Andrew’s WWE Raw & SmackDown Live Ratings & Review (2/18 & 2/19/2019)

Andrew let’s us know how the WWE shows following Elimination Chamber measured up!

Well since Elimination Chamber didn’t hit me as strongly as others (though I enjoyed the two Chamber matches), my bar was set a little lower for Raw and SmackDown.

So now is that point where we find out how both shows did!

Raw Ratings:

• Tables Match: Baron Corbin vs Braun Strowman: Braun wins via Powerslam through Table – *1/2
• Ricochet & Finn Balor vs Lio Rush & Bobby Lashley: Ricochet wins via 630 Senton – ***
• Hawkins & Ryder vs Lucha House Party: House Party wins via Hurricanrana – *
• DIY vs The Revival: DIY wins via Meeting in the Middle – *** ½
• Drew McIntyre vs Dean Ambrose: McIntyre wins via Claymore – N/A
• Elias vs Aleister Black: Black wins via Black Mass – *
• Raw Women’s Championship Match: Ronda Rousey (c) vs Ruby Riott:  Ronda retains via Armbar – **

Review Notes:

Triple H comes out, gushes about the PPV, like they always do and then announces a surprise. Ricochet, Aleister Black, Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano will be featured on Raw tonight. Okay…so…this should be interesting.  Wait never mind, because in the same breath he explains the reason there’s tables about is because Braun and Baron will have YET ANOTHER, match no one asked for.

Tables match, not only does the crowd not care, but I’m pretty sure 70% of the audience wants these two, to never touch again. The redid a few spots, including the table spot. It ended the way we all expected, Braun only struggled cause he was banged up. So yeah, this didn’t really do anything for anyone.

After Braun wins, Heyman comes out to hype up Lesnar with a small yet unnecessary interaction with Braun. He says things, video packages play, it’s very paint by numbers.

Finn is up next, Lio and Lashley start trouble…since they’re apparently cool again. Ricochet comes out for the save and we get a tag match. Lio and Lashley against Ryusuke Taguchi’s boys! I’m calling them Apollo Future, educate yourself if you don’t know why. But my big take away here was how awful and out of place Lio looked. Even Lashley looked good. Lio is just a waste of damn space.

Backstage, McIntyre walks up to Triple H demanding Rollins, Ambrose slaps him and says he’s free. So yeah…that’s the set up for their match.

Lucha House Party is an awful gimmick, and to be fair, they aren’t anything special in the ring. Typical “luchador” stuff with no personality, heat or angle makes them a waste of time. The best part from this match was Hawkins having an opening to win the match and he kinda freezes like he doesn’t remember what to do when in an advantageous position.

Heavy Machinery and Lacey Evans strut around for a few minutes…wh-why-what—wa—wh—*head desk*

Backstage segment with Roode, Gable, The Revival and DIY. Sets the stage well with nods to NXT and all of their pasts. So it was a quick way for casual fans to get a small idea of ‘okay they know each other’. As for the match, it was damn good. They always did good work in NXT and it carries over here. A little less time and a little less reign to do as they please, but still a damn good tag match.

Kevin Owens phone promo, which he drops but catches. More of a conversational promo, where his son Owen even makes an appearance when Kevin asks him for change. Apparently Popcorn and a soda is 20 dollars. Sadly, I can believe that…

Sasha and Bayley get to soak in the adoration of a dead crowd, but at least enjoy their distinction of being the first ever WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. Tamina and Nia show up, they apparently get the first crack. So…yup…I guess that’s a thing.

Drew and Dean barely gets started and it’s over. I love that they book the Claymore like the RKO where it just happens and even matches that should be competitive just end. But yeah, forgettable.

Elias shows up, he starts into his shtick a little, then before he gets to the song, Aleister Black interrupts him. This match was not good. Chemistry was off, Aleister’s strikes weren’t good, his motions seemed to take an extra second, even his back flip sit down spot had a hiccup. Elias caught Aleister with a nice Flying Knee at some point, but that’s the only point that really sticks out. Not a good debut.

Ruby gets a rematch because…reasons. With the squash from the night before, the only thing that gives this credibility is the rest of the Riott Squad at ringside to run interference. Ronda dominates, until the interference kicks in, then Ruby gets in some offense. But suspension of disbelief was the issue here. No one expected Ruby to win because Ronda is the WrestleMania meal ticket, and she had a bad previous showing, so this was a waste of time.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

So yeah, the wrestling was actually alright with 3 out of 4 of the NXT surprises being the high points. But so many waste of time filler spots and a dead crowd put a damper on the show. It tried, it had moments where I was entertained, but unlike Elimination Chamber, this was book-ended by matches that actually didn’t matter. Still not an awful show, just closed on a low note.

SmackDown Ratings:

• Aleister Black vs Andrade Almas: Black wins via Black Mass – ***
• DIY vs The Bar: DIY wins via Cradle – *** ¼
• Asuka vs Mandy Rose: Rose wins via Roll-Up – *1/2
• Ricochet vs Eric Young: Ricochet wins via 630 Senton – **
• Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan & Randy Orton vs Kofi Kingston, AJ Styles & Jeff Hardy –Kofi gets the pinfall via Trouble in Paradise – ** 1/2

Review Notes:

Shane O’Mac comes out to make Chamber comments, he also declares that since they were such a big hit, the same 4 NXT stars will make their SmackDown debuts as well. Then Miz comes out, apologetic and shouldering the blame. He even says he used Shane for personal reasons to gain favor with his father. Miz makes mention of the ‘no guaranteed rematches’ rule they declared with this new era, but said since Shane is a McMahon he could make it happen anyway. The Usos come out to run down the former champs and goad Shane into using his power to make the match. Miz is happy like a kid who just got the toy he was asking about, for Christmas.

Aleister has the worst Raw debut, but thankfully he and Andrade have good history and work well together. This wasn’t nearly as good as their NXT matches, but with limited time and whatever restrictions come with the main roster, Aleister looked a bit better. They also touched on Aleister basically being the one guy Andrade could never crack the code on. So when Aleister does come up officially, this is a great angle for Andrade to finally get a win.

DIY encounters The Bar backstage. Cesaro and Sheamus tease them about no one knowing who they are and size comments. So that sets the next match.

This match was solid. The smaller team had to maneuver themselves into good positions, and both teams had great flashes. This was probably about on par with the Revival match from Raw, but it loses a quarter of a point for me after the Sunset Flip Power-botch. Yes Ciampa looked like he was able to mostly recover, and after a few replays it looks like he was able to have his leg kinda buckle with Sheamus’ body, so depending on flexibility he might actually be alright. But it still looked bad, and commentary loves to show replays of botches nowadays.

Asuka comes out to basically demand a challenger (her English is better but there were a few imbeciles in the crowd chanting ‘what’ when she spoke. You morons speak the banjo down in New Orleans, don’t try to tease others with accents). Mandy and Sonya come out, with Mandy declaring that she’s ready to step up. The match was slow, stilted and pretty bad all things considered. Spots were sold for too long, or seemed to take a few too many beats to get from point A to B. Mandy did have a beautiful Bicycle Knee that caught Asuka on the outside. But aside from that, the match sucked, but a stop gap defense against Mandy, at a B PPV, is fine.

At this point, I’m just happy to see SAnitY on TV. This match was just generally unexciting. Everyone played their parts alright, Wolfe and Dain had minimal interference but it played a big enough part into a few spots. Not an awful match like Aleister’s on Monday, but the weakest of the Tuesday lot.

The main event felt a little rushed and more of a ‘get your shit in’ match. Not bad, but no real psychology or storytelling. More just trying to pair people off and get to the number 1 contender reveal after Kofi pins Bryan for the face team! Shane comes out immediately and declares Kofi vs Daniel Bryan at Fastlane.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

It’s nice they’re still riding the hot hand with Kofi, and the fans haven’t turned on anything yet. Some people are mad about Asuka’s loss, but it’s professional wrestling and she needed an opponent. Mandy used heel tactics to lull Asuka into dropping her guard, it’s a trick as old as time. If you’re freaking out that the “better technical wrestler” shouldn’t lose to someone like Mandy, then you don’t know pro wrestling and need to just shut up and go watch Blue’s Clues or something more rudimentary.

Surprisingly, SmackDown and Raw were both even this week. Raw could’ve been better, but was just weird and SmackDown was just kinda there. So I think this is the first week where the two shows tied. Hmm…well that’s something.