WWE TV - 5/18 - 5/24/2026 - If You Love Someone Set Them Jacy

[Dolfan in NYC]

 If you need somebody, call my name... If you want someone, you can do the same... If you wanna keep something precious...

They're strapping a rocket to Trick and it seems to be taking... 

 

The man is a hurricane of charisma.  He's gonna be huge.

 Gotta lock it up and throw away the key... You want to hold on to your possession... Don't even think about me!

We had an irl wedding! Congrats to the blushing bride and her (formerly?) Evil beau...

Very nice, very evil, indeed...

 If you love somebody, if you love someone... If you love somebody, if you love someone, set them free...

On tap for tonight!  We have a PLE in... jesus, 2 weeks?  Better hurry and book a couple of matches!

The OF Open Challenge is not just bad booking because they're clearly spinning the wheels until Roman gets free, but the point of these is usually the one throwing out the challenge has to eventually... lose to someone. And you probably don't want that with your future #1 contender? Eh...  whatever.  Just let it go Dolfan...

(I realized at some point that this video reminded me of that shooting game Revolution X.  Did you know that game was originally supposed to have Public Enemy in it?)

Enjoy the Memorial Day week! 

 

[dogwelder]

6 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

We have a PLE in... jesus, 2 weeks?

And SNME this Saturday.

[Bustronaut]

"The OF Open Challenge" has... different connotations

[Peck]

Christ, I just realized they're probably going to try to get Clavicular on to some programming eventually, aren't they?

[Dolfan in NYC]

1 minute ago, Peck said:

Christ, I just realized they're probably going to try to get Clavicular on to some programming eventually, aren't they?

Nah man, he's way too in trouble with the law right now.   You see, he streamed a video where he "bulletmaxxed" a "chad" alligator in the Florida Everglades.  And if there's one thing the state of Florida doesn't want you doing, is murdering their endangered species.  I think he's currently out on bond. 

That plus he's a fentanyl addict who's come close to OD'ing already. 

 

[Peck]

1 minute ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Nah man, he's way too in trouble with the law right now.   You see, he streamed a video where he "bulletmaxxed" a "chad" alligator in the Florida Everglades.  And if there's one thing the state of Florida doesn't want you doing, is murdering their endangered species.  I think he's currently out on bond. 

That plus he's a fentanyl addict who's come close to OD'ing already. 

 

That may all be accurate, but who says no to him taking a 24mph spear from Breakker as a form of comeuppance???

[odessasteps]

Your sentence is 90 days in jail or a taking a shoot spear from the Steiner kid.

[Sex Machine Gun]

How can this open challenge still be going? It's already established that no one is dumb enough to want to fight Oba. He gonna drag JD McDonaugh to the ring to beat him up after Finn throws JD into Oba's arms or something?

Actually, yes, if you aren't going to give Finn the post-Mania big time last chance push I expected then go ahead and have him kill JD every week in different comedic ways. 

[The Natural]

Big ugh reading that Brock Lesnar is back again. Lesnar returned on RAW, laid out Oba Femi and wants a rematch with him at Clash in Italy. Lesnar should have gone out like he did at WrestleMania 42, passing the torch to Oba Femi and leaving his gloves/boots in the ring. It was a perfect ending. Gunther doesn't need Lesnar anymore either. Much like in life, some people just don't know when to leave enough alone and go out on a high note. Can't forget the Janel Grant accusations more importantly.

Edited May 19 by The Natural

[Niners Fan in CT]

WWE had the perfect ending to Brock's career and the perfect platform for Oba to begin a reign of dominance so OF COURSE they are going to fuck it all up. Embarrassing.  

[The Natural]

2 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

WWE had the perfect ending to Brock's career and the perfect platform for Oba to begin a reign of dominance so OF COURSE they are going to fuck it all up. Embarrassing.  

This.

[The Natural]

Brock Legnar!!!

[Eivion]

Roman & the Usos brawling with and eventually beating down Jacob was fun. I assume Jacob either takes the title with the tribal Combat challenge or he acknowledges Roman while subsequently maybe winning his respect. Kind of hope its the latter as there is really no reason to make either heel with how over they are with the crowd and Jacob could easily be a rival to Cody on Smackdown.

Finn/JD was pretty good Dug the attitudes and action from both guys with them just trying to destroy each other. Dom's interference came at just the right places and Finn earned his win.

The Sol/Becky segment was a solid setup to SNME.

OG EGA & Hermanos Americano vs. EGA & Los Americanos was all action and good fun all around. In general everyone involved looked good and worked well together, but the Creeds are perfect for matches like this and really got to impress.

Brie/Paige vs. Raquel/Roxanne was surprisingly decent. Brie & Paige aren't good compared to most of the current roster, but they do seem to be gradually finding an ok groove the more they wrestle.

Skipped the Obe Femi challenge once Brock attacked. I actually find the retirement fake out impressive, but I also don't want Brock on my screen.

Rollins/Theory build into a pretty solid match. The post match fighting between Rollins, Profits, and the Vision was fine.

 

Too few matches as usual though I found Finn/JD and the tornado tag to both be quite good and well worth a catch. Story wise nothing too bad here with Clash and SMNE getting solid build.

[J.T.]

Finn / JD was a perfectly fine match and I love both of those guys, but isn't Creative booking this shit in reverse or out of sequence at least?

You just had Finn come to the ring as the Demon (i.e. big match gimmick) and beat Dirty Dom at Wrestlemania in a Street Fight. Shouldn't this Teacher vs. Student match have come before WM and built towards Dom vs Finn?

WM is where angles are blown off, or at least that is what I used to think. This match just leads up to a Dom vs. Finn showdown that has already happened. WTF is going on in WWE Creative these days? Those mother fuckers need to use some of those millions to buy some whiteboards so they can plan this shit out using timelines or venn diagrams.

Oh, and fuck Brock Lesnar.

Edited May 19 by J.T.

[Eivion]

2 hours ago, J.T. said:

Finn / JD was a perfectly fine match and I love both of those guys, but isn't Creative booking this shit in reverse or out of sequence at least?

You just had Finn come to the ring as the Demon (i.e. big match gimmick) and beat Dirty Dom at Wrestlemania in a Street Fight. Shouldn't this Teacher vs. Student match have come before WM and built towards Dom vs Finn?

WM is where angles are blown off, or at least that is what I used to think. This match just leads up to a Dom vs. Finn showdown that has already happened. WTF is going on in WWE Creative these days? Those mother fuckers need to use some of those millions to buy some whiteboards so they can plan this shit out using timelines or venn diagrams.

Oh, and fuck Brock Lesnar.

It did. Dom and Judgment Day cheated to help JD win. Its partially why Finn busted out the Demon on Dom.

Still agree with you generally speaking. The Wrestlemania match was Dom and Finn's first match in their feud. It frankly made no sense to have a stip match or use the Demon. It was way too much way too fast. I'm guessing they were desperate for big matches and escalated too early. Finn and Dom should have had a normal match first.

[stuntmanc]

8 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

WWE had the perfect ending to Brock's career and the perfect platform for Oba to begin a reign of dominance so OF COURSE they are going to fuck it all up. Embarrassing.  

I'm not shocked they fucked it up, but i still naively hoped they wouldn't.

[hammerva]

You knew Brock would show up again as soon as Summerslam was in Minnesota.   The fact that they barely made it a month before doing it just reeks of desperation

[Casey]

18 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

And if there's one thing the state of Florida doesn't want you doing, is murdering their endangered species.  I think he's currently out on bond. 

lol Florida doesn't care about endangered species. He only got 6 months probation, 20 hours of community service and he has to take a firearm safety course.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

Is TKO mandating programs that Triple H has to book towards? Is Triple H just listening to old school hacks like Prichard too much? Is Triple H just bad at storytelling?

I genuinely dont understand the purpose of the retirement fake out. You *MADE* Oba in that moment. Now they're doing what WWE does and cutting the legs out and completely undoing everything good they did.

Brock over. Probably a rubber match somewhere that Brock also wins. Gunther wins the WWE Tilte. WWE then really main even Summer Slam with a heel vs heel title vs retirement Gunther vs Brock match.

[Sex Machine Gun]

11 hours ago, J.T. said:

WM is where angles are blown off, or at least that is what I used to think.

I did too! All of the internets since I've been around have parroted the idea that Mania is always where the feuds are blown off, myself included. Why wouldn't it be that way? It's been pushed as your biggest show year after year!

After this year I thought about it though, and cast back my memory to other Mania matches big and small. A lot of the things we think of as blowoffs were really just big moments. The feuds between wrestlers often went for months after Mania. Sure the Mega-Powers exploded at Mania V but you've got Hogan feuding with Savage for months afterward. Speaking of Savage, he wasn't done with Flair after Mania VIII. If you want to go more contemporary HHH and Batista ended up having two more PPV matches after their climax at Mania XXI. The next year Vince and Shawn weren't done after Mania either. 

Those just came to me off the top of my head, I'm sure if you went up and down the card on these you'd find like a 60/40 split of not-a-blowoff/blowoff matches (celebrity ones excepted).

Edited May 19 by Sex Machine Gun

[Sex Machine Gun]

First thing I saw when I got to watch Raw was a replay of Lesnar showing up. How sad is it that I'm relieved SOMETHING happened on one of these shows for once, rather than annoyed he pantomimed a fake retirement?

[odessasteps]

9 hours ago, hammerva said:

You knew Brock would show up again as soon as Summerslam was in Minnesota.   The fact that they barely made it a month before doing it just reeks of desperation

Or it was the plan all along? 

[J.T.]

19 hours ago, Eivion said:

It did. Dom and Judgment Day cheated to help JD win. Its partially why Finn busted out the Demon on Dom.

Still agree with you generally speaking. The Wrestlemania match was Dom and Finn's first match in their feud. It frankly made no sense to have a stip match or use the Demon. It was way too much way too fast. I'm guessing they were desperate for big matches and escalated too early. Finn and Dom should have had a normal match first.

I totally skipped Judgment Day. 

I suppose if we're looking forward towards SummerSlam then Finn / JD fits within the context of an ongoing civil war betwen Finn and his old stable, but IMO that kinda diminishes the importance of the WM match which at this point, doesn't feel as big to me as it should. If Dom vs. Finn happens again at SummerSlam then it's still somewhat of a logical progression but it definitely feels like things peaked too early.

10 hours ago, Sex Machine Gun said:

Those just came to me off the top of my head, I'm sure if you went up and down the card on these you'd find like a 60/40 split of not-a-blowoff/blowoff matches (celebrity ones excepted).

As far as WM I think it's still the case for the mid-card for the most part, but the main event is a bit of a different animal. What you say for WWE and big match PPVs can also be said for WCW at that time. On one hand you had Hogan fighting a revolving door of supervillains while the Four Horsemen fended off all comers in WCW. There were precious few of these feuds that were actually blown off at WM or GAB because those workers were the cornerstones of their respective federations.

[Eivion]

Tony/Myles vs. Rook/Hendrix was solid but not the best way to showcase Hendrix or Rook ring wise. Rook in particular didn't quite get the monster feel they had been building prior. Still looked decent and got some heat back in a later segment taking out Hendrix for stealing the pin from him. Hopefully they give these two some singles matches to better showcase and give a decent sense of their capabilities.

Tristan/Romeo was pretty nice and exactly what both men needed to impress.

Tatum/Lizzy was good. Thought they worked well together and busted out some neat stuff even if the final sequence was a little wonky. Was nice to see it end clean and strong for Tatum. The post match murder of both by Zaria was expected and well done.

Keanu/Wilder was pretty solid and probably the best both guys have looked so far on NXT though that isn't saying much for Wilder per say only in his second match. Still, I thought his character came across well here by the end  while he bumped big and had some nice comebacks against Carver. Didn't hurt that he was busted open either. Carver himself feels like he is gradually getting more and more into the groove of what they want him be as a dangerous factor even without Wilder bleeding. Everything he does has impact and feels mean.

Lennox/Shugars vs. Swipe Right was pretty darn good, easily Dion's best performance so far. The ending went as expected with Cutler & Osiris attacking. I kind of like how it seemed to hint they would have crushed whoever lost the pic regardless opposed to being a grand place by Lennox or Shugars. Still, it feels way too early to have Shugars ousted and on his own. That man doesn't really scream face at all at the moment.

 

The storytelling was mostly decent-solid, but it was the wrestling that particularly delivered tonight. It was good seeing the newer face impress and people like DarkState fully come into their own ring wise. Tatum/Lizzy should have easily stolen the night, but damn did that tag match surprisingly deliver given the story they told normally getting a bit in the way. Everything was at least solid, but the Women's NA title match and main event are definitely the matches to see the most from tonight. Good show.

Edited May 20 by Eivion

[worldcupfever]

2 hours ago, Eivion said:

Still, it feels way too early to have Shugars ousted and on his own. They man doesn't really scream face at all at the moment.

I do think Shugars will get over (and get over fairly big) on his own just with his talking.