By Graham "GSM" Matthews Intercontinental Champion Big E def. Damien Sandow (Non-title) To my knowledge, these two haven't faced off since their clash over the title at the WWE TLC pay-per-view in December, so this match felt fresh. The crowd was more invested in the action this time around, which might have been due to the fact that this kicked off the tapings on Monday and crowds are always hot for openers. They were given good time and both of them put forth a strong effort. I really wish they would do more with Sandow, but he's been underutilizied for so long that it's probably not even worth whining about at this point. As for Big E, I like the winning streak he's been developing as of late, but he has literally won on every show except for Raw, where wins matter most. What gives? Big E's post-match promo was fine for what it was, but it showed Kofi Kingston def. Titus O'Neil I believe these two met in singles competition on Superstars a few weeks back and O'Neil won, so it would have been nice if the commentators played up the fact that Kingston was out to even the score. Nevertheless, they had a decent enough match and I liked how O'Neil dominated Kingston for most of it. He's built to be a dominant heel, but he hasn't been booked like one since turning a few months ago, so this was encouraging. I didn't mind Kingston winning if only because he got his win back, but the match was meaningless otherwise. Then again, aren't most Superstars matches?
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By Graham "GSM" Matthews Alexander Rusev def. Travis Tyler This was the same standard squash match we've been seeing from Rusev the last few weeks on WWE TV and the last few months for regular viewers of NXT. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't mind Rusev, but his matches obviously aren't the most exciting. He can only compete against enhancement talent for so long before it starts to get old, so I hope to see him transition into an actual feud soon. Charlotte and Sasha Banks def. Divas Champion Paige and Emma First off, I'm fine with the NXT Women's Championship being vacated since Paige might not be appearing on NXT much now that she's on the main roster. Having Charlotte defeat her for the belt in a one-on-one match might have been the original plan given the result of this contest, but tournaments are always fun, too. It's also cool considering Paige won the Women's title in a tournament to begin with. This match was good by Diva standards and Charlotte showed signs of improvement in the ring. Seeing her pin Paige was a pleasant surprise, so one can assume she'll be win the one to win the vacated strap. The dubbed-over commentary was painfully obvious (especially when Paige's entrance wasn't even shown), but they did the best they could with it given the circumstances. By Graham "GSM" Matthews Magnus Called Out Abyss Keeping Magnus off last week's show gave viewers a refreshing break from his character and I liked his promo here. It wasn't anything excellent, but he covered all ground from Eric Young winning the TNA World Heavyweight Championship to Abyss failing to "do his job" as Magnus' lackey. The whole storyline with Magnus and Abyss felt rushed considering they joined forces only a month ago. Does this turn Abyss back face? At least the live crowd were happy to see the split by reacting to the announcement of the match between the two. Also, MVP offering to give Abyss a "full-time spot" on the TNA roster made zero sense since he was already a part of the roster to begin with. Didn't he contend for the title a few weeks back? Kurt Angle def. Rockstar Spud Since this was Angle's first match back from injury, you'd think there would be more buzz around it, but that's nitpicking things. It was the squash match it needed to be with Spud scoring some offense toward the end. It was smart to preserve Angle going into the event given he's coming off injury. The match was nothing of note, but it furthered the feud between him and Ethan Carter III and Willow making the save afterward built toward the tag team match at Sacrifice. By Graham "GSM" Matthews Intercontinental Champion Big E def. Alberto Del Rio (Non-title) As I've said in the past, I enjoy the encounters between Big E and Del Rio because they always work well together. They've had a handful of very good matches in recent weeks, and while this too was a good match, it felt far too short. It only went a few minutes long, but I'm glad Big E was finally able to get a clean win over Del Rio. It's nice that Big E is being built back up before his upcoming title defense at Extreme Rules, but why isn't he picking up these kind of victories on Raw where it truly matters? I can't say I liked Bad News Barrett trashing Big E for his lack of charisma if only because he isn't allowed to show that charisma in his matches. It didn't put Big E in a good light, but at least Barrett garnered good heat from it. Hornswoggle def. El Torito I didn't think it was possible, but this match was even more painful than their last match against each other last week on SmackDown. The lack of crowd reaction to the match spoke volumes, and it's mind boggling to me that WWE doesn't realize that virtually no one cares about this "feud". Comic relief is one thing, but when it isn't enjoyable, it's a complete waste of time. If nothing else, I'd rather see this take up time on Main Event than on Raw. |
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