[WNS COLUMN] Nicholas Pruner's WWE Week in Review (8/2 - 8/8)

WWE Monday Night RAW:

- The tribute to Roddy Piper was awesome. In the past year or so, WWE has done great with that type of stuff, with Connor, Warrior, Dusty, and Piper. Stay classy, WWE.

- I, for some reason, really liked Seth Rollins' promo that started RAW. He had some awesome deliveries and his T-Shirt made me laugh all the more.

- That Seth Rollins Vs. Neville match was absolutely amazing in the sense of proving you don't need to take up 20-30 minutes to have a good match (no offense to the matches that were that long) The clean win for Rollins was great too, since he really needed a clean win since he's booked as a "weasel", as some people like to say, and he gets a lot of dirty wins.

- The more the words "Diva Revolution" are used to decribe the Main-Roster callup of Sasha Banks, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch, the more I hate the angle. I just find it really odd how they will just pull out "Diva Revolution" in the middle of the matches and promos. It sounds very off-beat to me. However, I am liking that they are given more time. There's no way that the Divas would be getting two-10 minute matches a week on RAW if it weren't for HHH and Stephanie. We have them to thank.

- I'm hoping for the Fatal-Four way Tag Team Match between the PTPs, New Day, Lucha Dragons, and either the Matadores or Ascension. That should be good. Their tag-team match this week was good. Not great, but good.

- Like we've come to expect, the Heyman promo this week was absolutely amazing. He's perfect at selling main-event matches like the Lesnar Vs. Undertaker match, and he was fired up more than usual this week to do just that. He should definitely be teaching promo-class to Tanner if Tanner wins Tough Enough.

- It was really funny and awesome when Sheamus walked in on the Wyatts promo. It feel new and cool to see someone else doing those promos. Queue the "Nice to see Erick Rowan back!" jokes. That's funny and clever.

- It was nice that the faces won at the end to send the crowd home happy after the tribute to Piper that was really saddening.

Tough Enough/Tough Talk:

- They need to go with a different approach with Paige. The first couple of weeks of Tough Enough, she was fine, but she's just getting borderline annoying now. She tries WAY too hard, when she really doesn't need to, to be mean, and it just proves to be annoying. I know I'm the millionth fan to complain, but I'm allowed to.

- Miz's comment about the crowd being able to relate to ZZ, who is "lazy", was awesome. Miz is portrayed as a heel on the show, which is fine to me because he's really good at being a heel and getting heat.

- Daniel Bryan needs to speak up more. I feel as if he's there to stay relevant, which I can respect from a company perspective if they want Daniel to come back in the next year or two. I miss him in the ring, like I'm sure everyone does.

- Amanda should have gone home. However, I will take Miz's word on whatever he does since he is a Tough Enough alumni, and what he says about Amanda does make sense, since most of our divas on the roster are based on looks anyways, and Amanda has the look. The only problem is, I think Sara Lee and GiGi have the looks too.

- I really like Tough Talk. To me, it feels unscripted and crisp. I liked it more when Miz was the host though, but Byron Saxton is fine in the role. If you haven't watched it yet, I recommend it. The show basically goes into detail with the Judges and Contestants about what happened the past week in the barracks and in the challenges.

NXT:

- Sadly, I didn't have time to watch NXT before I wrote this up. I apologize for that. Next week, I'll watch and review it briefly here.

Smackdown:

- This week's Smackdown only had 4 matches on it, which felt VERY bare. Two hours could use a little more wrestling, and less RAW recaps and things like that.

- However, the Roman Reigns Vs. Rusev match was very good. They are definitely two competitors who have improved much since their respective debuts and the WWE can use them long-term and rely on them as veterans.

- I usually write the Smackdown spoilers for WNS, and every time I write them, I think "The last time Smackdown was relevant was before the rosters were connected." I wish we had a split roster again. It gave me reasons to watch Smackdown because I would most of the time like some of the people who were Smackdown-exclusive. Smackdown is on the same level as Main Event and Superstars are these days. It's saddening.

News:

- Things were pretty quiet this week except that Hulk Hogan, who was recently given the "Chris Benoit Treatment", as people call it, might be facing jail time. Even though I do not condone what Hogan did, I think it's a little ridiculous for him to go to jail. Maybe I'm just bias because he was the biggest thing to professional wrestling, but he's already been punished enough by the WWE for his actions. I don't see why he should be imprisoned.

Score: I'll give this week a 6.5 out of 10.

On a good Monday Night RAW, and a mediocre Tough Enough where the wrong person went home (for the third week in a row), to a bare Smackdown with at least a ***1/2 main event, this week in WWE was pretty good. Smackdown could have used a little more, but the main event made up for the small-amount of matches. RAW was good, with the opening and ending being good, as well as the awesome Heyman promo snuck in the middle of the show. I still feel that Amanda or GiGi should have gone home in Tough Enough this week (Amanda because GiGi and Sara are doing much better than her, and GiGi because she complained wrongly about being dropped on her head), but, whatever. I won't let Tough Enough take away the good RAW and Smackdown this week.

This is a test to see if these are acclaimed well or not. I might try to not do bullet-points and write paragraphs on each. Still not sure. Make sure to follow me on Twitter (@NicholasPruner) to let me know about anything you'd like my thoughts on. Keep cool, WWE Universe.