State Of The WWE Women's Division: August 2017

This will be the last one of these I do. Why not post a pic of my favorite singer? The big developments this month all involve the titles. Both titles on the main roster changed hands. Even the women's title in NXT had to be given up due to injury, although I will not talk too much about NXT.

Just in general, I do not have a problem with either Sasha Banks or Natalya getting title reigns. They are solid in-ring workers that deserved to eventually get them. I just would not have had either woman win it at Summerslam. In the case of Sasha Banks, her feud with Alexa Bliss was just rushed and poorly developed. I would have given her the title after a few weeks of proper build. In the case of Natalya, this should not have been her time at all. There were women that could have made for a better, bigger feud with Naomi at the biggest WWE PPV of the summer. The WWE even did a poor job building the feud to help Natalya look better. Are these writers even here to come up with creative ideas? Or are they just game managers that just put the women out there?

Let me talk about some of these other women outside the title picture. I will start with Smackdown. Becky Lynch and Charlotte are not being utilized right. These are two inaugural titleholders. They sure do not look like it. I would be the first to say Charlotte was overpushed and does not look like she deserves to be centerpiece, but you cannot just put all that work into her and drop the ball so easily on her. At the very least, she can be used to put over other women in properly-built feuds. Becky Lynch is someone I feel has more potential to be the centerpiece, but she is also just floating around.

I have seen some fans ask why Tamina is being pushed. Is she being pushed? You don't need to be in the title picture to be pushed, but is what Tamina is getting even a push? She has that storyline with Lana. Who is even supposed to be the benefactor there? Smackdown has done a terrible job putting focus on individual women since it became its own brand again. Becky Lynch had no proper focus on her prior to winning the title. I just brought up Natalya. Their idea of giving Naomi focus is just having her steamroll Alexa Bliss, despite her injury issues. Where is the proper creative development? I don't even know what to make out of this storyline Tamina and Lana are getting. Given Smackdown's history of tossing the title around, including rumors that Eva Marie was supposed to get a title reign, either one of these two women could get a title run. And neither of them deserves it. Outside of that, what is the payoff of this angle? They turn on each other? Not too interesting.

Carmella still has the briefcase and is hovering with it. I think she will win the title. And she should. Start the women's briefcase on a good foot. The WWE already failed to do that with the Ellsworth fiasco, but the WWE can avoid other mistakes going forward. Will Carmella cashing in on Natalya be a big deal? Maybe they should wait for a new face to win the title and Carmella cashes in on her. That could be either Becky Lynch or Charlotte. Naomi should not get the title back anytime soon. One thing that would be nice is to just have Carmella take a step back from trying to cash in. Let Natalya and Naomi, and whomever else, have a proper feud between themselves. Let Carmella feud with one of the other faces right now. Not only will that be good for Carmella, but it gives another woman something meaningful to do. You look at the men that have won the briefcase over years. They were not always this plastered to the title scene from the moment they got the briefcase to when they cashed in. They had other feuds. Do that with Carmella. Right now, the story being Carmella wants to cash in is just too easy.

Let me just say something general about the way Smackdown does things. I see a lot of fans giving Smackdown praise for giving all the women things to do. There are various reasons why it is not good, like an injury here and there possibly messing things up a lot. But let me bring up another. Just because these women have something to do does not mean they have something meaningful to do. It is like going to school, finding out the teacher is absent, and the substitute gives you busy work because the regular work plan was not left. Are the students getting something to do? Yes. Are they getting something meaningful to do? No. These women on Smackdown might be getting used regularly, but a lot of these feuds and storylines are just terrible. There is a lot of underutilized women. The writers are not really creating greatness. They are just sticking women in situations and having them work. They need to do more for these women. All the multi-women matches Smackdown has gone to far too much in the past year is an example of that laziness.

Onto Raw. Outside of the title feud, what is there really to talk about? Not much. Emma is getting an angle, though. She is getting TV time and is getting focus. Yeah, she is losing, but it is not unusual for these kind of angles to end in title reigns. The WWE should keep the title on Sasha Banks and have her defend it against Emma, and eventually drop it to her. That should quiet the fans complaining about Emma not getting a chance. There was a time when I would agree with them. But looking at Emma getting time recently, even if losing, that is better than what some people are getting. The fact is, Emma is getting a chance. If she has really won fans over like the people on Twitter might make you believe, have the live audiences roar for her. Have them regularly chant for her during other women's segments. Make her the female Daniel Bryan. The WWE is actually putting her out there for it to happen. Is she going to step up and get more over? Or is she just going to rest on her Internet popularity and give the WWE a reason to not follow up with her?

Mickie James has been seeing a little more TV time in the last month, since Bayley got injured. If Bayley had not gotten injured, I do not think Mickie James would have gotten what usage she has gotten. Bayley would be tied up with Alexa Bliss. Sasha Banks is the next priority in Raw's women's division. They would have found something for her. Maybe she would be the one working against Emma. Emma has just been going between losing to Mickie James and Nia Jax on Raw recently. Dana Brooke is obviously not good enough to push as priority above Sasha Banks or Bayley. Mickie James still lacks a legitimate storyline, but she is still around.

And what about Nia Jax? As far as I am concerned, she is still on probation. If she cannot keep it safe for at least the rest of the year, she should be fired. She is not a great worker. She currently does not have a proper feud. Should it be against Mickie James? Or does the WWE want to keep some women open to continue the angle involving Emma? Regardless, she will get TV time. I just hope she keeps it safe in the ring.

Outside of how the women are being utilized, how are the fans reacting to them? I think there is a problem. Everyone knows about the bad reactions Bayley would get. Even Sasha Banks has experienced a negative reaction at times. Is that just the Brooklyn audience? I am from Brooklyn, so I know how bad they can be. The Four Horsewomen, the NXT elite, all look bad right now. The two on Smackdown are not doing anything important. One of the two on Raw is injured, and has issues connecting with the fans. The other one got the title in a poor feud, and her own overness is in question. I remember getting my head bit off when I said these women were not that over. They were treated like automatic legends in NXT, but the main roster is something else. And it is not just them. All the women can be doing better.

Is it just the smarks? Smarks love heels. But the answer cannot be to just turn Sasha Banks heel. Heels do that edgy stuff that smarks typically love, but there will still be some fans that will not care.

I will say the issue is the women's revolution. It was fine when it first started and even last year. But it is time to stop talking about it and basing so many feuds and segments off of that. It is great that you are going to treat the women better, but stop talking about it. It is abrasive. Moreover, you might start wondering why you need to promote your good deeds so much. Is it just for the sake of your own ego? When Stephanie McMahon was plugged too much into the women's revolution the year it started, it definitely looked like an ego thing. Are you exploiting the situation? The WWE is definitely exploiting it in terms of promoting it and stroylines. Is this really a draw?

It is just not entertaining. TNA could run a respectable women's division without promoting too much that it was respectable. Did they promote it now and then and even use it for the sake of angles? Yes, but they did other things, as well, and did not do as terrible a job with it as the WWE. This is the reason some women like Lana and Alexa Bliss have gotten better reactions during the women's revolution era than you might think they should have. They are actually entertaining the audience, while these female wrestlers are doing their self-righteous screaming. The WWE needs to step back and make things fun again.

Look at the NFL. Last year, they had a dip in the ratings. Of the many reasons given, including it being an election year, some people said the NFL was just not fun anymore. Too many flags. Players were penalized for having fun out there and putting emotion into what they did. What has the NFL done this year? They are being less strict with touchdown celebrations. Players will have more freedom to enjoy themselves. It remains to be seen if viewership will increase for them, but this decision should bring some fun back into the game.

And that is exactly my point. The NFL realized that they should not stifle the enjoyment. That enjoyment is contagious. If players are having fun, that energizes the audience, both the live audience and the viewers at home. How about the WWE starts realizing that? Be fun again. Stop with the feminist screaming. I believe women should be treated fairly and equally, but making that the theme of the women's division is not fun. That is why some fans are dead for what is going on, or even completely sour for what is going on. The writers need to step up and create storylines that are more enjoyable. Enough of the complaining. The WWE will not be having women in their bra and thongs running around, but that does not mean they should not occasionally do some of the fun things that women used to do in the diva era. Face it, the diva era is not completely dead. Alexa Bliss holding the title was pretty much a throwback to Trish Stratus in the diva era. The WWE does not have one woman that is connecting with fans at an A+ level. I think some of these women have potential to be that great, but they need to step up and the WWE needs to do a better job pushing them. And, needless to say, certain arrogant fans need to give things a chance. Maybe the WWE will never be able to fix the problem. Some fans are just terrible.

Too Top Heavy

Next week will be by last few days blogging. I want to spend it just talking about the women. That makes today the last day I will talk about the men, unless something huge happens with the men next week that I have to spend a day talking about that.

I want to talk more about one of the WWE's big problems these days. The midcard just seems non-existent. It is rare to see a proper midcard feud. A lot of great things can happen in the midcard, but it just isn't right now.

The big reason for the terrible treatment of the midcard is that there are too many top guys. That is to say, too many former World Champions. There is no written rule that a person that wins a top title automatically becomes a priority. Jack Swagger was certainly pushed inconsistently even after his World Championship win. Regardless, these days, the WWE is trying to keep former World Champions relevant.

And where are they keeping them relevant? The main-event scene can only hold so many people. These guys just have to spill out in other areas. And that is what is going on. The Intercontinental Championship has been held by former World Champions for over a year now. The United States Championship has been held by former World Champions for almost a full year now. Look who is holding the tag titles on Raw, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, two former World Champions.

It is like the WWE cannot find a way to keep these top guys relevant unless they are chasing or holding a title. Dean Ambrose transitioned into an Intercontinental Championship feud not too long after losing the WWE Championship. After AJ Styles lost the title, he had a brief feud with Shane McMahon, but then found himself in another title feud, this time for the United States Championship. How about Kevin Owens losing the Universal Championship and quickly getting the United States Championship? I don't criticize the writers as much as most fans, but the writers have to come up with ways to keep these guys relevant without giving them midcard title feuds. In a lot of cases, the feuds just lack much creativity. They are lazy.

What are other former World Champions doing? They are getting feuds with guys that you would consider midcarders. But in a lot of cases, it seems like a lot of these midcarders are only there to put over these former World Champions. Look at Rusev and the amount of jobbing he has done in the last year to Roman Reigns, John Cena, and Randy Orton. I am not saying the guy should be a World Champion. That would only make things harder to manage. I am saying the guy should be used as a proper midcarder. Even if he beats these top guys, what is the point if the WWE has no intention to follow through. Rusev doesn't get elevated and a top guy just jobbed for no reason.

Aside from midcarders just used as jobbers to the stars, there are a couple of them that do not even feel like midcarders. Call them upper-midcarders, then. I am talking about guys that are being groomed to potentially be World Champions or big deals. Jason Jordan looked like one of those guys, unless his push flopping hurts him. I have seen some people talk about Big Cass like he was going to be a main-eventer. He's injured. And you can't even consider Nakamura as a midcarder. He's already someone that feels like he will be a top guy. The same with Bobby Roode. These guys have not even held a World Championship on the main roster, but they are still priorities.

With so much time taken up, where do the midcarders shine? Time has to go for the World Champions, the women, the tag division, possibly the cruiserweights, and then all these priorities I just mentioned. If the midcarders aren't working with top stars, whether as jobbers to the stars or to be groomed as stars, they likely won't get anything or will soon get lost in the shuffle. These guys are pushed more as upper-midcarders. The actual midcard is poor. There are guys that can be pushed there that belong there, but they are not utilized right.

Aside from possible backstage issues,  this is why a lot of guys are mistreated. It is like the WWE is performing triage, determining the priorities of their roster, and the ones left over don't just include old jobbers like Goldust. They include guys that some wrestling fans want to see pushed, like Luke Harper. Even guys that do reportedly have backstage issues might get camera time, like Enzo. For now, however, that's in the cruiserweight division. What about guys who are not so lucky? Creative just has nothing for them.

Continuing to hand out too many World Championships to new wrestlers does not make the problem easier. That just creates more priorities. I have seen people talk about how having former World Champions like Miz and AJ Styles hold midcard titles elevates the titles. It seems to elevate these titles out of the reach of midcarders. It also seems to lead to midcarders getting treated poorly. I have also seen fans complain about multi-man matches. With all these priorities, the WWE has to do it. Throw in the fact that the WWE isn't high on annual mass releases anymore, and they are usually unlikely to release former World Champions, unless they do something to get fired or want to be released. Too many people to manage.

It is sad these days that some people cannot appreciate someone getting a push without a title needing to be involved, especially in the midcard. Create some entertaining gimmicks. Create some intriguing storylines. Just run with it. There are all these gimmicks coming up from NXT. In a lot of cases, instead of the gimmicks shining, it is either about using the person as a jobber or immediately hyping them up to be a star. Creative interest matters more than hype for midcarders. And they are not getting it.

Cena Vs. Reigns

The big news for Raw this week was John Cena showing up. Not only that, but it seems they are already laying down the seeds for a feud between Cena and Roman Reigns.

Is it the right time for this? Obviously, it is the previous era's centerpiece vs. the new centerpiece. And I am not even talking about the time of year, such as whether or not they should save this for Wrestlemania. John Cena was WWE Champion just a couple months ago this year. Roman Reigns has not won a major title in over a year. Roman Reigns is on a terrible PPV losing streak. John Cena has been winning his last few PPV matches. Overall, John Cena has a good PPV record for 2017. Roman Reigns does not. Roman Reigns just does not look good for this feud.

Right now, Roman Reigns is really just all hype. They are still treating him like he is some top dog, but the booking just doesn't support it. He just lost at Summerslam, being the one Lesnar pinned to retain the title. Since they are not currently continuing the feud with Braun Strowman, it is safe to say Strowman won that feud with Reigns. I have said this before, some people might still buy into Roman Reigns just because of that hype, but the booking might leave some people saying he just sucks. The WWE just has not been doing a good job with him as centerpiece. And if they are not going to start doing it, it is just annoying to continue to hype this guy up like they do.

What about Cena? Should he have stayed on Smackdown? Personally, I still say he should have gotten a feud with Jinder Mahal. But Smackdown should be fine without him. There are a couple disgruntled people on Smackdown that deserve to be used better that may get it with John Cena no longer around. And the WWE can pull talent up from NXT. Smackdown will be fine.

Previewing The Summerslam 2017 Main Events

Speaking of lackluster feud development, how about that Jinder Mahal vs. Shinsuke Nakamura feud? This is the WWE Championship match. The two don't even look like they are really feuding. This is terrible. The WWE should have put a lot more work into Nakamura.

Let me go back to another Summerslam title change. In 2004, Randy Orton defeated Chris Benoit for his first World title. I was a big Orton fan back then. I watched that PPV and was glad he won. Thing is, looking back, the feud development was not that great. Most would also say that Orton's reign flopped. There are many reasons why it was not better, including Triple H still being the centerpiece back then. Point is, many might argue Orton was not ready to be Champion back then. Keep in mind, however, that he did have a good run with the Intercontinental Championship prior to his bigger push. He also had a memorable feud with Mick Foley that included a great match that some might say helped him to break out.

What does Shinsuke Nakamura have to say for himself? Let's ignore NXT. Too much attention is often put on the WWE's developmental brand, which the general audience does not even watch. What has Nakamura done since coming to the main roster? No title reigns. His PPV performances and booking have not been that spectacular. He just doesn't look like a big deal. You can say his match with Cena a few weeks ago was supposed to be where he broke out. Even ignoring the terrible botch in that match and whose fault it was, it just didn't feel like that match accomplished what it was supposed to do. And there is a chance this guy might actually win the title this Sunday? It would be an even worse decision than Randy Orton in 2004.

Speaking of bad decisions when it comes to title wins, the alternative to Nakamura winning the title is Jinder Mahal retaining the title. I have seen fans get upset with the WWE having Mahal lose cleanly recently, and I'm not even talking Indian fans or Canadians. Why shouldn't Jinder Mahal lose cleanly to faces that are above him? He's a heel. He's a non-monster heel. There is no excuse not to have him lose now and then, especially cleanly. If that hurts his appeal and WWE Network subscriptions with certain demographics, so be it. It would have to happen eventually. That makes these kind of pushes even more questionable. They won't be sustained. And what happens then? The WWE is going to hope that the Mahal fans might get interested in something else, but when the whole product is so terrible and stars are not built and featured right, the WWE is still underachieving. And while the WWE is so busy pleasing these demographics, they are making bad decisions that turn away other fans.

This match is pretty much about appealing to Japanese and Indian fans. Who will win? Jinder Mahal to sell tickets for an Indian tour? Or Shinsuke Nakamura to help his merchandise sales? That seems to be the WWE's driving mentality these days. It sure isn't proper feud development and building stars properly. Jinder Mahal should retain the title. It could be by DQ or something like that.

Four big men will go at it for the Universal Championship. There was a time when smarks hated big men getting pushed so much. I don't see too many complaints for this feud. These fans love Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman, especially when he's killing Roman Reigns. And this is just a ripe situation for Brock Lesnar to drop the title. There is a good chance he will leave. Multi-man match, which means he does not have to be pinned. Which of the three challengers should get it?

Let me start with Braun Strowman. Since Summerslam last year, five men have won their first top title in the WWE. Finn Balor and Kevin Owens won the Universal Championship. AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt, and Jinder Mahal won the WWE Championship. The WWE definitely needs to slow down. The only reason for Strowman to win the title would be to drop it to Reigns, which might make storyline sense. Reigns has gotten knocked around by Strowman for a while now. Not only can Reigns finally get a decisive win against him, but he might win the title in the process.

Samoa Joe is another guy that stands a chance to win his first top title in the WWE. I am not counting NXT. Once again, I will say the WWE needs to slow down. This guy just debuted a few months ago. I have heard the rumors that certain people in the WWE want Samoa Joe to get the title. Smarks would love it. It was one thing for AJ Styles to win the WWE Championship in his first year on the main roster, but not every smark favorite needs to do that. Samoa Joe could do it at Summerslam, as well as Nakamura. Bobby Roode might be rushed to a title reign when he debuts. It is all disgusting.

As I have pointed out before, Roman Reigns has not held a top title in over a year. All he has had is a midcard title run. Also take into account his PPV losing streak. Even before Wrestlemania, his year was not that great. He lost twice at the Royal Rumble, once to Kevin Owens and then losing the Royal Rumble. This guy does not look like a centerpiece at all. If you are going to hype him like he is the centerpiece, it would make sense to push him as the centerpiece. If not, move on to someone else. If this weak treatment is not working in shutting up his haters, many of whom seem ignorant to the fact that he hasn't been pushed that hard in the last few months and for most of the past year, then stop doing it.

I do feel like a title change will happen. I would say it should be Roman Reigns. I am not a fan of the guy. But if you are going to push him as the centerpiece, he needs to get back on track. They are just damaging him, even if it is unintentional. There are some fans, usually kids, who will buy into the hype, even if the booking does not match the hype. But there are a lot of other fans that will hear the WWE talk about how great Roman Reigns is, see Reigns put himself over, see other wrestlers put him over, and then see the guy just lose every big match he has had in the last few months and not hold a top title in over a year. What are they going to say? That this guy is overrated. I wouldn't be too surprised if the WWE gives the title to someone else in the match and Reigns wins it down the line, but the WWE should just stop the poor booking now and put the title back on him.

Previewing The Summerslam 2017 Undercard Matches

A complaint I see from many fans recently is that the WWE was giving away too much of Summerslam this past week. They have had some matches that are supposed to also happen at the PPV. With the poor way a lot of the Summerslam matches have been developed, I am not too surprised that the WWE would try to shake things up in the final week before the PPV. That includes what happened to Baron Corbin on Smackdown.

New Day defend the Smackdown Tag Team Championships against The Usos. Nothing much to say here. New Day retain.

The Raw Tag Team Championships will be decided between Sheamus & Cesaro and the reunion of The Shield. Not only are the tag titles on the line, but there is a story here. I like that. I was just saying yesterday that some title feuds don't need a special story, while others can really use it. New Day vs. The Usos didn't need a special story. Just make it about the tag titles, let their gimmicks work, and then let them wrestle. With this Raw feud, there was potential for a story. Some might even say the story was necessary. Rollins betrayed The Shield years ago and Rollins and Ambrose had a heated feud. Could these two really come back together so easily? Should they win the tag titles? Some fans are already talking about the possibility of Ambrose turning on Seth. Too soon for that. Neither Rollins nor Ambrose have won a PPV match in a while, so I say they get the tag titles at Summerslam.

Akira Tozawa defends the Cruiserweight Championship against Neville. This was supposed to be Neville defending the title, but things got switched around when the WWE had the title match on Raw this week and allowed the title change. This was one of those matches that fans were scratching their heads about. This was a pretty dull feud. A lot of things about the cruiserweight division has been boring. If nothing else, having the unexpected title change shook things up. I would not be surprised at all if Neville wins it back at Summerslam. The WWE has shown they love this guy this year. They put a hold on tossing the title to random cruiserweights for his benefit. He has had a long reign. But he could very well become the first man to hold the title twice. Even though short reigns like this are rare, I will say Tozawa's reign does end.

Staying on Raw, Big Show vs. Cass. Enzo will be in a shark cage above the ring. They just did this with Jericho earlier in the year. I would say it is too soon to pull this trick out again. Prior to this year, it wasn't exactly used often in the WWE. Looking at parts of Cass's promo on Raw this week, he looks like he could be the next Edge. But he is missing something. I am not talking about his wrestling ability, even though that has not been that exciting. His promos just lack a certain intensity Edge had. And Big Show is tied into this situation. The WWE is already running a bit of an injury angle to make it look like Big Show is beatable. He should be losing this match. What will Enzo do? I think it would be for the best if he just turns heel and goes back with Cass. What else is there for Enzo to do?

Staying on the theme of Summerslam matches coming early, Bray Wyatt defeated Finn Balor on Raw this week. What happens at Summerslam? Demon Balor. This feud has been pretty dull, until this week. It started, then it got killed off. If they had done it smoothly, the match on Raw this week probably would have happened at the last Raw PPV. The WWE could then do a slower build to Balor going to his dark side to face Bray Wyatt. Things have definitely been rushed. But the WWE probably needed to do it. Balor wins here. Have to keep this gimmick looking strong.

Randy Orton vs. Rusev. This is one of those dry feuds. Not too interesting. I feel it could have been built up so much better. Even though signs point to Rusev possibly winning, I will say Orton wins. I will say why in a moment.

AJ Styles defends the United States Championship against Kevin Owens. Shane McMahon will ref. Is that really necessary? Well, it is what they are going with. These two have been feuding for a long time now. It should end here. AJ Styles retains.

Lastly, John Cena faces Baron Corbin. But the big news is that Baron Corbin cashed in the briefcase on Smackdown this week and lost. That's the end of that. This was one of those things that fans felt was wasted this week before Summerslam. Is Corbin in the doghouse? Is he suspended? No news of a suspension. And even if the WWE is not high on him, they could have still jobbed him out at Summerslam or a later date.

I was against Baron Corbin getting the briefcase in the first place. Needless to say, the WWE did not do that great of a job building him up since getting the briefcase. His feud development in the last month has been terrible. His feud against Shinsuke Nakamura should still be going on. This feud with Cena just lacked a great story. It just felt like both guys could have been doing something better. John Cena did have a small hand in Corbin failing to cash in, but the feud is still not that special. Pretty lackluster.

Who wins? I will say Baron Corbin. Unless he did do something wrong, he should get the win. John Cena has not done that well at Summerslam in recent years. Baron Corbin might even destroy Cena after the match to send him on his next hiatus. The reason I said Orton beats Rusev is because I do not see both Orton and Cena losing to midcard heels in the same night. If one of them has to bite the bullet, I will say it is Cena. Orton has not won a PPV match since Wrestlemania. Cena beat Rusev just last month.

Previewing The Summerslam 2017 Women's Championship Matches

First of all, August 31st will be my last day blogging.

Onto Summerslam. There seems to be an overall theme with this PPV. So many of the feuds heading into this Sunday just feel underdeveloped. Considering this is one of the WWE's big four PPVs of the year and their biggest of the summer, the mediocrity is a little surprising. Both of the women's title matches are in this category.

Let me start with Raw's title match. It was obviously supposed to be Bayley getting this push. I would not have gone to her, but that is what the WWE chose to do. The WWE obviously had some time to work a story between Bayley and Alexa Bliss. They could continue the same story from the last time they feuded a few months ago, even though it was a pretty bad story. Problem is, Bayley got injured. The WWE was now in a tough situation. It was obvious Sasha Banks was the woman to push. She even won the title opportunity this week. Problem is, no time is left to develop a proper story between Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss. All you have is a basic title feud. This is exactly what you had when these two feuded for the title before Bayley got put back into the picture. It is very dull.

I am surprised the WWE doesn't go with the obvious story. Have Sasha Banks call Alexa Bliss out for hurting the women's revolution. Alexa Bliss represents the diva era. Sasha Banks is all about the women's revolution. I see a ton of fans on the Internet blaming Alexa Bliss for the quality of the women's division taking a dive recently. I am not denying Alexa has her fans, but she has her critics, as well. The WWE is not ignorant to the Internet and social media these days. They have to know that a lot of fans dislike how Alexa Bliss is pushed. They know all about Twitter wanting Emma to get a chance. But the WWE seems scared to run with the obvious storyline, so they go with this story-less feud between Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss. I guess they do not want Alexa Bliss to look weak, even though it would be up to her to prove she really can hang with Sasha Banks. Some fans were impressed with their last match. I don't think the WWE really has an excuse for not doing better between Alexa Bliss and Sasha Banks.

Who wins? Once again, Sasha Banks was obviously not even supposed to be in the story right now. The WWE could have Alexa Bliss retain here and eventually drop the title to Bayley or Sasha Banks, after the feud between Sasha and Alexa actually becomes more heated. I would pick Sasha. The sooner the title goes to a face, the more likely Emma finally gets a title feud. Whether she wins it or not is not the issue. The WWE should just go with it for the sake of freshness, to give Emma a chance, and to shut up a whole bunch of people on this issue. Right now, though, Alexa Bliss should retain.

What about Bayley? Should she just get pushed again as soon as she returns? Fans have soured on her in recent weeks. I would say part of the problem is that they made her look terrible in her feud against Alexa Bliss, then decided to just push her again after she was wrecked. You can't treat someone terribly and expect the fans not to sour on them. The WWE humiliated Mickie James terribly a number of years ago. They probably would have loved it if her overness did suffer. It would have made Michelle McCool look like a stronger heel and made Mickie easier to toss aside. But Mickie James was genuinely over with the overall audience back then in a way Bayley is not right now. Even though the WWE did not intend to ruin Bayley, because there really was no good reason to, that is what they did. I do not think the answer is to turn her heel. Give her a secondary storyline. Build her back up slow. Do not toss her back against Alexa Bliss and certainly do not toss her back into a feud that makes her look like garbage. Doing this kind of thing with Roman Reigns a few years ago actually did him some good. When he stopped getting his monster push, his hate lessened a little. If the WWE gives Bayley an angle that actually presents her as fun and entertaining, that might warm up her overness again.

Onto Smackdown. Raw actually has an excuse for their women's title feud being mediocre. Smackdown does not. It will be Natalya vs. Naomi. Natalya is not the woman I would have went with. I have said this before. At a big PPV like Summerslam, the WWE should have just created a better feud. Even though it would have created a face vs. face situation, I would have gone with Charlotte, or even Becky Lynch. Becky was the first Smackdown Women's Champion, who has not done anything too important in months. Charlotte was the first Raw Women's Champion, who has not done anything too important in months. But both these women could have made for more high-profile feuds than Natalya getting the title shot.

Even though I would not have gone with Natalya, I really expected the WWE to do better with her these last few weeks to develop some kind of good feud between her and Naomi. They have not. Part of the problem is that the WWE has to feature Carmella and the briefcase. Carmella defeated Naomi last week. The week before that, Naomi defeated Carmella in a tag match. More focus needs to be put on Natalya. Smackdown is tonight, but I am not expecting anything too grand to make up for the mediocrity. I really expected better from Smackdown. They have taken workers that were not pushed well and made them look like bigger deals at times since last year. There are some exceptions to this, like Jack Swagger, but I would have expected better with Natalya for the sake of this feud. Ignoring Carmella and the briefcase, this is just a mediocre title feud between Natalya and Naomi.

Who wins? I am all for Natalya getting a push and even winning the title. Now is just not the right time. Natalya is still somewhat young. She is 35. I can see her lasting another few years, and she should be getting a "thank you" run at least down the line. Right now, it should be about women that are fresher and have more credibility. This is Summerslam. This feud was not worthy of this event when it started and they have not developed it to be worthy of this event since then. Naomi should not lose the title to Natalya.

Bigger question, should Carmella cash in and win? Yes, I think she should. Naomi has held the title for a couple months now. This is even her second reign this year. There are no good heels for her to feud with. Becky Lynch and Charlotte are the one that should be getting the title feuds. But if the WWE doesn't want to do face vs. face, a heel needs to get the title as soon as possible. Natalya is not that heel. Carmella is just the fresher option. Just have the submission specialist work over Naomi's leg, or whatever body part. Naomi manages to pull out the victory. Carmella sees Naomi hurt and cashes in to win it.

Overall, these are just two title matches that have had mediocre build. They are nothing more than basic title feuds. Again, ignore the briefcase for the Smackdown women's feud. Just looking at Natalya vs. Naomi and Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss, the feuds are not interesting. There are times when the WWE shouldn't get too fancy with title feuds. Just let it be a title feud. I would say that was the case for Sheamus & Cesaro vs. Gallows & Anderson from earlier in the year. The WWE tried to get too fancy with referee nonsense and it just was not needed. Just let these guys fight. That is their strengths. But I would say the WWE needed to do more with these two women's title feuds. This is Summerslam. These aren't kickoff-worthy matches. The feud between Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss just felt like it had potential to be more than it is. Natalya needed better focus than she has gotten to make this feud seem like a bigger deal. The WWE is treating Summerslam almost like a Wrestlemania this year, but a lot of these feuds do not look worthy. And I'll be bringing this theme up again in the next few days.

Randy Orton Finally Beats Jinder Mahal

Randy Orton defeated Jinder Mahal in a non-title match on Smackdown last week. It was in Toronto, Mahal's hometown. I see some fans unhappy with the result. They say it made Mahal look weak.

I do not see a problem with it, in terms of making Jinder Mahal look weak. Randy Orton lost to him three PPVs in a row. Jinder Mahal was going to put him over eventually. It is only fair. As for it being in his hometown, Jinder Mahal isn't exactly someone that deserves to be treated like royalty. If he wasn't getting his monster push, most people in Toronto, and even India, would not care too much for him.

I will say that I do not like that the WWE has not invested more in Jinder Mahal vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. That is the title feud. It is not the title feud I would have went with, but they went with it. If that is the way it goes, at least put better work into it. This is the last week before Summerslam.

Meanwhile, Randy Orton is feuding with Rusev. Rusev attacked Orton after his match. Once again, however, I feel like the WWE could have done more with this feud. These two could have had a proper feud, but I feel it was just tossed together the way the WWE handled it. Poor feud development just seems to be a theme for Summerslam this year.

Roman Reigns: The Worst Centerpiece In Decades?

Roman Reigns is supposed to be the guy. He is supposed to be the centerpiece. This is supposed to be the top full-time star of the entire company. When I look at how he has been pushed in the last year, he doesn't look like it.

The WWE spent some time grooming him. You can say negative fan reactions led to his push being stalled. It took him a while to finally win the WWE Championship. Even then, it only lasted a few minutes. His next reign, coming after fans were a little more on his side, only lasted a few weeks. And then his third reign only lasted a few months. He has not regained a top title since that third reign. All he has had is a run with the United States Championship. Not only has he not held a top title since last year, he has not even won a PPV match since Wrestlemania. I ask you, is this how you push a centerpiece?

You can bring up John Cena taking time away from the title and having losing streaks. Thing is, a lot of that has come in recent years, when Cena has now become a part-timer and is no longer the centerpiece. He is not even the centerpiece of Smackdown. And even if you go back to when Cena had these dry periods years ago, it came after Cena had already gotten a number of title reigns and some lengthy title reigns that really defined him. What has been the defining title reign for Roman Reigns? He hasn't had it. And I don't need to say too much about Triple H and Austin during their respective runs at the top. They were certainly pushed better than Reigns.

The WWE can have Roman Reigns go out there and give these promos where he still talks like he's the guy. Commentators can even make it sound like he is the guy. In Vince McMahon's mind, Roman Reigns may even still be the guy. I don't read minds. I read actions. I read how these workers are pushed in relation to each other and over time. And the WWE might be fooling themselves. They have not put the work into Roman Reigns recently. There are some fans that will eat up hype very easily and buy into Roman Reigns just because the WWE tells them to. But there are a lot of fans out there that are going to see that this guy has not been a top Champion in over a year and has not won a big match in months. To make matters worse, he has not really been the star of any great storylines. John Cena was a major focus in many storylines over the years, like the Nexus angle. Roman Reigns and his off-and-on feud with Braun Strowman is not really a creative storyline. Even his Wrestlemania feud with The Undertaker was pretty pathetic. It was so pathetic, I cannot believe that is how The Undertaker's career will end. They are just really failing to present Roman Reigns as a proper centerpiece.

You can say part of the reason for having Roman Reigns not hold the title and lose so much in the last few months is to appease his haters. They don't seem appeased. I see fans talking about this guy like he is overpushed. He hasn't held a top title in over a year. He hasn't won a PPV match in months. He is not even a part of a storyline where he is shoved down your throat. The WWE should not be wasting time trying to please these fans.

If not Roman Reigns, then who? Who is the centerpiece of Raw? Who is being pushed like the centerpiece should? Not Brock Lesnar. He is not around enough to be considered the centerpiece. None of the full-time guys look like the centerpiece. Seth Rollins had a big win against Triple H at Wrestlemania, but he has fizzled out rather easily. No one man looks like the top guy. It is just a juggling act.

Let me bring up Smackdown. Who is the centerpiece there? Once again, I would say no one. John Cena is a part-timer. Randy Orton had a big Wrestlemania win and has been losing at every PPV since. Certainly not Nakamura or Jinder Mahal. No, I have not forgotten AJ Styles. He has gotten a decent push since coming to Smackdown, but if he was the centerpiece, he would not be out of the WWE Championship picture so easily. You can talk about elevating the United States title all you want, but I doubt AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens stands a good chance to close Summerslam. Granted, no Smackdown match seems to stand a chance to close Summerslam. Smackdown does not have a centerpiece.

During the diva era, you would have these dark ages, usually when you had no centerpiece around. Without one person the WWE was interested to build around, they just made do with what they had and went all over the place. In a way, stars were born during dark ages. Lita and Trish were created during the first dark age. AJ Lee was a product of the second dark age.

You can say that the entire company is in a dark age now that they have not had in decades. They have no overall centerpiece. They have no centerpiece on either brand. Why does having a centerpiece matter? Because it makes it easier to be efficient. Once you have one guy you know is your top star, you can just build around him. Ideally, everything else would just fall into place. When you do not have that, then you might just go all over the place and do stupid things. I would say that is exactly what is going on. You have terrible feud development on both brands. Some good workers are just being pushed too fast. A lot of workers feel like they are underachieving. Ratings are obviously poor. Fan reactions are often mediocre or worse. The WWE needs to be more efficient. They need to once again show that they know what they want and know how to go about trying to get it. The WWE is just doing dumb things I never would have expected them to do.

Shinsuke Nakamura Vs. John Cena

Some people like to complain about everything. Yes, they sometimes make a good point in their complaints. Some of the time, however, you just have to let some things go. I see a lot of complaints with Shinsuke Nakamura vs. John Cena to decide who faces Jinder Mahal at Summerslam for the WWE Championship.

First, a lot of fans are unhappy that the WWE is wasting this match so soon. This is a dream match for a lot of wrestling fans, and the WWE is hyping it as such. I don't see a problem with it. The WWE still needs to draw in viewers. I will say, however, that thinking this match will draw great numbers is a stretch. Nakamura has not really broken out at all. Could the WWE have spent a little more time developing him so that his first singles match against John Cena might look a little more impressive? It might have been nice. At the very least, it is a fresh main event.

Going by what I just said about Nakamura not breaking out yet, I would say that could be a reason to complain. He did not exactly look like a winner at his last PPV match against Baron Corbin. He didn't lose, but he didn't get a decisive victory. And yet, this is the guy one win away from challenging for the WWE Championship at one of the biggest WWE PPVs of the year. Speaking in terms of momentum, I would not say he deserves to be in this spot. Either just give Cena the title shot or create some other situation for him to win it. I would even say his match against Rusev recently could  have been for a title shot. Remember, Rusev was complaining about wanting a title shot a while ago. That angle was dropped too easily. Nakamura just needs more time and to be developed better. Don't rush him.

Fans are also dreading John Cena beating Nakamura. It does not have to be a burial. Kevin Owens didn't exactly die after he lost his feud to John Cena. In fact, I have seen some fans complain recently about Kevin Owens getting so many needless title reigns. Yes, there is a history of Cena beating people and those people being demoted. But most of those situations are feuds in which the other person was just being built up to put over Cena. They only look great because the WWE wanted them to look great to serve a purpose. Once they were done serving that purpose, demoted. That is not going to happen here. Cena is no longer the centerpiece. And Nakamura has not exactly been developed well to be worth beating and burying. His stock is going up. Even if he loses, the WWE will still push him.

I am more worried about Nakamura winning. He shouldn't. He just debuted on the main roster a couple months ago. He has not been that impressive. Whether the majority of the blame goes to the WWE or him, it is just the way it is. Throwing him into a big push is just unnecessary. He should still be feuding with Baron Corbin. You can say there is no way he wins this match, but the WWE has done things like this in recent years. Some said that there was no way Finn Balor would defeat Roman Reigns last year to go to Summerslam to compete for the Universal Championship. He did. Some said that there was no way Finn Balor would be booked to beat Seth Rollins. He did. Then you have Jinder Mahal. No one could believe the reports when they first came out that he was going to get a title shot. He did. Many did not believe he would actually win the title. He did. Fans want the WWE to push new guys, but I think a lot of these same fans might admit the WWE is getting carried away. Even though it seems like it will not happen, there is still a real chance Shinsuke Nakamura wins this match, or it ends in a way in which both Cena and Nakamura go to face Mahal at Summerslam.

Regardless, I will go with Cena winning. He will face Jinder Mahal. Nakamura will still have options. This one loss won't kill him. I am sure Cena will be putting him over sooner or later.

Another Shake Up?

There are rumors that there will be another shake up in the WWE. More superstars could be changing brands again. The last shake up was just 3 months ago in April. Is it really time to shake things up again? The WWE has really mismanaged talent on both brands. I just want to give some general thoughts on what this might mean for the men's division, the tag division, and the women's division.

Before I go there, let me just give one reason that the WWE might want to do this. It draws in viewers. It did the last time they did this. Fans just are likely to tune in to see what happens. You might say it is a cheap trick. Problem is, you cannot go to the well too often and expect it to always produce for you. The WWE still has to do more to draw.

Of course, the shake up can also help a few men get some fresh feuds. For example, Dean Ambrose and Miz have been feuding with each other way too much in the past year. It might be refreshing to get these two on different shows to make sure they don't face each other again for a while. Finn Balor has not been treated that well on Raw since coming back from an injury. Maybe Smackdown can treat him like the main-eventer he should be pushed as. He is the first Universal Champion. Looking at how they push him, you might not tell. Who can Smackdown afford to send to Raw? Will John Cena end up there? Some might also say that Smackdown does not need both Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles. One of them could move.

An issue you had with the last shake up is that Smackdown lost a lot of top guys and didn't get back many from Raw. Jericho recently returned, so that helps a little. Besides that, they ended up having to push Jinder Mahal as a main-eventer. Let's see if that investment in the Indian market works. This time around, that should not happen. Raw is stacked. It does not need to raid Smackdown. An even change should be okay. If Smackdown sends over two top guys to Raw, Raw should send back the same number.

The tag divisions are terrible right now. The big issue is the WWE breaking up so many tag teams. Right now, Raw's tag division might be worse because it lacks a clear direction. What is the big focus there? The Hardys becoming broken, or whatever word the WWE will use to avoid issues with GFW? Is it the Tag Team Champions, Sheamus & Cesaro? Heading into the biggest PPV of the summer, the division is sloppy. But I would not say the answer is to bring in more teams from Smackdown to Raw. The writers just need to develop clear feuds. It might not be easy to do with The Hardys in limbo over their popular gimmick. Overall, no teams really need to change in the shake up, even though there will likely be a switch just for the sake of it.

There is a reason 2009 was the first and only full year during the previous brand split that featured two titles in the women's division. It is just hard to keep it going and keep things fresh. Injuries made things even more difficult. Keep in mind, there were multiple drafts and trades in 2009 that had women changing brands. Were the moves necessary? Pretty much.

This year is the first full year where there are two women's titles during the current brand split. It hasn't been pretty. Injuries are not the issue. For the most part, the depth is good. But things still do not feel fresh and it just feels like changing shows for some women would be a good thing. Why is that? Because the WWE just mismanages the talent on both shows. On Raw, the WWE is juggling Sasha Banks and Bayley as the contenders to face Alexa Bliss. I am not saying Dana Brooke deserves a title shot, but how about Mickie James? How about have Nia Jax play tweener and get pushed against Alexa, just for the sake of freshness? Over on Smackdown, everyone frequently wrestles each other in multi-women feuds. All the freshness goes away very quickly when you do that. And there are just some feuds Smackdown forces that don't feel heated, which they then have to force to get fans interested. I would say Naomi vs. Natalya falls in that category. There is a price to pay for forcing yourself to give everyone something to do. You run out of fresh options fast.

What are some likely moves? How about Charlotte back to Raw? Seems stupid. She just moved to Smackdown in April and hasn't done anything. Moreover, can two queens coexist on Raw? I would move Becky Lynch to Raw. Who goes to Smackdown? Mickie James? I have seen some fans say it would be great if she went to NXT to take Asuka's spot. That's just dumb. It would make sense to send Sasha Banks or Bayley to Smackdown. I'll go with Sasha Banks, since they are pushing Bayley against Alexa Bliss again. However, just like I said with the tag division, the writers just need to develop feuds better on both shows. Switching a few women around won't fix everything.

Natalya Gets The Title Shot

Of all the women that had a chance to challenge Naomi at Summerslam for the Smackdown Women's Championship, I believed Natalya was just the least deserving. She wasn't fresh. She didn't have an angle going for herself. She wasn't built up to deserve it. There was no interesting storyline that you could get from her winning. Naomi vs. Natalya was just not a big match for the WWE's biggest PPV of the summer. There just was not one good reason for Natalya to win.

And to the surprise of no one, Natalya ends up winning. Smackdown has a tendency to do this kind of thing with their women. From last year, Becky Lynch didn't really have any momentum or creative interest on her prior to becoming Smackdown's Women's Champion. She won it. Some believed there was no way Alexa Bliss would beat Becky Lynch for the title. She did. Naomi just returned from an injury and steamrolled Alexa Bliss for the title. She returned from another injury and got the title handed back to her. The WWE didn't even wait to see if she could stay healthy. They just do not build things properly in their women's division.

Obviously, I would not have had Natalya win it. This is nothing personal against Natalya. I just believe, if you are going to do it, do it right. Build her up to deserve it. Do it at a time when there aren't other women that are fresher or have some angle going for them that might make for a better story with Naomi.

I would say the problem is Smackdown trying to give too many women something to do. Of the in-ring performers, Naomi is Women's Champion, Natalya is the challenger, Carmella has the briefcase and her angle with James Ellsworth, Tamina and Lana have their angle together, and Becky Lynch and Charlotte beat them in a tag match this week. Everyone has something going. But does that mean they have something great going anywhere? I don't feel it. You need supporting players and that is hard to do when everyone is tied up in some angle already.

Of course, another variation of Smackdown's issue with giving everyone something to do is these multi-women matches. Let me go back to that six-woman tag they had on a PPV a few months ago. They made this heel stable, The Welcoming Committee. They even had that stable beat the faces. And what really became of that? Nothing. Carmella has obviously broken out. Now Natalya is getting a solo push. Tamina has a separate angle with Lana, who wasn't even in the group back then. What was even the point? Creating that stable just looks like flavored filler now. The story didn't go anywhere. The WWE will obviously have the commentators mention it and website writers talk about it, but in terms of building a great storyline, this was nothing. There are some women on Smackdown that have not won a PPV match in months, namely Becky Lynch and Charlotte. And that is because they have been caught on the wrong side of these multi-women matches. The Welcoming Committee storyline should have led to a moment where the faces eventually conquered a strong heel stable, if the WWE was interested in doing this right. If they had done it right, maybe Natalya might have even looked more deserving of her current push. Money in the Bank also got in the way. I would say telling a proper story matters more than screaming history to get fans to tune in. The WWE has really been fumbling around on Smackdown and not utilizing these women right.

The Great Khali Returns

Jinder Mahal did indeed retain the WWE Championship against Randy Orton at Battleground. And he did it thanks to The Great Khali.

I have said for a while now that the WWE should stop bringing back people. There are various reasons why. First, it costs money to pay all these people. A lot of fans are unhappy with certain cuts that have been happening recently. Some of those cuts are due to budget issues. There hasn't been mass releases this year, however. Second, the WWE has so many workers already and can't do a lot of them justice. Instead of spending time properly building stars and utilizing talent right, they just look for easy answers by bringing in all these people. Lastly, it doesn't do anything in the long run. After the initial buzz, the WWE just goes back to fumbling around. Ratings continue to decline. Fans are not consistently energized. The company finds themselves in these situations where they need to cut costs. Bringing in all these people just doesn't solve the issue, so why rely so heavily on this? Stop it.

Bringing back The Great Khali is just scraping the bottom of the barrel and shows the WWE has no solid direction right now. For a while, it looked like they were going in the direction of treating wrestling with more respect. You had the women's revolution. You had the return of the cruiserweight division. AJ Styles. Nakamura. A lot of guys from NXT. Roman Reigns has not held a World title in a year. But then the WWE does stupid stuff, like all the crap with James Ellsworth. The Great Khali returning just fits in with that garbage. He is not a great wrestler. Of all the people to bring back, not him. You have already had the return of Mickie James, Kurt Angle, and The Hardys this year, among some others. But these names I just mentioned are at least known for being good in-ring workers. Even if age has slowed some of them down, they are still known by wrestling fans for being good in the ring. The Great Khali is not. If the WWE is going to bring people back, they have to know what they want to be and try to stick to that identity. That doesn't mean they should never sign anyone that goes against that identity, but don't make it a habit. And don't sign someone as terrible as The Great Khali.

It doesn't matter how long he is back for. He should not get too physical at all. He obviously will. He cannot attack Randy Orton and think nothing more will come of it. Some people have talked about the idea of The Great Khali being Jinder Mahal's bodyguard. On paper, it sounds nice. But when you take into account the WWE's budget issues, all the other workers being misused, these returns not helping, and The Great Khali just not being great, it isn't a good idea in reality.

Previewing The Battleground 2017 Men's Matches

It is sometimes amazing how the WWE can hype a crappy kickoff match like it is something special on their website. Tye Dillinger faces Aiden English. I don't care. Dillinger wins.

Climbing the ladder of relevance, Mike Kanellis vs. Sami Zayn. This is just a rematch. Nothing too special. But this is another match I just don't care about. The gimmick Mike and Maria have might have some potential, but boring feuds against a midcard jobber like Zayn won't bring that out. I will say Mike Kanellis wins.

Baron Corbin faces Shinsuke Nakamura. The fact that Corbin has the briefcase means nothing. The WWE has a history of having the person with the briefcase lose a lot. On the other hand, the WWE has a recent history of overpushing people they are grooming to be main-eventers, like Jinder Mahal. But I don't think that happens at the expense of Nakamura this Sunday. He wins.

New Day get another title shot against The Usos. The tag divisions are just so terrible on both shows. There probably won't be a Twitter movement to turn things around. The WWE might as well let New Day win the titles. If The Usos do retain, who is left to take the titles off them? They could go back to Tyler Breeze and Fandango. They have been gaining momentum. But New Day will likely get a reign before them.

Kevin Owens tries to win back the United States Championship from AJ Styles. No reason for Styles to drop the title so soon. That is, no GOOD reason to do it. The WWE might do it if they want a lame excuse to prolong this feud. Just end it either here or Summerslam. Create some fresh feuds with these midcarders many people, including myself, don't care about.

John Cena takes on Rusev in a Flag match. I'll give them credit for a gimmick match. But these two? Again? They feuded with each other before. The rivalry just isn't fresh. I am going to tell you what I would have done with both guys a little later. As for this match, Cena wins.

And inside the Punjabi Prison, Jinder Mahal defends the WWE Championship once again against Randy Orton. This feud should have been over already. And it just wasn't heated enough to deserve this gimmick match. Some people are speculating The Great Khali will return to help Mahal. We'll see. If nothing else, this match should give Jinder Mahal further credibility. He should be retaining.

How would I have done things with the last two matches I just talked about? Switch the opponents around. Jinder Mahal could have been entering a feud against John Cena. It could have been the same pro-USA feud you have in Rusev/Cena. Meanwhile, Rusev feuds with Orton. That is a fresh feud. These two have never feuded. Rusev was wanting a title match a couple months ago. Just have Randy Orton go out there after losing to Jinder Mahal at the previous Smackdown PPV and start talking about wanting another shot. Instead of getting it, however, Rusev shows up to continue his angle of wanting a title shot. Those two then feud. If the WWE wanted to put a title opportunity on the line, fine. It would have taken things in a fresh direction and not messed up the storylines that were going on too much.

Previewing The Battleground 2017 Women's Match

 

There just comes a point where you get sick of complaining about the same thing. I have frequently criticized Smackdown for having too many multi-woman matches at PPVs. They fail to properly develop good personal feuds a lot of the time, especially for the big PPVs since the brand split came back. Recently, there have been a couple Smackdown PPVs in a row to feature multi-women matches.

I saw a dirtsheet report in the past week mention that the WWE is doing a ton of multi-person matches because it is just convenient for the writers and they believe it gives everyone heat with everyone else, or something along those lines. Did you really need a dirtsheet report to know the writers were being lazy? Even then, I would not say it is that bad. Most of the PPV main events are still singles matches. Even other title matches outside the main event are mostly singles matches. It is a little annoying how they frequently toss everyone together for the sake of finding #1 contenders, but even that isn't done all the time. But this issue with the Smackdown women's division is really annoying.

Battleground will not be anything new. Five women compete to find out who faces Naomi at Summerslam. If there is any silver lining, it is that this match will lead to a singles match at a big PPV. Even then, that does not kill the bad habit. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte vs. Lana vs. Natalya vs. Tamina. I don't think there are any fresh, smooth options here.

Naomi is a face, so it might make you wonder if they would really let Becky Lynch or Charlotte win. Would a face vs. face feud really be interesting? Would they turn someone heel just for the sake of this feud? Even then, you have a heel, Carmella, looming with the briefcase. Neither Becky nor Charlotte would make for a smooth feud.

Would Natalya vs. Naomi be considered a fresh feud? Natalya is not really fresh. She does not have much attention on her, creatively. I just feel like the other women seem to have more going than her.

Normally, I would say Tamina is Tamina. But the WWE has decided to give her a storyline. This is another example of a person that has not earned something getting something. This angle involves Tamina training Lana. If there was not a women's revolution going on and the writing was better, the story to tell would be that Tamina successfully trains Lana to finally beat Naomi for the title. After that, Tamina could want a title shot. Lana refuses. And a feud happens between the two, with Tamina going face. But how likely is it that Lana wins this? And Tamina is not worthy of getting a title shot at Summerslam.

Who wins? I think it comes down to the fact that this is Summerslam, one of the biggest PPVs of the year. Charlotte has not been pushed well since coming to Smackdown, but she has the most title credibility in this match. The WWE would likely give her the push. As for the awkwardness of face vs. face, the WWE will likely have Carmella cash in on Naomi prior to Summerslam, possibly even this Sunday, and the Summerslam match becomes a triple threat. And Smackdown continues its streak of multi-woman matches.

Mid-2017 Ratings Review

This will be the last ratings review I do. As usual, I get my numbers from here and here. Some numbers are missing, but you can still get the general idea of how the shows are doing.

Let me start with TNA/GFW/Impact Wrestling/The Company Of A 1000 Names. They are averaging 297,700 viewers so far in 2017. They averaged 310,800 viewers in 2016.

The prediction I had made for TNA was that they could do just as well as they did last year or better. It is not likely that they will do better in 2017. Nevertheless, they can still meet the 300,000 benchmark and come close to as well as they did last year. They have to be consistent with what works and build around that. They have not done a great job at that. The fact that they have gone through so many changes just this year is not good. Losing The Hardys was obviously a part of their ratings not being better than they are, but the overall confusion with the company is also a problem. The GFW thing ended up being a decent angle and has led to the company being rebranded. But they need to not make the same mistakes of the past.

Over to the WWE and Smackdown. They are averaging 1.78 in the ratings. They averaged 1.72 last year, which featured part of the year having Smackdown go live on Tuesdays and be its own brand again. Looking at their viewership numbers, they have regularly been doing over 2 million viewers this year, with one episode doing over 3 million. They have not gotten more viewers than Raw so far in 2017.

Who says ratings are down for everything on TV? Smackdown is doing better than they did last year and will likely finish the year with a better average than last year. This shows that it is still possible for the WWE to improve their numbers if they make proper changes. Most of the changes that have led to better numbers are structural. Changing nights, going live, and just making Smackdown a big deal again has led to improvements. The show does rely heavily on hype. It gets a little annoying at times. Rely on quality feuds, segments, and characters. For example, stop tossing all the women in the same picture and actually build stars. They have been relying too much on all these historic segments recently. Moreover, Smackdown seems too smark-friendly a lot of the time. Most viewers are not going to be entertained by this. Smackdown could be doing even better than they are, but they would have to make some changes that will likely not happen.

Over on Raw, they are averaging 2.12 in the ratings. Last year, it was 2.26 for the annual average. They have averaged over 3 million viewers 17 times so far this year, but will likely not reach that benchmark much for the rest of the year because of football season.

Raw is already below last year's average for the year. Their worst part of the year is coming up soon. There is no way they will avoid doing worst than last year. The annual ratings average has been declining since 2013. Ratings were about even from 2012 (3.0) to 2013 (3.01). 2012 happened to be an election year. Wasn't 2016 an election year? The idea was that ratings were so bad last year because of all the election coverage. You would expect some kind of improvement this year. At the very least, things should at least remain about even. And if the trend of Raw losing about 700,000 viewers from the start of the year to the end of the year continues, they will be in really bad shape.

I talked about how structural changes have helped Smackdown do better than they did last year. The big structural change for Raw is obviously cutting that third hour. It has been around since 2012. It is no coincidence that ratings have been sinking for most of the years since then. Declining is one thing. Declining at a terrible rate is something else. Three hours is just too much. The brand split being back just makes things harder. The WWE has to sign people just for the sake of filler. They are obviously not stars and not draws. And the WWE is terrible at making stars right now. They can probably be more efficient with just two hours. That efficiency would help the workers get over better with the audience.

Outside of cutting the third hour, Raw just needs to clean up how they run the show. Make better booking decisions. They don't need to pander to a smark audience like Smackdown does, but even a casual audience might not care too much for some of the things going on. A guy like Finn Balor should not be demoted so soon. Kurt Angle is lacking a real personality. There is just a lot lacking. A lot of wasted potential.

If Smackdown can be doing better than they did last year and GFW in a position to do just as well as last year, Raw does not need to be doing as poorly as it is. The excuse about no one watching TV anymore does not hold. I do not believe the WWE's ceiling is collapsing just because of TV viewing habits changing. They have issues that they can fix. If they fix them, things can improve in a lot of departments. They can get more viewers. They can get more people coming to shows. They can get more lively people coming to shows. Workers get more over. And the WWE just makes more money without having to work their workers to the bone, raise prices, and all those other things many people don't want.

Lana Gets Another Shot

The Smackdown women's division has just become a saga in recent weeks. And I don't mean that in a good way. They are just stuck in the same situation and keep making a big deal out of it.

I already pointed out how Lana took issue to how her match ended on Smackdown last week against Naomi for the title. Daniel Bryan has granted her another rematch for the title. It will happen tomorrow on Smackdown.

Rematches happen, but this is kind of ridiculous. Should fans really get excited for PPV matches when they get rematches like this? Naomi should have already moved on to someone else. While Lana continues to get title shots, almost all the other women of Smackdown are stuck with just one thing to do. And that is be upset about Carmella and James Ellsworth breaking rules to win the briefcase. That is another saga I will not even get into right now. Those women just need to move on to something new. Less complaining, more entertaining. Less repeating what happened two weeks ago, more freshness.

Should Lana win the title here? If they don't let her have it, what was really the point of all this? To bring Rusev back? I am sure they could have came up with another angle to do that. Prolonging this feud has just not been good. And Naomi has a fancier title belt right now, so that might make you think that she doesn't lose it. I felt like Lana might win the first time. I went with Naomi the second. And I will go back to Lana this time.

Orton And Mahal Inside The Punjabi Prison

Last time, I talked about how Smackdown could have progressed certain feuds in fresh directions through how they booked certain matches this week. They failed to do it. They booked things in a manner that makes things feel the same as they were coming off the recent PPV last week. Whether the WWE continues in the same direction or not remains to be seen, but there are other feuds that are also not over yet for the blue brand.

Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal will go at it for a third PPV. Was this truly necessary? I don't think so. This is not really that great of a feud that warranted another PPV.

Who else could face Mahal? Not Nakamura. It is too soon for him to win the title and it is too soon for him to lose to Jinder Mahal. AJ Styles is still tied up with Kevin Owens. How about the returning John Cena? The WWE is obviously not going in that direction, but he is returning next week. He could have started a feud with Jinder Mahal. John Cena is one title win away from breaking Ric Flair's record. Why not have him enter a WWE Championship feud right away. Play with the chase. He obviously won't win the title at a throwaway PPV like Battleground, but it could have been the start of a fresh feud. They even could have had Jinder Mahal talk trash about Cena these few weeks between Money In The Bank and Cena's return to help hype his return and build that feud. Instead, more of Randy Orton.

The story does not end there. This will be a Punjabi Prison match. This has not been a popular match type, but it fits Mahal's gimmick. On the one hand, if you are going to continue the feud, it might as well end in a gimmick match. On the other hand, is this feud worthy of this match? I didn't think this feud was worthy of a third PPV, so I obviously do not think this feud is worthy of this match type. It is like how Hell in a Cell has been overused in the last decade. It is no longer as special. But the WWE is obviously relying on tricks like this to get a ratings boost and get more subscribers. If they improved the quality of their product, they would have a better time drawing people in and would not have to rely on hype and cheap tricks for momentary boosts.

Did Smackdown Accomplish Anything This Week?

In terms of drawing, Smackdown obviously did what it needed to do. Ratings aren't out yet, but they hyped big matches for this week's episode. Developing angles and promoting matches and segments will lead to people being interested. But that is not what I am talking about today. The booking last night, did that accomplish anything?

First, Lana got a rematch against Naomi for the Women's Championship. It was a short match. Lana hit her finisher and Naomi just kicked out and went on to win. That doesn't really make Lana look good. A lot of people have been critical of Lana's wrestling ability. I would be one of them to some degree. But there are fans that were hoping for competitive matches in this new era. The WWE definitely could have told a different story in that match.

And is it really over? Lana has had a lot to say on Twitter.

I obviously did NOT get pined! I want a FAIR title match! Clearly the ref & all of @WWE are cheaters & favor @NaomiWWE over me! #SDLive pic.twitter.com/puUUrbWIap

— CJ (Lana) Perry (@LanaWWE) June 28, 2017

Does this lead to Lana complaining next week and getting another rematch? Should it? On one hand, it would be nice to just move on already, especially if the WWE is not planning to give Lana the title right now. On the other hand, it is at least a real possibility that the WWE continues this, especially now that fans on social media have gotten wind of Lana not having both shoulders down.

Second, the briefcase ladder match. No Ellsworth this time. Of course, he still got involved. This time, however, Carmella took the briefcase down herself. Ignoring the Ellsworth ban and it being violated, this is how the match should have ended at the PPV a few weeks ago. Ellsworth tries to cheat. He gets taken out. Carmella gets the briefcase. The whole controversy of a man grabbing the briefcase in a match that is supposed to be about the women does not exist.

Once again, is this really the end of it? There was once again a controversial finish that might lead to another segment featuring the women complaining. And they would have a point. James Ellsworth was banned. He violated the rules. Shouldn't something happen?

This is exactly like what happened last year with Seth Rollins. Rollins was getting way too many title shots. On an episode of Raw, he got a shot against Kevin Owens, with Chris Jericho banned from ringside. Jericho ended up still finding his way to ringside and he interfered. Owens ended up retaining. As much as I hated Seth Rollins getting so many title shots, isn't this a situation they created where he should have gotten a rematch? There was a rule and that rule was broken, resulting in Rollins losing the match. It just seems like bad writing.

It seems like the WWE has once again written themselves into a bad situation. They obviously should not do the ladder match for a third time, but it does seem pretty stupid that they created this rule, the rule was broken, and Carmella ended up benefiting to win the match. The previous situation with Seth Rollins was not handled in the smoothest way, and I expect this situation to not be handled in the smoothest way.

I made a point last week that there would be no reason to redo these two matches if the outcome would be the same. And it seems the outcome was exactly the same. Not only did the same woman win both matches, but both matches ended in a possibly indecisive or controversial fashion that makes you wonder if it is all over yet. That is why I would say the booking of these matches did not accomplish anything. It was just a bunch of hype for no big developments in these storylines. They could have used the situation to give the briefcase to someone new, while Carmella carried her momentum from the whole controversy into a title feud with Naomi, who could have definitively been free from Lana, who is complaining on Twitter about how the match ended.

Moving on to the men, Zack Ryder & Mojo Rawley took on The Usos. If the faces won this match, they would have gotten a shot at the tag titles. I was all for this happening. But the WWE had The Usos win. A triple threat feud also involving New Day would have been good. It would have made things more interesting.

It just feels like everything is as it was coming off Money In The Bank. The women's ladder match ended with Carmella winning and controversy involving Ellsworth. That is where we are at right now. The women's title match ended with Naomi retaining and Lana having a complaint she believes warranted a rematch. That is where we are right now. The tag title match ended in a way in which it was obvious New Day was not finished with The Usos yet. And that is where we are right now. Nothing has changed. All Smackdown accomplished last night was maintaining the status quo. It remains to be seen what direction they will go with this, but last night's Smackdown didn't serve to progress anything in a fresh direction.

The Hype Brothers Back In The Mix

If there is any team that stands a chance to take the tag titles off The Usos instead of New Day, it is Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley. These two had earned a title shot last year, but Zack Ryder suffered an injury that killed the push. Ryder recently returned. The Usos retained the tag titles against New Day by shady means. And here we are.

Ryder and Mojo will have to beat The Usos to get a title shot on Smackdown tonight. Just in terms of fairness, they should have just gotten the title shot. But this makes things more interesting and provides a match to get some hype on a stacked Smackdown tonight. The face team should be winning this.

What about New Day? Keep them in the title picture, as well. A triple threat would be nice. Both face teams have an argument for another title shot. Both are pretty over. Both can stand a good chance of getting the tag titles. This should be a solid feud.

Maria And Her Husband Come To Smackdown

Even though she is married, I still refer to Maria by her maiden name. She is Maria Kanellis. Just one of my quirks. It seems I am not the only one doing that. The WWE is, as well. They are even taking it a step further.

Maria and her husband, Mike Bennett, made their Smackdown return/debut last week. And it seems to be all about Maria. Her husband is even called Mike Kanellis.

What do I make of this? My first reaction is that it is just dumb. It makes the guy look bad. It makes him look like he will be standing in his wife's shadow. I don't want to sound sexist, but it does seem unfair to Mike Bennett.

There are relationships where both the man and the woman look good. Look at Rusev and Lana when they first debuted. Lana looked like the brains of the duo and Rusev was the muscle. And the dynamic worked. Rusev could go out there and crush, while Lana had her sexy, entertaining character. Later on, however, there was a span where Rusev got much more of the focus and Lana was just there. And that was unfair to Lana.

Maria and Mike obviously do not have that dynamic. Mike isn't the kind of guy that go out there and be the brute, while Maria is his sexy, charismatic manager. They cannot both stand out in their own way like Rusev and Lana could.

But after my first reaction, I gave it more thought. How far can Mike Bennett really go? I have come across some of his past work. He just doesn't look like someone that will be a great star in the WWE. If that is the case, what's wrong with having him ride his wife's coattails? She was in the WWE before and will have an easier time connecting with the fans than him through her sex appeal and character. The WWE might be able to create something entertaining out of this.

People might still moan about this hurting Mike's credibility, but what is wrong with him just being a midcarder? He is definitely not main-event material. If he was, this gimmick would kill him. The midcard is not just a breeding ground for future main-eventers. It is also a place for entertaining gimmicks to get featured. The Godfather is in the WWE Hall of Fame. He was a midcard act. The WWE has a ton of guys to push as main-eventers and upper-midcarders. It is their midcard that needs life. If Mike and Maria can help that with this gimmick, I am fine with that.

One more thing to consider, and this has to do mainly with Maria. A point I have brought up a lot over the last year is the impact Maria had in TNA with their women's division. She got in the way of the respectability of that division, and at a time when the WWE was preaching respecting women's wrestling. It was really just bad timing. TNA didn't really lower their standards. They just ran a storyline that got in the way of their standards. Things have been fine since Maria lost the KO title.

What impact will Maria have in the WWE and this era in the women's division? During her first run in the WWE, Maria had the sex appeal and character to fit right in with the diva era, but was never good enough in the ring to be pushed as centerpiece. Even though this era is supposed to be about women's wrestling, they have already shown signs of leaning towards divas. It could be easy to say Maria will never get in the ring to wrestle, but she might.

Will Maria Kanellis hurt the WWE women's division? Unlike what happened in TNA, this is not likely to be a storyline getting in the way of respectability. The WWE has already lowered their standards and done some crappy things to hurt the respectable atmosphere they had created last year, although I will admit that it was too sour and serious and things needed to be made more fun. But the WWE should keep Maria out of the way of the other women. There are already too many women to be featured as priorities within the women's division. Naomi is holding the title. Lana just debuted not too long ago. Charlotte is likely to get a good push soon. Carmella has some interest on her. Some fans would love to see Becky Lynch get featured better. You cannot push everybody. Maria being added into this mix would not help. Not only would it be adding another woman into a congested scene, it would be adding a woman that is not a good wrestler. As of right now, I would draw the line and say no more adding women to Smackdown for the rest of the year. If they are going to do a trade with Raw, that's one thing. But Maria coming to Smackdown is it. Handle the group of women you have in front of you. The writers already have enough on their plate right here.