Post by Alex Kincaid on Mar 28, 2018 8:01:15 GMT -5
Best Match: I really liked Tommy Crimson and Kai Stevens. There’s a lot of really neat use of the arena in tonight’s show, but my favorite – yes, it beats out jumping off the pillar – was the absolutely awesome reversal of the backdrop into the platform followed up by the nasty as hell chairshot. Real comic book stuff, in the best way. The finish, not just the final move but the whole last sequence, is about as viscerally satisfying as they come if you love the violence – and I do!
Best Segment: “Shake The Hands That Shook The World”. Dolan Farson has the best picbase in the company, in terms of me being able to visualize the segment. What a goddamn weasel. I mean, obviously, Emery is our top babyface right? Like, so many fedders forget that within the context of the universe there’s a CROWD. This is a wrestling show. Seeing Emery play to the people with the “We made this happen” was awesome. It’s something more people should do. I LOVED Rogan’s terrifying title line. Holy shit, that was great.
If this segment had one weakness it’s that I would have left Axel’s exposition out until a later segment. Axel’s motivation makes sense, particularly if you paid attention to the segment at Crown of the King Cobra. Dolan’s big persuasive line to Axel in the segment at CTKC was ‘My client will not only make your main events, he will BE your main event.’ The emphasis on the BE. But what Axel heard was the YOUR. A chance to keep control of the belt when Emery is a constant risk. It’s got to be so insulting to Emery too, because believing she might lose the belt elsewhere is believing she can’t keep the belt. I fucking loved this whole thing.
Best Spot: My personal favorite was mentioned above, the sweet reversal of momentum in Crimson vs Tommy but obviously we need to talk about Flash Kassidy going off the goddamn pillar. Understand, this isn’t just a wild stunt. This is smart character psychology. Say what you want about Salvation. They’re big, dominant, scary and self conscious. That level of spooky presentation is deliberate. That’s why you see them set up these big, operatic chess metaphors and spooky segments. But Flash? He sneers, calls Nemesis “King Spooky” and lives in the moment whether you like him or not (And there’s a lot of people who would hate him in real life, just for how he talks). So when he comes off the pillar this week it sets up EXACTLY what makes him so dangerous to Nemesis on the next show.
Best Moment: It’s a bit boring after how much I gushed about it but it definitely Rogan MacLean’s unmasking. Just think about the visual. Remember that Emery is fucking with him, sitting there filing her nails. Remember he’s half a foot taller than her and outweighs her by 65 goddamn pounds. And he’s STANDING over her with his hand extended, confident as hell. The announcer’s shocked surprise sounds great.
Biggest Surprise: I don’t know if it’s the biggest, but I really liked the tail end when Aliyah Jaxon hopped into the ring to take out Trixie. The reason the curb stomp is such a great move is because of the shittiness of it all, how sneaky it can be. It’s a total heel move and it’s used fantastically here. I would have liked to see just a little more selling of it by the announcers though. Like yeah, Dante says get the hell out of here but then his next line came across as kind of a joke about it. I would have liked to close on a bit more frustration from him especially after such a strong main event.
Biggest Upset: In universe, probably Alyssa Daniels over Devlin? I know why it happened but I feel like it’d be pretty shocking on the actual show given she just showed up.
MVP: I can’t vote for Crimson every week. This week it was Flash Kassidy, who got the big defining win going into his title shot next week. If this were a real show, that dive off the pillar would be THE MOMENT everyone would be talking about for weeks and it’d be in highlight videos every ten minutes the way Edge spearing Jeff Hardy off that ladder is now. Excellent stuff.
Constructive Criticism: The dialogue at the end of Caden Walker v Cartel between the announcers sounded a little out of character to me, even from the rest of the same match. It’s just too informal between a pair of characters that I normally see as a bit more professional than that in my head and the angle wasn’t big or emotional enough to justify them breaking a professional image.
Other Notes: Sorry this took so long. For some reason it took me forever to read the damn show this week and I don’t give feedback until I’ve read everything.
