This Week in WWE – 5 Ups & 5 Downs

5 Ups

1. The Women’s Division on Raw
On this week’s episode of Raw, Bayley and Nia Jax battled it out to determine a new number one contender for Charlotte’s women’s championship. Although Nia remained dominant throughout, an appearance from Sasha Banks would be enough to throw Nia off her game and for Bayley to take advantage, hitting her trademark Bailey to Belly from the second rope and gaining the pinfall. This will prove to be great booking, as we now have a clear split between Banks vs. Jax and Bayley vs. Charlotte leading all the way up to Wrestlemania. So the key point being is, for the first time in a long time for the women, no one is taking a blow, and everyone can gain something from this point forward. A great start to the year for the women on Raw, and hopefully a launching pad for a potentially fantastic year.

2. Dolph turns heel!
On this week’s episode of Smackdown, we saw Dolph Ziggler lose to Lone-wolf Baron Corbin in what was a pretty solid match up. Corbin looked to attack Ziggler post-match with a steel chair, but was intervened by Kalisto, who also brought his own chair to the party. As Corbin swarmed from the ring, Kalisto would turn around in to Ziggler’s sweet superkick. To follow that, Ziggler would enter the locker room and tear it apart in infinite rage, and would proceed to hit a firm headbutt on Apollo Crews’ chin after being confronted by Apollo.
All I can say is – finally. It’s been a very long time coming for Dolph. With a new heel persona, he can lead his way through Smackdown over this year and possibly go for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The ceiling has only gotten higher for him now and the possibilities are endless.

3. Corbin asserts his dominance
These past few weeks have been fantastic for Corbin. Not only did he pick up a clean win over Dolph Ziggler on Smackdown, he would later go on to confront John Cena during his contract signing. For a fan of Corbin as I am, this is a great sight to see, as this looks to be his transition from an upper mid card wrestler to a main event regular. After this confrontation, a match against John Cena has been announced for next week’s Smackdown, so it’s only up from here for the Lone Wolf.

4. Goldberg/Owens/Reigns/Strowman/(Lesnar?)
The debut of The Kevin Owens Show saw special guest Goldberg appear on Raw for the first time since late November, and would prove to be a very interesting state of affairs that has left us with many questions leading towards the Rumble later this month. While Goldberg and Owens were heating up in the middle of the ring, Reigns would make his way down the ring and go face to face with Goldberg, only to then see Heyman come out as a representative for Lesnar. Then, we saw the monster, Braun Strowman, also join the juggernauts that populated the ring. As he entered the ring, he would be hit with a double spear from both Reigns and Goldberg.
Although we won’t most likely see Goldberg until the Rumble, this was a great way to leave his mark before he enters, and shows that not only will there be beef with Lesnar, but also with the likes of Reigns, Strowman and Owens.

5. Dean wins the Intercontinental Championship
In one of the biggest surprises of this week, we saw Dean Ambrose win the Intercontinental Championship after defeating The Miz. Although many may argue with the positives of this, as the popular reign of The Miz is now over, I believe that both men will now go on to gain positives from this. Now that Dean is champion, we can see other heels on Smackdown challenge Dean’s title reign, such as the newly turned heel, Dolph Ziggler. On the other hand, I think we will see the Miz move ahead to greater things on Smackdown, and begin to challenge for the world championship. Early prediction from me; he will win the money in the bank briefcase this year.

5 Downs

1. Owens vs. Rollins and Reigns vs. Jericho.. AGAIN
Last week, Smackdown defeated Raw in ratings last week for the fist time ever, and it’s clear to see why- the repetition of these marquee matches are denaturation Raw audiences and is quickly drawing excitement away from the show. Honestly, from a personal perspective, I’ve lost interest in Raw in the past couple weeks, simply because I’m not actually missing a lot. If I do, I can go and find the highlights on YouTube. Considering we are in the “New era”, we aren’t getting a lot of new. I understand that these four men must be kept relevant, but an attempt to spice things up would add a flavour that the show is desperately in need for.

2. Do WWE have nothing for the New Day right now?
On this week’s episode of Raw, we saw Titus O’Neil twerk with the New Day and take a pinfall at the hands of Xavier Woods. The whole segment was cringeworthy and if you haven’t seen it yet, then don’t bother. Seriously. Considering they were tag team champions not too long ago, this is quite a worrying sight. Although they may be trying to kill time, I don’t know where they could go from here. Sheamus and Cesaro have definitely earned those titles and look to be defending them against The Club, so hopefully we see The New Day find some success away from the titles before they are dead in the water.

3. Silent crowds for the Cruiserweights
TJ Perkins vs. Brian Kendrick put on a stellar match on Raw this week, with Perkins picking up the hard-earned victory. Yet, was hardly appreciated by the Tampa crowd in attendance. I mean the crowds are usually quiet during Cruiserweight matches, but it was drop dead silent throughout, which really bought the tone of the match down. This is a good example of the lack of character building for the Cruiserweights- casual fans do not care. Even with the addition of 205 live, fans just aren’t able to get invested because they know hardly anything about the Cruiserweights, and cliché promos backstage don’t help. It’s not like they’re not trying to build it, but whatever they’re doing isn’t clicking with the audience, and hopefully we can see a shift in momentum going in to the new year. I’d also like to mention that I’d rather have Tozawa go to Smackdown and be on 205 live in contrast to him appearing on Raw would definitely both Tozawa and Smackdown.

4. Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley
Now you could say this is a bit harsh on them both because they haven’t been atrocious at their respective jobs, but neither have they been up to the standards of their Smackdown counterparts. Now let’s not beat around the bush here- Foley is struggling out there, and he has been for a while now. Sure he’s had his really great moments, but he’s also had some moments to forget, last night being one of them. You just get the feeling that you just don’t have to care about them, because they have little to no impact on how the show is run. They could both take a week off and things would run exactly the same, or in some cases, better, which I don’t feel is the same for Smackdown. It’s not fun to watch Foley botch his lines and it’s equally as less fun to hear Stephanie talk overall. Less of this would be great.

5. NXT Live: Australia
I hate to talk down on my beloved NXT, but the past few weeks haven’t been as interesting as we would have wish it could be, even with the pre-assumed excitement of a two-hour special. It simply is just a live event- apart from the phenomenal tag team match between DIY and TM61, it was just a standard live event, and would have definitely been more enjoyable for those in attendance. Not to mention, they decided to re-air the Nakamura vs. Joe steel cage match that had already been aired a few weeks beforehand. However, there isn’t a lot they can do during the Christmas break, so it’s an expert way to kill time before they start taping again.
They only began their tapings for this year yesterday, and it looks as if next week’s episode could very well make up for weeks of fillers.

That is my ups and downs for this week. Hopefully I can make this a weekly blog. Leave comments below with your opinions and thoughts on this weeks ups and downs in WWE.