LogFAQs > #905170870

I just want to point out that, had this show featured some more competitive matches, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Nakamura/Jeff was actually a really great move for Nakamura and the sort of surprising sequence that gets a crowd riled up. It made Nakamura look clever, heelish and also like a guy with a really dominating finisher. Orton made a return with questionable motives and that set up a scene in the US Title division with questions that actually can propel someone to watch Smackdown to find out more. Similarly, the B Team win wasn't particularly surprising but it energized the crowd and started the show strong. You had a Bobby/Roman match that was actually not terrible. The crowd wasn't into it, but if you wanted Bobby to look like a threat, beating Roman was the right choice. Braun and KO peaked at the finish and the crowd was really into it.

Daniel Bryan/Bludgeons was really kind of botched in the end since the announcers really didn't get over what was happening and the fact that the Bludgeons really didn't dominate Bryan near the end. You also didn't have Bryan really attempting to make a tag to Kane that couldn't be made. It just looked like Bryan lost because he lost.

Carmella and Asuka was a real shitfest. Comedy spots are fine, don't get me wrong, but this is just the wrong kind of comedy. It makes Asuka look like such a clown when a simple head into a cage ends her. Carmella has never come across as compelling and the crowd is consistently dead for her. In a division with over talent like Naomi or skilled talent like Becky and Charlotte, Carmella is clearly the wrong choice. On the RAW side, the women's match only really found heat when Ronda stepped in the wrong. The rest of the time, the match was pretty dull and lacked much in the way of heat. I think Alexa came out to a much smaller pop than normal, and that's a sign she's reaching overexposure. There's nothing wrong with backseating someone for a short period of time and taking them off TV for a month or two. It helped Orton in his return on this show.

Meanwhile the pre-show had a really great New Day/Sanity match. That's the sort of competition this show lacked. It even fit the Extreme Rules concept much better than the majority of this show.

I think if top to bottom the show had more compelling wrestling matches, the crowd would have been more into what was happening. As it was, there were some good angles but not a lot of good wrestling, and so you had a lukewarm crowd that was apt to do their own thing since WWE does not have interest in training the crowd. They have purposely antagonized the crowd for a long time, and now the crowd is trained to be ill-behaved. If you went to NXT, they would be much more apt to cheer people they don't necessarily like because they've been trained that NXT tries in good faith to entertain and provide the best show they can at a Takeover.
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