Well, I don’t know about you, but this is the end of week one of the lockdown, or whatever you choose to call it. Being in New York myself, life has come to a screeching halt, and I know I am not alone. Wrestling has provided little solace. It’s week 2 of blue brand blues, as in…two hours of a show and zero audience! What’s not to love about that? Plenty, but I digress. In a time of militant social distancing (that really isn’t happening enough…), I am thankful for a couple hours of (mostly bad) distractions from the noisy news cycle. So sure, week 2 of blue brand blues are, well, not fun. But week 2 of blue brand blues beats the alternatives I had, so blue brand blues wins on this weekend Nutshell. So just like that, let’s crack open this Nutshell!
Best Match of the night:
Nothing to write home about, mostly.
OK, fine…the tag match with Daneil Bryan, Drew Gulak et al? It wasn’t terrible.
Worst match of the night:
All matches lately, in empty arenas, whether pre-recorded or not, are not fun. Yes, WWE has done some that were in empty arenas that worked out…nothing like that in 2020, however.
Crowd Chants of the Night:
No crowd, no chants. Except Miz and Morrison…but their chant is lame.
Star of the Night
I give credit to Reigns and Goldberg. If I were doing a staredown, in an empty arena? I know I would be stifling laughter, or I would be whispering some stuff to make the other guy crack up.
But to be that intense, without an audience? Good stuff (even though I think most audiences would probably vehemently crap all over this match, because it just doesn’t move needles).
Spot of the Night:
I guess, since there are like, NO good options…I shall go with Otis going on a rampage and putting Miz and Morrison through the barricade. Felt like it would set them up to be in the tag title scene at ‘Mania, but as we learned later on, it’s going to be either The Usos or The New Day (as presently constituted).
Jobber of the Night:
That poor, poor office furniture during the contract signing. I mean, seriously! I’ve spent days trying to find a good, affordable office chair to update my work from home setup during this lockdown madness…and WWE guys are out there just tossing stuff around?! (I kid, sort of…I was looking for a chair though!).
Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:
Really, the only thing I could think of is…holy sh@#, Goldberg and Reigns cutting promos on each other is seriously not fun.
Botch of the night:
JUST IN: at wrestlemania, Bayley will defend her title against: Naomi, Lacey Evans, Dana Brooke, Tamina and Sasha banks! #Smackdown pic.twitter.com/AkcbbCr2ha
— travage (@banksesglow) March 21, 2020
Just listen to Sasha…that is dialogue that, in a normal time at a normal SmackDown, we would not hear. I believe she realized that right about mid-dirty word, but we can call it a botch anyways.
Also, there is this…
Interesting effect of having no audience on Smackdown, you get a peak behind the scenes. Someone’s headset must have been off, because you can hear the director calling for very quick camera cuts. pic.twitter.com/xtarZ2PRcF
— Jon Alba (@JonAlba) March 21, 2020
LOL Moment of the night:
OK, this made me laugh at myself I guess? Here we were (or, here I was, anyways) thinking we’d get something, you know…BIG…from Paige when she showed up.
She couldn’t make it last week. She wasn’t even physically in the ring THIS week.
On top of that, all she did was reveal the six pack challenge participants, with at least one Superstar in there who is extremely undeserving.
Hey role models. @SashaBanksWWE and @itsBayleyWWE good luck facing eachother… bitch. #WrestleMania
— PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) March 21, 2020
Noteworthy Moment:
Gronk is in WWE. T-shirt included, cutting his first promo.
Not great. Not terrible. Better than some in bigger spots, to be honest
Rob Gronkowski cuts his first promo in @WWE#SmackDownpic.twitter.com/505w2EGkfS
— B/R Wrestling (@BRWrestling) March 21, 2020
And, he got physical right away.
Unrelated, Miz and Morrison have range.
Overall lowlights:
Not being mean, just brutally honest…these shows aren’t good. At least they are putting some actual matches in to help liven things up…but I don’t think it helps a lot. I’d much rather WWE bring back some old NXT or other indy type matches-show us wrestlers before they became Superstars. There is a better chance people have not seen that, as opposed to, say, Cena-Wyatt from New Orleans.
I will even admit, I caught a bit of AEW on Wednesday…maybe it was just me, maybe it was because I barely check in on it…but it seemed to have more pop in an empty arena. Even with that goofy drone bit at the end, prior to the Matt Hardy reveal.
Overall highlights:
Well, I liked Gronk’s energy, that’s for sure.
Paige was good to see her back. Miss her as the GM. Seems that was what she was doing, more a GM role on the show. At least relative to that match.
I liked seeing angry Otis.
After the final bell:
It’s been said elsewhere, but I can say it here too. WWE needs to figure out something to make this work, or why bother. On one hand, I am appreciative that they are creating pseudo-new content during a time in our lives where almost no new content is being created. However, it’s a genre that really needs the live audience, and while once in a while without an audience can be unique…doing so every week, 3 shows a week? It’s brutal. Maybe try some of the WWE Network shows in those slots? Maybe have some “before they were Superstars” bits, where like, Roman Reigns talks during his FCW matches? I don’t know…but…be creative. Be more creative.
