Eivion Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Mandy/Nattie was solid though it does feel slightly weird seeing Mandy trade holds with Nattie. Bianca/Bayley didn't feel like they really needed the cell, but it was pretty good. Loved when Bayley tried to leave. Alexa/Shayna was pretty much a burial for Shayna and Nia. Its going to be interesting to when crowds return next month. If Alexa gets the likely terrible reactions she will I wonder if they will finally kill this gimmick because its not doing anyone any good. Charlotte/Rhea was solid-good. There was a nice feel of hate times. The dq finish was disappointing and not a great idea. This should have been the cell match. Kind of ready for both women to move on. Couldn't get into Lashley/Drew. Missed large chunks of Seth/Cesaro & Owens/Sami. Not a a good show though Bianca/Bayley was worth catching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HumanChessgame Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Bianca/Bayley was fine though like Eivion said it didn't need the cell. Remember when Shayna was almost like the female Brock Lesnar and choking out everyone who crossed her path? A live crowd shitting on Alexa's gimmick is probably just going to make them find ways to make it even worse in hopes of salvaging it. Rhea and Charlotte had a good enough match, though the bout Rhea had with Asuka the other week was better. They should have just had a match a few weeks ago featuring Rhea getting DQed and snapping on Charlotte then just had this match in the cell instead. Owens/Sami was fine but nothing we haven't seen before Seth/Cesaro was great even if the wrong guy won. I would have liked the world title match fine in a vacuum, but the fact this feud has been going on endlessly despite Drew decisively losing made it hard for me to care. Hopefully a brand switch is in order for one of them after this. Aside from Bianca, did any other faces win tonight? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kafkonia Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Depends. Who would you call the faces in the other women's matches? One thing I'll say is that they had four women's matches, with four separate storylines (quality notwithstanding.) That's not something to overlook. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 The Red Cell and a lot of the ThunderDome production is an assault on my eyes and senses. The red cage against the video wall screens just looks really blobby and globby to me. And then the flashing lights while the matches are going on are headache-inducing. Smith isn't really doing play by play commentary. He doesn't really enhance the commentary booth very much. He's just another guy doing big reaction commentary in a three-man booth and not really calling the action. I don't see the point of running McIntyre vs. Lashley again. That was a dull finish. There's no reason you couldn't have done Lashley vs. Kofi Kingston here. The whole Hell in a Cell concept has become pretty watered down in the TV-PG era because it's not a TV-PG match. Not only that, having a whole Hell in a Cell event with multiple cell matches is just overkill. I don't get the point of doing a Raw/TV finish for Ripley vs. Charlotte on PPV. It's a waste. What I got from this show, WWE clearly spinning its wheels and in holding pattern mode until touring and SummerSlam. The key will be if they can really take the gloves off when that time comes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 I'd have liked to have seen Owens vs. Zayn inside HIAC. Owens vs. Zayn from NXT TakeOver: Rival 2015 is still their best WWE match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Sugar Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 I really enjoyed this show. I feel Charlotte/Rhea was positioned poorly on the card: the "dark comedy" of Bliss/Baszler should've been on before the main, because nobody was following such an amazing Owens/Zayn match. My 3 fave matches were Owens/Zayn, Drew/Bobby and Cesaro/Rollins, with an honorable mention to a strong Natalya/Mandy pre-show match. I wasn't entirely sold on the two women's championship matches but the braid-work in Bayley/Bianca was well done. I felt Rhea/Charlotte just didn't have consistent chemistry: there were flashes, but it was a rough match. I loved the Bliss schtick, and it was nice to see "serious" Baszler just go out and have some fun. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eoae Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 So was the finish to Charlotte/Ripley a heel turn (in which case Charlotte would be turning face?)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Technically no because the WWE has always considered Charlotte the face in this. (It is one of those things Meltzer and Alvarez would always fight over because Bryan was like "no way is she a face" and Dave would always be "they consider her the face!") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 KO announced on Twitter that he is taking "a little break" 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 35 minutes ago, RIPPA said: Technically no because the WWE has always considered Charlotte the face in this. (It is one of those things Meltzer and Alvarez would always fight over because Bryan was like "no way is she a face" and Dave would always be "they consider her the face!") Eh, Charlotte doesn't come across remotely the face in this. It feels more like they just don't know how work Rhea as an anti-hero face. I mean Meltzer could be right, but every action Charlotte has done has been heel while Rhea at least tries to give some semblance of respect to the people around her not named Charlotte. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 The thing that frustrates me so much with the Bryan "no way is this person a face" and Dave "they say she's the face" is that Dave takes that as gospel and rarely comes around to Bryan's way of thinking about it. Dave just takes whatever he hears from WWE as gospel and refuses to see it any differently than that. I'm almost inclined to think that Dave might be full of shit every single time he says that someone from WWE told him that such and such is the face or the heel and he just has a busted view of wrestling. However, when you watch how WWE books this shit, he's also not exactly wrong. So that just goes full circle back to my annoyance that he won't just say, "Bryan, I agree with you, no way is this person a face, but WWE thinks they are and this is what we have to live with." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 To me, she always comes off like a heel, no matter what she is booked to do. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eoae Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 I had no idea I was supposed to be cheering Charlotte. Since she came back after Wrestlemania, she's definitely seemed like a heel. Kind of disappointed. I think Charlotte's a great heel and an average face. Tend to not pay much attention to her during her babyface runs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Imagine having this job 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peck Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 1 hour ago, hammerva said: Imagine having this job Until they get released during a round of weapons budget cuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamal Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 2 hours ago, odessasteps said: To me, she always comes off like a heel, no matter what she is booked to do. Pretty much this. My match of the night was Bayley/Bianca. Also cool to see Nattie and Mandy get some time. Not sure what's going on with Alexa playing The Princess of Darkness but it's not good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted June 22, 2021 Share Posted June 22, 2021 10 hours ago, hammerva said: Imagine having this job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StretchMediatedHypertrophy Posted June 22, 2021 Share Posted June 22, 2021 10 hours ago, hammerva said: Imagine having this job What else do you expect the son of Mae Young and Mark Henry to do for a job exactly? 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoeCristyV.1.6 Posted June 22, 2021 Share Posted June 22, 2021 (edited) That's Samurai Cop level camera work. Why are they focusing the camera on that? Edited June 22, 2021 by MoeCristyV.1.6 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shartnado Posted June 22, 2021 Share Posted June 22, 2021 Now obviously Bayley vs Bianca was on a whole another level as a match, but it is interesting that Bayley' great character work has been reduced to a fake laughter that she's absolutely terrible at while Alexa Bliss continues to be absolutely on point with every little thing her character does (well, not necessarily the wrestling part, but still). The material she's stuck with should sink absolutely anyone and she's swimming laps around basically everyone else. She might want to do some small scale acting in the near future. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NikoBaltimore Posted June 22, 2021 Share Posted June 22, 2021 Oh, for sure. I always knew that Alexa was a horror movie fan but didn't realize that she would crush it in one until I saw what she was doing. Granted this was a couple months ago so if she's gotten better at this this then that's great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shartnado Posted June 22, 2021 Share Posted June 22, 2021 5 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said: Oh, for sure. I always knew that Alexa was a horror movie fan but didn't realize that she would crush it in one until I saw what she was doing. Granted this was a couple months ago so if she's gotten better at this this then that's great. I've pretty much only seen the stuff shown on PPV's, but every glimpse I've seen has been top notch, especially given the material she has to work with. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinit Posted June 22, 2021 Share Posted June 22, 2021 Is there a good gif floating around of that Drew crashpad bump with the hand under the ring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Dave Posted June 22, 2021 Share Posted June 22, 2021 I’m not sure why y’all think live crowds will shit on Alexa. It’s not like Shayna Baszler is some beloved entity, particularly outside of nXt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts