WARMTH LIKE HOME UNAWARES

So, last night was the debut of Friday Night SmackDown on Fox.

It was... something. Overall underwhelming, especially because the ending was bad.

It started out with a women's tag team match between the RAW and SmackDown champions + a buddy. This was pretty good, and probably the best part of the whole thing. Which isn't surprising because the women's division is generally better than the men's.

Then there was some miscellany. There was a match between Seth Rollins and Shinsuke Nakamura that was interrupted by Bray Wyatt, and wowwww was that stupid. I haven't been watching SmackDown or anything since I don't have cable nor a Hulu sub, so I haven't seen anything in a while. And they have taken Bray Wyatt's ~~""multiple personalities""~~ to a whole new level of stupid. I was nauseous with embarrassment as I watched it, I'm not even joking.

So basically they turned what could have been a fun match into a stupid "story" segment that was not interesting at all and overall pretty cringeworthy.

Then there was a lumberjack match between Roman Reigns and Erick Rowan which was fun, nothing special though. Ali was in it which was nice, even though he only was on screen for like 2 seconds as he was thrown at someone else haha. I'm looking forward to seeing him on Fox though.

Then there was a ladder match between Kevin Owens and Shane O-Mac and the loser is supposed to be terminated from the WWE permanently. Which is the dumbest thing ever because this boring rivalry has been going on for like 3 years or something horrible like that, but not only that, they've already done the loser-gets-terminated thing like at least twice before??????????????????????????????????? We already know it's not going to actually happen and we already have seen this so why??????????? I really don't like Kevin Owens and anything related to him anyway so that on its own was already bad (Shane is a really boring wrestler but at least he's mildly cute?) and then it was a dumb premise and ladder matches are kinda dumb and yeah. It had some big bam boom pow stuff in it to entertain people at least. But I'm not the kind of person who gets into people being thrown through tables and ladders. But that seems to be a hugely popular thing, so at least we had that...?

The worst part though was the ending. It was promised to be a title match between Kofi Kingston and the challenger Brock Lesnar. First off I hate Brock Lesnar more than anything and can't stand anything with him in it. I was considering just turning the TV off and heading to bed at that point, but I figured I should watch the whole premiere at least.

The match ended in like 3 seconds with Brock pinning Kofi immediately. And then Rey Mysterio came out with... some guy who apparently beat Brock in the UFC or something. And Brock was acting all scared about it. The point of this was to continue a storyline of Brock vs Mysterio because previously Brock had like beaten up Mysterio's little brother for no reason or something.

They kinda stared each other down for like... the entire 10 minutes the match would have been taking place, and it just ended with Brock leaving and the audience booing. They seriously promised a championship title match as the main event, and then it ended up being literally nothing happening. Like, I realize they need to include story stuff in the premiere but that's definitely not the way to do it.

So yeah, with an ending that was originally going to be disappointing because it was Brock Lesnar wrestling being turned into an ending that was even more disappointing because it was just Brock Lesnar standing around for a long time... that ended up being a huge let-down ending that made the nice parts of the whole two hours forgettable.

Also, a single hour of 205 Live has more entertaining content than 2 hours of SmackDown. I guess I can't be too disappointed since SmackDown is my least favorite of the 4 WWE in-ring shows, but... wow was this sad LOL.

With NXT being on cable TV now, we're left with 205 being the only show that's WWE Network exclusive. Honestly they need to bring 205 to Fox alongside SmackDown. The actual thing is a 3 hour live event, with the first two hours being SmackDown and the last hour being 205 Live. So if you go in person you get to see both. But the 205 Live segment only airs on WWE Network. It's WAY better than anything SmackDown produces and is by far the best of the four shows. But it gets the least promotion because everything I love is like this. But yeah, may as well just bring 205 Live to Fox. Except the news might air at 10PM on Fox which would mean they couldn't show 205 Live live. Hell if they reran it at 11PM I'd stay up 2 extra hours til midnight just to watch 205 on TV.

I guess what I really need is to renew my Network sub, but I can't afford it right now really. I mean, I could probably afford a month or two, but I don't want to try to cram catching up on 205 Live into a couple months like that because when I feel pressured to do something I don't do it. But yeah, when I can get another sub I'll definitely catch up on 205 Live (my favorite wrestler from the show has been the champion for a while now and I'm MISSING IT). Plus I can then watch Raw replays again and see my 90s friends again lol.

Also AEW is a thing now and already seems a lot better than WWE as far as pure wrestling content goes. They actually say the word 'wrestling' and put on pretty nice matches. I don't know what the stories are like, though, and I'm a loser who actually cares about the rasslin stories. But Neville (now going by PAC) is on it and I wanna see it soooooo bad but of course it's cable-only. And there's not even an online sub way to see it (with WWE programming, the live shows are on TNT but then they are uploaded to Hulu at midnight following, so you can watch them the next day or after just a few hours of the live broadcast if you have Hulu). Which is another thing dumb about WWE Network sub, you have to wait a month to see Raw or SmackDown. But anyway, there's no streaming service or anything that carries AEW stuff so you HAVE to have a cable subscription to watch TNT or else you just... can't watch it. You can find matches on YouTube and stuff but you don't really get to see the show all together and don't get to see the story stuff. And I wanna see PACCCCCCCCCC

but yeah that's my rassling rant for today.

OK so I've been wanting to talk about this for a while now lolol

Sunday was No Mercy which I'd been really looking forward to, especially because of the Cruiserweight title match. Which was like one of the last things so I'll get to that last. I just kinda wanna go over all the results and some thoughts on them. Most of them will be short.

Kickoff Match - The best thing about this match was Titus O'Neil because he's very handsome and was in a suit lolol. I actually like Elias though. I didn't really care who won but was kinda hoping Elias would since he seems less popular or whatever lol. And he did. But I would have been fine with Crews winning just as well. Especially because Titus lmao.

Intercontinental Title - I can't stand Jason Jordan and even though The Miz is kind of annoying, he's annoying in a fun way, and I like him. Plus I didn't want Miz to lose his title, so I was rooting for him. And he won, so yay.

Man vs Man - While this is probably the opposite of what you would expect, I'm just not a fan of these dirty beard redneck characters like Bray Wyatt. Plus his whole gimmick legit creeps me out. So I do at least appreciate him for that. But he's not gonna be one of the guys I'm cheering for in most matches. But even that aside, I've grown really attached to Finn Balor and was really hoping he would 'prove' himself as normal-guy-Balor and not Demon Balor. And he did so I was really happy about that~~ Especially because it was one of those cool comeback/adrenaline wins, too.

Raw Tag Team Title - The Tag Title is the best part of Raw tbh. And this was a great match because it was two of my fav teams against each other. Honestly, The Bar totally deserve the title, but I also wanted to see The Shield Minus One defend the title... I really like all four of these guys so I was going to be happy whoever won.

But uh the main highlight of this match was Cesaro. he legit had his teeth knocked in when he faceplanted against a metal beam. They were shoved 4mm into his gums. And he was like... bleeding all over the place. But he just kept right on going. And when he tagged out he got a little help from the sideline medics and then went right back into the match, bloodying up the ring and everything. Tons of respect for this guy. Hopefully his dental surgeries go well. I already admired Cesaro a lot but his dedication to the match and ability to fight through something pretty horrific like that sent him skyrocketing up my favs list. I even swapped him into my TapMania team even though he's only a 1-star XD

Raw Women's Title - I was excited about this match before they turned it into a Fatal 4-Way, and then even more annoyed when it became a 5-way (even though I love Bayley and was really happy to see her back). I just said Tags are the best part of Raw but the Women's division is just as great as the Tags. I was either hoping for Nia Jax to take the title or for Alexa Bliss to retain it.

Nia is the biggest threat so everyone kinda worked together to beat her up. I guess it would have been a boring match just Nia VS Alexa. Because the winner of that is obvious before it even begins hahaha. Nia really deserves to get the title and I hope she does get it eventually. But Alexa ended up defending, and she actually put up a great fight, when leading up to the match she seemed scared of her opponents. She definitely earned the title so it was cool.

Roman Reigns VS John Cena - The direction of the narrative already determined the outcome of this match... so I think everyone kinda knew Roman Reigns was going to win. I actually love Roman Reigns and don't understand why everyone hates him, so I was happy to see the 'taking of the torch' and glad he and Cena talked respect after the match.

SO UP UNTIL THIS POINT EVERY SINGLE MATCH HAD GONE MY WAY :D So of course, I was feeling pretty excited about the next match, since it seemed like I was getting everything I hoped for out of No Mercy...

Cruiserweight Title - The Cruiserweight division is my favorite part of the entire WWE and 205Live is my favorite show. When I first started getting into all this recently, Enzo Amore quickly became my favorite wrestler. But I had mixed feelings about him joining the Cruiserweights because, well, he just doesn't... fit. The CWD is all about technical wrestling and everyone in it is amazing and skilled. But Enzo is a crappy wrestler (which is why I love him) who gets by pretty much on pure attitude and a bit of bending the rules. Which is not very 205-y.

Though watching 205Live I really started to hold Neville in high regard as King of the Cruiserweights. So when Enzo was introduced to 205Live and just kept winning match after the match with his stupid tactics, I was starting to get pretty annoyed. The Cruiserweights work really hard and don't get enough attention, and Enzo was brought to the division pretty much solely to increase its popularity and get more viewers since he's ridiculously popular. Which is cool -- I'd love to see 205Live get more credit and viewership and the CWD become big stars. But it completely disgraced the whole division by turning it into a display of technical prowess to... the Enzo show.

But at the same time, even before joining 205Live (since his breakup with Big Cass) I was really hoping for some kind of character development from Enzo -- and when he joined the Cruiserweights, what I was hoping for, and even expecting, was that he would get his ass handed to him by the most skilled division in the WWE and gain a little humility. I don't want his personality or gimmick to change -- I just want to see him grow as a wrestler. When he first joined, he was even buddying up with Cedric Alexander (IMO the most skilled wrestler in the whole WWE) and Gran Metalik (another amazing wrestler and I have a soft spot for luchadores anyway) and so I was hoping that maybe he'd end up getting smashed by Neville, humble up a bit, keep his character, and start training with the best Cruiserweights to become an amazing wrestler himself.

So even after the annoying victories being the spotlight of 205Live for the past month, I was really looking forward to this match. This was going to be the big turning point -- Enzo was about to get crushed by Neville.

And indeed that's what happened. At the beginning. Enzo couldn't hold his own against Neville for a second, and was knocked silly. Neville was super pissed about Enzo coming in and ruining his division that he spent a lot of extra time just beating the shit out of him instead of winning the match quickly.

And so Enzo used that to his advantage. Outside of the ring, he took the Championship belt and started messing with it, and the ref made him give it back when he got back in the ring. While the ref was handing the belt back to the timekeeping officials, Enzo kicked the unsuspecting Neville in the crotch while the ref couldn't see, then immediately pinned him before he could recover himself, winning the match.

I was furious lmfao. There are so many amazing and underappreciated wrestlers in the Cruiserweight division and they all deserve to hold a title, and so many of them have been deserving of this for way too long. But here comes Enzo, scumming his way to the top without a single loss, because he's popular. Mad mad mad mad mad.

Then on Raw, Enzo had a victory party for himself, and the entire Cruiserweight division came out onto the floor and stared him down. Then Neville came out and confronted Enzo in the ring. Enzo had a clause that said if anyone attacked him during the celebration, they forfeited their rights to a championship opportunity. And despite the Cruiserweight division being so important to Neville, he kicked the crap out of him again.

After Raw went off-air, the entire division took turns beating him up, which resulted in no one being eligible for the title, but it certainly was satisfying to see all the cruiserweights standing up for the division. The off-air part we didn't get to see until it was shown on 205Live last night.

But yeah, I'm really anxious to see what happens next. I guess the entire point of this entire Enzo plotline is to get more people interested in 205Live and the Cruiserweights. And it's definitely the best story arc going on in the WWE now by far. But I really want redemption for the division. And I want Neville to take his throne back.

I don't know what will happen next. Ariya Daivari is trying to make amends with Enzo, and used Enzo's rivalry with Nevile to help with that. But Enzo's friendship could easily be dubious. And everyone else is still against Enzo.

So I guess there's a little suspect that Daivari is trying to get a title match by having Enzo request it (as I think the clause just doesn't let the others request/earn one on their own?) whether it's for himself or someone else.

There's also the possibility of someone rising up from NXT to join the division, who won't be part of the banned group. I think the current division roster needs more spotlight on their own. I haven't even been keeping up with NXT so I don't even know if there are any good candidates for this right now.

And then, of course, since every last member of the roster is involved in the stupid clause, there's a chance Kurt Angle could just redact the whole thing. Probably would make Enzo mad but I don't even care at this point.

Enzo seems to have completely turned heel, talking back to the Universe and even ending 205 Live last night by sneaking up on Neville and brutally beating him down with a crutch. And I love tons of heels, but Enzo's heel plot is progressing at the expensive of my precious Cruiserweights and it's really making it hard to stomach Enzo right now.

I still love Enzo and really want to see him eventually turn around in character and focus on being a more technical wrestler. I just didn't want to have to go through all of THIS to get to that point. And now I'm worried we may never get to that point at all...

And since I mentioned TapMania earlier, I even took Enzo off my team (replaced by Shinsuke Nakamura, who I just got through the recent Smackdown event -- the timing was too perfect, as if the game was telling me to ditch Enzo hahahaha)

I will be watching everything that unfolds with Enzo from here on out, but I'm rooting for everyone in the division except for him.

Oh, and another little rant: Gentyjack and Cedric Alexander are fighting next week and even though I love love love Jack and am excited to see how his new relationship with TBK unfolds (btw I ship them now lolol), I'm hoping Cedric wins this match. For weeks now, Cedric has been used as a punching bag plot device to progress the story of popular white wrestlers and it's not cool. He deserves to be one of the most celebrated names in the WWE, but he's being reduced to THAT. It's gross.

And don't even get me started on problematic rasslin crap because I don't even want to go into the whole Maharaja/Nakamura thing which I have MANY words about. I've typed enough as it is, though.

Anyawy, here's some random lighthearted thoughts from this week in WWE:

• Drew Gulak is so cute? And he wears suits all the time now. I'm loving this new gimmick and loving Drew now.


• Tony Nese has grown on me a lot. And, uh, hot DAMN did he look good with his hair down last night. 9 reasons to love him.


• And speaking of those two, I totally ship them now, especially after Drew fawning over Tony through his whole fight hehehe.


• But I still am glad Tozawa won. He is so much fun. He deserves a lot more.


• I haven't even watched Smackdown this week because I'm just so sick of Kevin Owens


• TJP is so fucking annoying and I hate that he has a chiptune theme because he doesn't deserve it and I want to see Rich Swann pound him into the ground 400 times. No, 500.


• I only just now realized how much stuff you miss watching the abridged versions of the shows on Hulu...


• I started watching old episodes of Raw from 1993 and it's really messed up. Also somehow Ric Flair is hot...?????????????


• Also, I'm drawing a Neville fanart :)

ok the end. I have other things to do LOL