While new original content wasn’t extremely busy this week, the WWE Network certainly kept busy with tons and tons of episodes of World Championship Wrestling from the National Wrestling Alliance. The list of episodes has reached over 60 in total now. Not a bad way to spend your holiday, right?
As for the original content, it certainly was all quality this week. Sure, it wasn’t a staggering amount and shows like Table For 3 and Rivalries are sorely missed, but what we did get delivered. Let’s take a look…
RAW Pre-Show
Like every week, our original content starts with the RAW Pre-Show. The RAW Pre-Show is a show that a lot of people might skip over but it seems to be growing in popularity now with the new format. Add in the excellent chemistry between Scott Stanford, David Otunga, and Corey Graves and it is easy to see why people are slowly making their way to the series.
This week took a slight change, as instead of the usual RAW Bold Prediction segment, they decided to discuss what they were thankful for, which I thought was a nice touch. With that said, I definitely recommend people give this a chance as it’s not the RAW Pre-Show of old.
The WWE List
I thought last week’s episode of The WWE List may very well be the best one yet. Vignettes was the perfect topic for this kind of show. As for OMG Moments, I thought it delivered well, though it wasn’t quite as good. It was still quite good and a step above most episodes, but a lot of what was focused on was obvious, making it better for a series like Countdown than the WWE List.
That aside, it was still very entertaining. The plethora of guests is always one of the biggest hooks and we see a lot of this series’ regulars from this season. We also see Solomon Crowe, who unfortunately was released this week. This may be one of the last times we see Crowe outside of a Breaking Ground appearance or two, so enjoy it.
Unfiltered with Renee Young
Now this was fun. Unfiltered with Renee Young always delivers provided it has a WWE talent and not a celebrity and I thought this one was one of the better editions so far. The Miz is criticized a lot but he is always entertaining when talking, especially away from the ring. This was perhaps most notable during his time on Tough Talk and Tough Enough earlier this year.
Here, he tries to dial back who he is and discusses with Renee how he struggles to turn The Miz off when cameras are around or he’s in public. They discuss several topics from sassing the drive through workers to Seinfeld with a lot in between. The show may be short, but if anything that just gives you more reason to watch it!
NXT
Eva Marie main eventing? To most on the internet this is the end of the world. The fear of Eva winning the NXT Women’s Championship is enough to give a lot of people nightmares. But guess what? The main event totally delivered. I won’t spoil the results, but regardless of how you feel about the decision and Eva, the match was a rollercoaster ride of emotions for the live fans and the viewers. It was very well done.
Beyond that, the show had other things to look forward to. We had a contract signing for NXT Takeover: London between Samoa Joe and Finn Balor, we had a NXT Tag Team Championship match, and we had Apollo Crews in action. I found it interesting that Rich tried to make Jesse Sorenson’s appearance as something important, with Byron and Corey quickly shooting it down. Oh and Emma was on the show, so really, that is enough reason to watch.
Match List
NXT Tag Team Championship: Dash and Dawson vs. Vaudevillains (Simon Gotch and Aiden English)
Jesse Sorenson vs. Apollo Crews
NXT Women’s Championship: Bayley vs. Eva Marie (with Nia Jax)
RAW
This was the RAW immediately following Hell in a Cell, airing on October 26th. The episode is titled “Hell in the Rearview”, which is fitting as Kane would no longer be involved in making Seth Rollins’ life a living hell. Well, unless of course you count Kane being in the match where Rollins would go on to get injured in.
This show was all about finding out the next number one contender. Four tournament matches would take place with the winners of the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view facing off in matches. The final four would then be in a Fatal Four Way main event. This episode was pretty solid with some good action. RAW these days can be very miss for a lot of people, but I thought the in-ring stuff absolutely delivered.
Match List
Kofi Kingston (with Big E) vs. Roman Reigns
Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens
Team Bella (Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, and Alicia Fox) vs. Team PCB (Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Paige)
Alberto Del Rio (with Zeb Colter) vs. Neville
Sheamus, Rusev, and King Barrett vs. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudly) and Ryback
Dolph Ziggler vs. Big E (with Kofi Kingston)
Number One Contender: Alberto Del Rio vs. Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns vs. Dolph Ziggler
Closing Thoughts
Okay sure, the amount of original content wasn’t very significant this week. The good news is, every single piece of content they had delivered. Besides, this week wasn’t about fresh original content. Between the aforementioned SIXTY-PLUS episodes of NWA-WCW added to the vault along with the entire fourth season of Total Divas, the focus was all on the archives. This week definitely had something for almost everyone. Looking forward, will we be getting more NWA-WCW? We see next week is looking to be slow, could this be because of more archived footage coming? I suppose the only way to find out is to wait and see.
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