So it's been a while since I covered wrestling on the blog but I thought I'd do a bit of a review for my thoughts on the last 12 months. We'll do this show by show so let's kick off with the obvious...
WWE RAW/SMACKDOWN: Well, the year started with a babyface Royal Rumble winner being given the Rock's seal of approval and still getting booed out of the ring and, apart from a couple of decent moments, it really didn't get much better from there. For the majority of 2015, Raw and Smackdown (let's be honest, they're pretty much interchangable nowadays) have been a convoluted mess of bad booking, misused characters and storylines that nobody cares about.
Credit to WWE, after a horrendous Royal Rumble mis-step, they did come up with two solid PPV's in Fast Lane and Wrestlemania (which was way better than I was worried it was gonna be) but the trouble is that they stumbled off into the fog without a compass straight away afterwards. Seth Rollins winning the title should have been the catalyst for him to finally become the man to carry the company on his back but awful booking saw him pretty much get cut off at the knees due to the terrible "Corporate Champion" character they saddled him with (yeah, that old chestnut...more on that later).
It did look like things were getting better in the run-up to Survivor Series - even before Rollins' injury threw the whole title scene into chaos, Raw had a couple of episodes which were the best for months. And the title tournament, combined with several of the old guard taking time off through injuries, gave a lot of people hope that this was a golden opportunity for WWE to give someone new the ball and see if they could run with it but the end result at Survivor Series was an absolute mess - Roman Reigns winning the title wasn't the end of the world as at least he'd been built up a bit better than 12 months ago but for him to then instantly lose it to Sheamus (a decent wrestler but so far from being over as a heel that he might as well be under) was a total turn-off.
Speaking of injuries...I will give WWE some leeway and say that the number of wrestlers being put on the sidelines over the last 12 months really hasn't helped them at all - Rollins we've dealt with already but 2015 also saw Daniel Bryan's injury woes continue and it looks as though we may now have seen the last of him in a WWE ring. Likewise, John Cena ended up having to take time off on the back of probably his best year in wrestling to date and add to that the likes of Randy Orton, Tyson Kidd, Cesaro, Sting, Sami Zayn, Hideo Otami (yeah I know the last two are technically still on NXT but you're seriously telling me they wouldn't have been called up to the main roster by now if they'd stayed fit?) all being absent for long periods (not to mention the part-timers like Undertaker and Brock Lesnar) and it leaves you at a serious disadvantage.
But even an injury crisis is still no excuse for some of the abysmal booking from WWE in the last year. The main problem is the continuation of the Authority storyline that has been running for close on two decades now and which I think I can safely say that 95% of WWE fans are sick to the back teeth of. Evil authority figures worked in 1999 because Vince McMahon was awesome in the role but it's got so watered down now that nobody buys it anymore. Seriously guys, just drop the whole thing and let the lead heels on your roster try to get over on their own. Add to this a mix of good workers being held down in the midcard (Dolph Ziggler, Cesaro, Adrian Neville), the title scene being clogged up with has-beens like Big Show and Kane and the fact that a lot of the upper card feel as though they're in the wrong roles (I've already mentioned about Sheamus bombing as a heel, I'd add to that that I would turn Dean Ambrose heel as he just seems to have a natural knack for playing the bad guy which is being wasted in his current role. I'd also turn Wade Barrett face - his Bad News gimmick was starting to get him over last year before WWE dropped it and gave him the dreaded King gimmick which is doomed to fail unless your name's Jerry Lawler). Even guys who do start to get over like the New Day faction get their heat killed off when creative tries to take credit for something that's been created naturally and try to take charge of it themselves, usually failing. Even a reboot of the Divas division, which was badly needed, somehow got screwed up by creative as they introduced too many new faces at once leading to the likes of Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks simply getting lost in the shuffle.
I don't think there's any quick fix to WWE's problems going into New Year and with ratings currently at a two decade low, it's gonna take time to turn things around. My suggestion would be that the creative team badly needs to be cut from the 20-odd people who are currently on there to just one or two - giving the storylines a bit of clarity would be a good first step to the ship being righted. My suggestion would simply be to give the book to Paul Heyman but unfortunately he's gone on record as saying that becoming a booker again doesn't interest him.
I guess we'll see but as the Royal Rumble approaches I can't say I'm exactly optimistic about Raw getting much better in 2016...
NXT
Raw's parlous state is even more mind-boggling when you consider how well the junior arm of WWE, NXT, has been booked in the last 12 months. Every week they put on an hour of television that's fast-paced, well-told and with good wrestling to boot. The main contenders are made to look like serious threats and they're getting the sort of rabid following that's reminiscent of ECW back in the day. And the fact that they've got such a talented roster down there with guys like Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, Bayley, Hideo Otami and Samoa Joe, may just be the key to saving Raw.
The trouble is that when NXT stars get called up to the main roster, they often get abandoned to mid card purgatory - just look at Adrian Neville, Sasha Banks, Tyler Breeze and the Ascension. The fact that this could happen to the likes of Balor, Zayn and Bayley in the near future is worrying and unless WWE realises the goldmine they've got in their developmental territory, they're doomed to continue making the same mistakes again and again.
For now though, let's just enjoy NXT and hope that it doesn't get crippled from above in the near future. They've put on at least four classic PPV's in the last 12 months (Revolution, Rivals, Brooklyn and London), all of which would be in my Top 10 for the year (well, Revolution technically took place in the dying days of 2014 but you get my drift). Long may the quality continue.
IMPACT
Impact/TNA have had a weird 12 months. They've not done anything massively earth-shattering...but at the same time they're making steps forward after a calamitous few years financially. I wouldn't say their booking has quite got back up to the standard it was in early 2012 yet but they're definitely moving in the right direction.
The good stuff - the title scene this year has been generally pretty solid with a now face Bobby Lashley having a better than expected second run with the belt to start the year off before a rejuvenated Kurt Angle won it and finally EC3 (definitely the company's star performer this year) taking it in June up until Bound For Glory and the Title Series that followed.
The Wolves have definitely been a huge plus for TNA this year as well with some very entertaining feuds against the likes of the Revolution, Bobby Roode & Austin Aries and the Hardys. The only problem is that the tag team division at the moment is basically just them and TNA really needs to bring in some extra numbers to give them new challengers.
The Knockouts division has also come on in leaps and bounds this year with the likes of Gail Kim and Awesome Kong delivering as usual but even some of the less gifted members of the roster really raising their game to the point where I genuinely think TNA now (just to say) has a more solid and well-rounded womens' division than WWE, not least because it's booked well (with one exception which we'll come to in a bit).
The bad stuff - every faction that has appeared this year seems to have backfired massively. The BDC was a decent idea until everyone associated with it left within a few weeks of each other and just left it looking like it was hobbling along on its last legs for several weeks until MVP's departure from the company finally brought it to a merciful end. Likewise the Dollhouse have been a misfire in what was otherwise a decent year for the Knockouts' division. The original idea of them being creepy voodoo girls had potential but over the year they've just been watered down into a poor man's Beautiful People (not helped by Taryn being injured so much). Really, come 2015, the whole idea needs to be quietly abandoned and the four girls in question, all of whom unquestionably have talent, should be allowed to try and get over on their own without some hokey gimmick like this holding them back. There's also been a couple of goofy storylines which should have been deep sixed like James Storm pushing Mickie James in front of a train and Eric Young (who's otherwise had a very good year following his heel turn) stealing Chris Melendez's leg.
I think the main problem with TNA is the continuing uncertainty over their future and the closing days of 2015 see them exactly where they were a year ago, about to move to a new network and facing the prospect of a total creative reset. It's cost them a bit in terms of talent departures (Samoa Joe, Austin Aries, Low Ki, James Storm, MVP, Magnus) and they're gonna need to do a bit of roster rebuilding in the new year. Getting Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis in from ROH is a good start - we shall see what else follows...
OTHER STUFF
I can't really say too much about ROH as I haven't seen a lot of their stuff but the one PPV I did catch ("Best In The World") I really enjoyed. They've got a good roster with the likes of AJ Styles, Jay Lethal, the Briscoes, Adam Cole, ReDragon, the Kingdom and the Addiction but like TNA they're currently facing cutbacks after losing their TV deal and going to an Internet only broadcast. Hopefully they can keep hold of a lot of their best wrestlers and keep moving forward in 2016.
I haven't seen too much of GFW other than their appearance on Impact over a few weeks in the summer. Jeff Jarrett has assembled a decent roster there with the likes of PJ Black, Magnus, Shelton Benjamin and Sonjay Dutt on board and I'll be interested to see if they manage to get some shows out there for people to see in the new year.
Others who deserve an honourable mention are House of Hardcore (I watched a couple of PPV's over the year and really enjoyed them) and PWG (their "Battle of Los Angeles" is definitely well worth a watch). Over here in the UK, I've seen good shows by RPW and Southside this year and would definitely recommend both to anyone who likes decent wrestling.
So there ya go - 2015 wrestling in a nutshell. Hopefully the New Year will see Raw finally pull out of its creative tailspin, TNA finally get their ship properly steadied, NXT continue to be its usual awesome self and ROH and GFW both get deals to put their programming out there. It should be interesting as always either way...
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