RIShane

This is a misleading angle. You can see from alternate angles that they didn't come near hitting her head: In terms of the situation in general, there's been so much outrage about it online (including ones based on the inaccurate belief Kairi got hit in the head by a monitor) and so many assumed motives (Reddit is completely furious) that I think its worth waiting for more information to come out before making judgements.

Asuka/Kairi’s theatrical heeling was great fun before Kairi got hurt. It’s rough cause she’s tiny so she has less protection in situations like that.

Plus while a hierarchy isn't a bad thing in itself, the match and her not really selling the Kairi elbow that much comes as just the latest moment in more than a year of Becky having incredibly protected booking. That match was her first back after not taking the fall at Survivor Series (which is fine in itself) and then getting a needless Hogan-must-pose moment and Michael Cole going on about how she didn't really lose to finish the show. At this point her last clean loss was at the Rumble to Asuka and given the way Asuka largely disappeared from TV afterwards was basically just a pretext so she could then win the Rumble later that night on one leg. The thing that gets me about it is that the protection is so heavy that its actively undermining the storytelling a lot of the time. In addition to this example (you can understand why Charlotte would need to work together given she lost clean but Becky didn't lose or even come close to losing, so why bother?), it reminds me of how parts of the Mania build were hurt by their reluctance to ever let Becky show any adversity on the way to winning both belts. The one that strikes me was the Beat the Clock challenge they did a couple of weeks before Mania. Ronda starts and beats Sarah Logan in 1:25, then Charlotte runs out of time against Ruby Riott (in what incidentally is about as good of a match as you can pull off in 85 seconds, they somehow tell a coherent story and include some cool counters/sequences in that time) and lashes out by attacking Becky. Clearly the logical choice given that Becky is going to be winning at Mania is to let Ronda win here so Ronda is then more of a threat to overcome at the PPV, especially as Becky has already gotten the protection of interference. What do they do instead? Have Becky win clean with ten seconds to spare. Its such odd storytelling. Its hard even for Becky to run this 'debt' storyline she keeps trying to push on social media because she's been booked so dominantly for so long that there aren't really any at this point.

It was actually really interesting being able to watch Charlotte and Becky work the same stipulation and same opponents (and similar match length) within two weeks, it highlighted their different styles, as well as the extra-protected booking Becky has. And agreed, Andrade/Humberto was really good, loved Andrade's transition from a moonsault straight into his running knees. Plus him and Zelina having tension is some actual story development.

At least it wasn't the Battlebowl? Not saying it was good, mind you.

Here’s hoping, that match should be awesome when it happens, even if it would have been cool back when Kairi was a face. Two things that struck me watching the handicap match is how Asuka and Charlotte are excellent at making their work feel like a fight, and how even during submissions they’re always moving and struggling so it doesn’t feel like a rest hold. The pacing was great too, it was basically all-action for fifteen minutes.

And her style doesn’t really use much chain stuff anymore. I also think it’s a problem that aerial moves are so prominent in her moveset when they’re a weakness.

Fun show on the whole, but two moments that mystified me: - The level of protection Sasha got with NXT having to cheat despite Rhea being a face, Sasha being a heel, and Sasha not really doing much besides being Bayley’s lackey at the moment. It undercut NXT’s win for no real reason. - The post main-event segment, which undercut Shayna’s win, made Becky look like a bad sport, and felt like the most pointless ‘Hogan must pose’ sequence we’ve seen in a long time. I also felt the three of them lacked chemistry, with a very slow pace and some pretty striking botches like them messing up Bayley’s sunset flip bomb into the corner. And that’s besides constant Ronda teasing all night that didn’t get paid off. It was an odd main event.

Right, plus the difference with say Stone Cold is that there was always Vince as the foil trying to screw him, and sometimes it even worked, which in turn created easy motivation for revenge. Becky by contrast has commentators and on-air figures fawning over her and wearing her merch (see for example Road Dogg when he appeared on Raw earlier this year), and gets booked so incredibly strong that there isn’t really any suspense and no one comes out of a Becky feud being elevated. Indeed, they often get taken off TV for several weeks afterwards.

Yeah, I had no issue with her beating Kairi, but it was overkill also having her beat both of them up beforehand, as the feud heads towards her beating Asuka too cause apparently she needs 'revenge' for Asuka beating her at the Rumble even though from the way Asuka disappeared off TV afterwards, it was pretty transparent the whole point was so Becky could then win the Rumble on one leg later that night. Her booking is really something, and its basically been like this for eighteen months now.

Goodnight, sweet prince.

I did notice they left the convenient wriggle-room of the Women's tag titles being able to float across brands.

I was mystified by why they had Charlotte and Becky do so much promotional and advertising work for SD-on-Fox only for both to seemingly end up on Raw. As it stands, this is the entire SD women's roster: Bayley/Sasha/Lacey/Carmella/Tamina.

And drafting Alexa and Nikki separately! The USA Network.

It’s kinda crazy how heavily she’s being used for Bayley’s benefit since Mania, after being used for Becky’s before. Their April SD match got fans excited about Bayley again, then Bayley cashed in on her at MITB so Becky didn’t have to lose it that way, and now after getting a 4 minute match with a comedy ending in her hometown, she’s being used again to try and get Heel Bayley over. It’s tiring. I hope it works at least.

Rob Schamberger’s art wasn’t a prediction for the women’s matches, it was a spoiler:

WWE on Fox is amusingly snarky.

I think the women carried this show, honestly. Becky/Sasha was great and Becky's best match since TLC last year (Becky thrives in gimmick matches), the women's tag overdelivered and I'm delighted to see heel Asuka on the main roster, and Charlotte/Bayley got the crowd back into it even with the over-long Corbin/Gable match before it. With the Lacey/Nattie preshow match it was also the second PPV this year to have four women's matches and three on the main card, that's progress. Yeah, the main event and its ending sucked, but there's still strong positives to take out of this show.

I get Bayley losing wasn't a popular decision around here, but you can understand the logic right ahead of the draft and Charlotte being a central part of Fox's advertising/promotion. (My theory is we're going to see Charlotte/Becky main event at Survivor Series and that's when Ronda and co return...) Charlotte's been all class about it, too.