Matches Watched:

• Bad News Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler (WWE)
• Prime Time Players vs. The Ascension (WWE)
• Usos vs. Tyson Kidd & Cesaro (c) for the WWE Tag Team championship (WWE)
• Roman Reigns & Daniel Bryan vs. Seth Rollins & Randy Orton (WWE)
• Ryo Jimmy Saito vs. Super Shisa (Dragon Gate)

Current Watch List:

Bad News Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler
WWE

This trend of every match going to a commercial break it starting to wear me down.  This went absolutely nowhere before the break.  Barrett controlled with nothing of interest, Dolph drop kicks him out of the ring, then there comes the commercial what on cue.  It is so monotonous.  It picked after the break as these matches tend to do, which is part of the frustration.  Its not like they use the first segment to build most of the time.  Most of the time its must killing time.  I did like Barrett’s big power bomb that was used for a near fall.  They actually got a few good near falls down the stretch.  Ziggler got the pin and a big pop (Nashville was 10X the crowd Memphis was) and we seem to be heading towards some sort of multi-man match (ladder match?) for the IC title at WrestleMania.

Prime Time Players vs. The Ascension
WWE

Decent.  Darren Young got most of the match for his team.  Nice forearms and a nice suplex.  I also liked the big jumping knee from one of the Ascension.  PTP get the fluke pin and get beaten up afterwards.  Maybe if they don’t do the battle royal this year, there’ll do a multi-man IC and a multi-team tag match to get everyone on instead.

Tyson Kidd & Cesaro (c) vs. The Usos
WWE
WWE Tag Team Championship

Good match.  A lot of the same offense and ideas from last night, but structured better.  Tyson Kidd’s elbow drop is great.  Loved the timing on the elbow to break up the pin.  Cesaro laid in an uppercut during the break that looked good. Fun match that ended with a DQ when Natalia got involved.  I hope these teams keep him wrestling week after week because if the past two nights were any indication, they’ll knock out a very good match sooner rather than later.

Roman Reigns & Daniel Bryan vs. Seth Rollins & Randy Orton
WWE

Fine for a RAW main event.  This sounds like damning with faint praise, but this was a competent tag match.  All four guys looked fine, nobody looked great.  They played it straight forward until the end when Rollins decided to tag himself in with Orton in control.  Orton got upset and basically left Rollins alone in the ring.  Reigns made a comeback, landed the Superman punch, then Bryan tagged himself in.  Unlike Orton, this didn’t bother Reigns.  Bryan hit the knee and got the pin.  Orton hit the RKO on Noble but left Rollins alone post-match.  Definitely a slow burn on the heel end and it felt like a slow burn on the face side, too, although that payoff on Reigns/Bryan is less obvious.  Not sure what the point would be of Bryan turning on Reigns now (before WM) would be.

Ryo “Jimmy” Saito vs. Super Shisa
Japan
Dragon Gate

I love me some Super Shisa.  I don’t watch enough Dragon Gate to feel confident in making a claim on who is the best wrestler in the promotion but Shisa is easily my favorite.  He does a lot of the things I like for in a wrestler.  He has fun mat work.  In this match, he and Saito went over some basic stuff that bled seamlessly into the body of the match.  He keeps things basic but at the same time, always adds some cool moves to his matches be it fun submissions or things like the handstand stuff in this match.  Really liked the one roll up out of the suplex post as well.  Like Shisa, Saito is an old Dragon Gate pro and he held up his end well.  My ideal fun and interesting opener that wets your appetite for more.