.

I've compiled some stats on Meltzer ratings this year. Basically I went through all WWE main show PPVs (including roadblock) and wrote down the match rating each wrestler received by Meltzer for that match they were on. Then I took the average of all of those number to get their average match rating by Meltzer this year (Royal Rumble through Battleground).

I did not rate the Royal Rumble or the ARMBAR as those ratings can less be applied to a specific person.

I did not add any "dud" rating and instead marked them blank, as I believe those are mostly non finishes or squashes.

Then I removed everyone that had two or less matches rated.



The results were pretty cool:



1. The superstar with the highest average rating:





2. The superstars with the lowest average rating:




3. The lowest rated superstar that had 4+ matches:




4. The only only people to average 4 stars






Full chart




I know it doesnt actually mean much, but thought it was cool. Also, damn Roman

How do dolph and corbin have diff numbers when all their matches were the same?

ziggler had a 3.25 star match with owens at fast lane and was in the 4.25 star ladder match at mania

'Twas a joke. Nice chart

That's not sarcasm btw

sometimes im good at picking up jokes
sometimes they soar over my head like zack ryders dropkick to kalisto

I had never seen this before. Idk how frequent those post-show bits are but feels like they were just spitballing out there, playing off each other- pretty damn awesome. Those were the days.

Also why The Rock is the undisputed GOAT imo. As much as the fans loved him he may have even been better as a heel. There may have been wrestlers who the fans loved more at their best, may have been better in-ring workers, but no one had the overall range The Rock did. Face, heel, in the ring, on the mic, whatever it was he crushed it.

I always love seeing Austin manhandle Bischoff. He has to get some amount of satisfaction out of that. Being able to call the guy that fired you via Fed Ex a "piece of trash"

Yes the rock is the best talent of all time and I don't think that's debatable.