Reverse Hipster's Highlight List
8. (Impact) Say His Name and He Appears
Joe Hendry appeared after The Major Players made the mistake of saying, "Say his name." I love that a crew member walked by when Joe appeared and did the Hendry clap. It was laugh-out-loud funny. However, the bigger story is that Hendry is coming after Brian Myer's Impact Wrestling Digital Media Title. These two could have a very entertaining feud.
7. (NXT) Grayson Waller
Grayson Waller had a match against R-Truth, and it went bad early in the match. R-Truth seemed to tear his quad doing an over-the-top dive and he couldn't finish the match. However, it's during hardship that you show who you are. Grayson Waller stayed in character and celebrated like this was all planned. Then, he cut an off-the-cuff promo about him beating a twenty year vet and being the next big thing. He might be right.
6. (Rampage) Jamie Hayter and Toni Storm's Crash Course
Hayter and Britt Baker had a tag match with Madison Rayne and Skye Blue. Skye Blue and Madison Rayne especially had a great showing. However, Hayter won the match and gained more momentum toward the AEW Women's Title. Toni Storm came out to confront Hayter after the match for attacking Madison and Skye, and Toni actually made Hayter tap out.
Some people might not like this, but I did because it gives them a story for Full Gear. Now, we know if Toni gets the Cloverleaf in, it's over.
5. (Impact) Eddie Edwards Buries PCO
Edwards and PCO had a cinematic Buried Alive Match in the desert. Eddie did a good job building the match by pointing out that tons of dead bodies were supposed to be in that desert, and it made the match feel dangerous. Speaking of danger, I thought Eddie was crazy to call out PCO in this type of match. But, after a tough physical street fight, Eddie buried PCO. I'm interested to see where the feud goes from here.
4. (SmackDown) Bray Wyatt Is on Edge
Bray Wyatt is losing it because the pull to relapse into his darker self is stronger than ever. He almost flipped out at a crew member who interrupted him on SmackDown. It's interesting to see Bray act so neurotic. Bray was always very composed when he was the cult leader or The Firefly Fun House guy. Bray is clearly rattled, but what side should he choose: light or darkness?
3. (Rampage) Iron Orange Cassidy
Mike Tyson commentated on Orange Cassidy's Championship match with Katsuyori Shibata. Mike didn't know all the technical terms, but he knew enough to communicate that he was a fan. It was really cool to see which things Mike Tyson popped for on commentary.
Orange Cassidy successfully defended his title. What stood out about this match was how much fire Orange Cassidy showed. He actually got fired up and finished the match with authority.
2. (Raw) Johnny Gargano
Gargano spilled the tea on what really happened with The Miz and Dexter Lumis. It was hilarious when he re-acted what happened and played every wrestler in the story. Also, I like the story that WWE went with. After Lumis was fired, The Miz hired him to be a celebrity stalker, but things went wrong when The Miz stopped paying. This explains why Lumis would target The Miz of all people.
1. (SmackDown) Liv Morgan
Liv is a savage now. She is more extreme, resilient, and popular than ever. Liv Morgan showed reckless abandon in her match with Sonya Deville. She jumped backward off the ring apron, hurling both herself and Sonya into a table. She was power slammed into a bed of chairs and still kicked out after. She hit Sonya with Oblivion onto a chair and won the match. The Women's Division better watch out for Liv.
Rob’s Lowlights 5. Trick or Street Fight, WWE Raw
I have come to love the chaos and silliness of these holiday stipulation matches, but I don’t think this edition lived up to it. Matt Riddle and Otis didn’t really have any pre-existing beef, and they tried to bring the comedy without bringing any of the hardcore aspects to the match.
4. Daddy Ass Birthday Bash, AEW Dynamite
This was another fun segment from the Acclaimed, but it made absolutely no sense that the number one contenders were absent. There was no follow-up on Swerve abducting Billy Gunn, and it didn’t make any sense with what led up to the segment.
3. Bron Breakker and Wes Lee Team Up, NXT 2.0
This was a particularly egregious example of two babyfaces teaming up and having to be friends against a heel team. I don’t think Bron Breakker and Wes Lee have ever interacted before. It was obvious they didn’t have chemistry, and the resulting promo segment was awkward. Pretty Deadly did the best work in the segment. The match almost saved it, but it ended via interference that was ultimately meaningless because nobody expected the team to win. The new matchups could have been set up so much more creatively, and this was a waste of time.
2. Unexciting Challengers, NXT 2.0
Speaking of the matchups, all of the champions got new challengers that were frankly underwhelming. Carmelo Hayes is after the North American Championship, and Wes Lee again. Bron Breakker looks to be up against Von Wagner, who is frankly not ready for that spotlight. Toxic Attraction had a big celebration for Mandy Rose, setting up an exciting new challenger to interrupt and only seeing the same woman in Alba Fyre that she has been feuding with for months.
1. Alexa Bliss and Asuka Win the Women’s Tag Team Championships, WWE Raw
Same old bad booking for the Women’s Tag Team Championship. When it finally felt like a true team was coming to save the titles after them being vacant for so long, now they are given to another thrown-together team. The women involved are so talented, and it’s unfortunate to see WWE mishandle these championships so bad.
Rob’s Winners of the Week
6. Impact Wrestling was just okay this week. They have some interesting stories, but some weeks they don’t capitalize on it. 5. NXT was weak on their follow-up to a great show in Halloween Havoc. I’m hoping they can build more interesting stories for their next show. 4. WWE Raw put in an okay performance this week, but they still need to build some new stories to be more engaging.
3. AEW Dynamite was lackluster this week. The only thing keeping it this low is that no other show worked hard enough to take the spot. 2. AEW Rampage was surprisingly solid. I loved that it had unique and meaningful matches. 1. WWE SmackDown put together a show where parts of it felt like they could be on the pre-show or main show of Crown Jewel.
Reverse Hipster's Winners of the Week
6th Place NXT
NXT struggled to produce highlights. It just seemed like a placeholder week. The matches were average and the story progression was minimal.
5th Place Dynamite
Dynamite needed to do more with Britt Baker and Saraya. This should be a very hot feud, but it's not. It's not because it's a feud that anyone could have. None of it is unique to those two. The rest of the show outside of Jamie Hayter's match was either regular degular AEW stuff or something good messed up by interference.
4th Place Rampage
Having Mike Tyson, Orange Cassidy, and Shibata involved in a Rampage Title match gave Rampage that big fight feel. The problem is that the rest of Rampage was unremarkable.
3rd Place Raw
Raw comes in third because of the Dexter Lumis story. Finally, we got answers about Dexter through Johnny Gargano, who hilariously revealed The Miz's scheme with skits.
2nd Place Impact
Between the awesome cinematic match and Joe Hendry, Impact had the second best show of the week. In addition to the highlights, there were plenty of little story developments. For example, Gisele Shaw and VXT broke up, and Violent By Design disciples attacked and revealed new members. Plenty was going on.
1st Place SmackDown
SmackDown is back in the top spot because they have the best characters put into great spots and some of the best matches of the week.