The following editorial was written by Geoffrey Rowland and does not reflect the opinions of WrestleZone as a whole. We encourage you all to discuss Geoff’s thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this post or by tweeting him @Geoff_Rowland
Raw and Smackdown Live! had to deliver this week to entice viewers in the U.S. to wake up at 5 a.m. (or earlier) to watch Super Show-Down. And both did a pretty good job of leading into the weekend.
The will-he or won’t-he intrigue on RAW with Dean Ambrose and his place in The Shield has really kept a storyline that is dominating every episode fresh. It is probably just a way to drum up interest though, because The Hounds of Justice merch machine seems to have more legs to it and they won’t likely be splitting up anytime soon. There is a good chance that Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler get the win here and The Lunatic Fringe might be to blame in order to build toward The Monster Among Men, Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar Triple Threat at Crown Jewel.
Would not be completely shocking to see the Beast make an appearance, but it would seem odd for Lesnar to fly to Australia and not be advertised, so it probably should not be expected.
Ronda Rousey has hit a little bit of a dull patch. Her meteoric rise to the RAW Women’s Championship built around surprisingly great matches may have raised expectations a little too much as her last couple TV appearances have been choppy.
She still oozes charisma and has as much star power as anyone on the roster, so she will be fine, but Show-Down is a good place for her to get right before whatever is planned for her at Evolution. It is logical to assume she will be in the main event at the all women’s show.
Kevin Owens continues to shine along with Elias in their feud with Bobby Lashley — who is being severely outshined by Lio Rush. But, it is likely that Owens and Elias serve as cannon fodder to Lashley and John Cena in Melbourne as Cena is an attraction the fans there are paying to see win.
The four old timers closing the show was great for nostalgia, but a match between Undertaker and HHH that was billed as the final meeting is clearly now just setting up Saudi Arabia and more of a money grab. It is kind of frustrating to see it going down this way. They should have had the match, then brought in Shawn Michaels and Kane. The match itself can sell, it does not need to feel like a tag team match.
By the way, how clear was it that the Mayor of Knox County really didn’t want to be there Monday night?
And, RAW continues to have the biggest disappointment in writing every week as Finn Balor and his immense talent and charisma is being buried in a mixed-match tag storyline week in and week out. He is far too big for this and it is clear the writers don’t know how to write him out of it, so they are dumping him into the camp with Bayley, another talent they continually miss the boat on.
Balor could easily be in the mix for the Intercontinental Championship if they did not have that tied up unnecessarily in the top storyline. Bringing The Club over to hang out with him in a feud with The Shield would be pretty entertaining wouldn’t it?
