RAW Deal: Slammy-whammy

GREENVILLE, USA —Here’s a thought worth considering, amidst all the current sound and fury signifying nothing: maybe we should do away with the TLC pay-per-view and just make the Slammy Awards the big December event from here on out.

I mean, think about it. The Tables, Ladders, and Chairs PPV finds itself in the same pitfalls as most themed PPVs in the calendar year in that every match stipulation is forced, whether the rivalry deserves it or not. It might have to be the worst with TLC, with Hell in a Cell coming in second, because of the many different permutations the tables, ladders, and chairs ingredients provide. Ladders and tables matches are an established wrestling trope, but the idea of a chairs match is a silly one that’s still fighting to gain some sort of traction, and now they’ve added a steel stairs match (legit) to maybe increase the show’s variety. (Because the six or so-month wait between Extreme Rules and TLC is too long, apparently.)

And here you have the Slammy Awards, a big event which the WWE only seems to think is actually a big event. If you’re going to pretend that a pro wrestling awards show—especially one that claims to be completely determined by the audience—is a huge deal, why relegate it to a special edition of RAW? Let’s think big! Let’s go all the way here! We don’t want a random plain PPV, but we also don’t want the contrivance that is TLC. For all you know, this could end up being the next bigWWE event, and I mean as big as the Royal Rumble and SummerSlam. 

I’m serious! We could all benefit from this!

As for the actual Slammys this year? Well, generally none of the awards bear any sort of weight (“Slammy winner” probably isn’t something you can put on your resume, whether in pro wrestling or in real life”) but the most interesting result to come out from the awards list is Roman Reigns winning WWE Superstar of the Year.

Now, you could easily believe that these results are 100% fan votes. You could just as easily believe that the votes are actually factored in, but the company still rigs the poll so the winner is whoever they want. Whether the polls are real or rigged, I fail to understand how Roman Reigns, a guy still so limited and who has achieved nothing important through his own merit beyond getting over from looks alone, could bag what is ideally the highest honor on this list. 

It’s understandable if this were purely the company’s opinion, but if it actually came from fans? I’m gonna have to bust out the biggest of Jean Luc-Picard facepalms.

Honestly, there are like five other guys ahead of Reigns on the SOTY list. 

We’ll see you all for NXT Takeover: R-Evolution on Thursday, PWR: Terminus on Saturday, and TLC on Sunday. The huge wrestling week has only begun.

 

High spots:

• The Seth Rollins/Dolph Ziggler match to open the show was terrific, and kept rightfully short so as to not waste any potential. They started in third gear and just wrestled the match in a frenetic pace. You get satisfied but you end up wanting more—hopefully when Dolph and Seth finally feud for real over something.
• If we’re listing down reasons to try and keep watching, the New Day should really be it. All three guys are talented; while not equally, each of them are still reason enough to watch. Kofi is always a treat to watch as well, and I was pleasantly surprised when he pulled out the win against Stardust with a flying crossbody.
• CHARLOTTE ON RAW! Okay, I know that roll-up loss to Natalya deflated a lot of fans, but it has to be defended as the right booking decision. The main roster will always be above the NXT roster on the totem pole, no matter how much better they are, and for good reason: there’s no sense for a developmental talent to beat a main roster talent, especially if said developmental talent isn’t staying on the main show just yet. Had Charlotte won, you’d have expected her to show up on RAW next week; but since she lost, that unpredictability is still up in the air, regardless of whether she is debuting next week or not. It’s the same deal with Sami Zayn going against Tyson Kidd on Main Event. The good thing is, like Zayn, she was booked to look really strong against Natalya, losing only via rollup and not through a deadly Sharpshooter.

• I don’t care what you say about them fighting over a rocking chair, but Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose is finally getting good. I just wish it didn’t take them around six weeks to get to a point in the feud where they just straight up hate each other. Angry Bray > Manipulative Bray, and who’d have thought that all Dean needed to do was destroy the rocking chair?

• John Cena cut a stellar promo tonight. It was no-nonsense and serious but not overacted and plodding. You forget just how good he could be when left to his own devices, and not when he’s being written to play nice and be a hero to other people.
• Damien Mizdow. Full stop.

Low blows:

• Gold & Stardust are losing so much momentum, it’s not even funny. What started out as a promising character development for both brothers stalled in the water, and the worst part is that there seems to be an impending reboot on the horizon.
• While I thought the Wyatt/Ambrose segment was great, I didn’t think the ambulance visual was really needed. When Dean came out from it, I thought they were going to swerve us and turn the match into an ambulance match. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, but the visual is still strange.

• How do we still let Jerry Lawler have anything to do with the Divas?

 

• We should not be wasting Erick Rowan vs. Luke Harper on TV. Any feud between former tag partners is and should always be treated as a big deal.
• So they’re still relying on that Team Cena vs. Team Authority magic to close shows, and honestly, it’s getting really played out. I’m glad that they’re still keeping continuity by maintaining the alliances from Survivor Series, but they really need to find something else by now. And not only is it getting played out, but this unusual lack of logic (wrestling logic, if you will) is still prevailing—you’d think by now, both teams would learn to come to the ring together when making the save for their allies! Never mind that everyone’s just at the gorilla position and going out one by one because that’s a backstage reason, but you’d think that both teams already know how the other team operates. If we’re going to have a rambol to close out every Monday from here on out, YOU MIGHT AS WELL ALL JUST HEAD OUT AT THE SAME TIME!

 

Things you may have missed last week: Lucha Underground had a wonderful mixed tag team match for its main event last week, and when I say mixed tag, I don’t mean two teams of a male and a female battling it out. It’s two dudes versus a guy and a girl, and spoiler alert: if you didn’t already know, Sexy Star could really hang with the best of them. You can go check out the match right here:

Did you miss last week’s RAW? Do you listen to podcasts? Would you want to listen to a local podcast about pro wrestling? If the answers to most of those questions—especially that last one—are yes, then you should check out the cleverly-named Smark Gilas-Pilipinas Podcast—featuring Mellow 94.7 DJ Stan Sy, wrestling writer Romeo Moran, and all-around multimedia guy Raf Camus! On their latest episode, PWR’s dominant faction, the Royal Flush, is back on the show, and leader “Classical” Bryan Leo also hangs around to talk about WWE 2K15, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and a little more about CM Punk. Give it a listen here! – Rappler.com