Choke's RAW and Smackdown Roundup: 3/8/13 - 3/25/13
Posted by: choke Mar 28, 2013 | 1795 views | 2 comments
I catch up from the last 3 weeks of shows.
Well Wrestlemania is nearly upon us. Sorry for my absence, I have a lot of catching up to do.
RAW has generally been decent and Smackdown has generally been abysmal. I think they're doing a horrific job of building up their biggest show of the year, though there are some decent storylines and matches that have developed out of it all. Week after week they've continued to bury hardworking mid-carders like Ziggler/Cesaro/Sandow/Rhodes in favor of their megastars, which has been confusing to me. It's okay to set up a Champion vs Champion match once ever few months and give the mid-title holder a loss, but when it happens every week it just devalues the belt to nothing. I dont understand how the WWE doesn't get that. As a result, most of the top carders have remained the ones racking up the points, with not a lot of scraps left for everyone else.
Rising:
1. Ziggler/Big E Langston - Well after months of being buried, Ziggler started to pick up some wins, and I like that they're giving him and Big E something else to contend for while we all await his cashing in MITB. I think they have a legit chance to take the belts off of Hell No, and even if they don't they should still pick up some more points on the way there.
2. Fandango - I was convinced the WWE was just going to continue trolling us with Fandango through Mania, but thankfully they finally started to get him mixed up in a good program with Jericho.
3. Cameron and Naomi - With this new program against the Bellas I think Cameron and Naomi will start really integrating themselves into the Divas division more. Is it just me or does it seem like the WWE really wants to start a Divas tag division? Makes sense considering how much time and effort they put into the singles Divas title. Hope your sarcasm alerts are working!
4. Bella Twins - Why did these two leave again? Seemingly only a few months later and they're back, and already thrust into a Wrestlemania mixed tag match. They've already earned some respectable points considering how recently they returned (more than Otunga all season!), and they have a chance to win their match at Mania. Worth picking up over someone who probably wont even be at the big show (cough, Zack Ryder, cough)
5. AJ Lee - It seemed like they were completely poised to have Kaitlyn face Layla, or possibly even Tamina, but someone finally wisened up and realized that AJ was the true star that they needed to mix it up with Kaitlyn at Mania. It's still not 100% sure how they'll do this as they could just be accompanying the respective teams to the match, but if it ends up being a singles match for the Divas belt, then AJ's stock should rise accordingly.
6. The Shield - Including them because they've recently started getting actual matches on the main shows and not just attack/interference points. They're not higher because they already were getting good points and probably arent available in many leagues
Falling:
1. New Age Outlaws - Well, that didn't last
2. 3MB - I think the WWE dropped the ball on this. They could have easily gotten Slater a crazy amount of heat by continuing to let 3MB do what they do, and should have probably given him a singles belt while letting Drew and Jinder work the tag ranks. Instead, well, they're just the jobbers we should have expected them to be in the first place
3. Sin Cara - When he picked up that win over Cesaro on Main Event I thought for sure that would start a program between the two possibly for Mania. No, instead he's pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth. Nice writing WWE!
4. Wade Barrett - Still good for points, but I personally expect him to lose the belt finally to the Miz in their 50th meeting in as many days. Losing a belt puts you in falling. Also I had to include him because unbelievably enough I actually paid to see Dead Man Down a few weekends ago (seriously). He should probably be #1 on the falling for this.