Features

TJR Week in Wrestling Show Reviews for June 29 to July 3 (WWE Raw, AEW Dynamite, NXT, Smackdown)

By John Canton • Published 4th July 2020

I want to begin by wishing everybody in the United States a Happy Independence Day, Fourth of July or however you want to phrase it. It’s the birthday of the United States and as a Canadian, I have always enjoyed visiting the US. I hope you guys have a great day.

What I’m doing here is providing some information about the four regular weekly TV shows that I review on a regular basis. I’m going to try to do it every Saturday going forward.

Here are the links to my wrestling TV show reviews from the last week in case you missed anything and want to catch up. This is only for the four current shows that I review, not the retro content.

WWE Raw Deal Review for June 29 

The Link:https://tjrwrestling.net/tjr-the-wwe-raw-deal-06-29-20-review/

Show Rating: 6.5/10

Three Stars of the Show

  1. Seth Rollins
  2. Drew McIntyre
  3. Sasha Banks/Asuka

Best Matches (over 3* out of 5*): 

Drew McIntyre and Asuka vs. Dolph Ziggler and Sasha Banks (w/Bayley) – ***1/2

Seth Rollins and Murphy vs. Aleister Black and Humberto Carrillo – ***1/4

Some of the Final Thoughts: 

This was a solid edition of Raw with some good storyline advancement along with some entertaining matches. I think an issue with Raw right now is they are doing a lot of basic things, but no major angles or anything that feels like that big of a deal. I think from a performance standpoint, Seth Rollins continues to stand out, Drew McIntyre did a great job and Asuka/Banks also did well. Several people worked twice because some wrestlers were missing after Coronavirus testing. They also set up most of the matches the same way. It felt repetitive.

AEW Fyter Fest (Dynamite) Review for July 1 

The Link:https://tjrwrestling.net/the-john-report-aew-dynamite-fyter-fest-part-1-07-01-20-review/

Show Rating: 7.5/10

Three Stars of the Show

  1. Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus
  2. MJF/Wardlow
  3. Hikaru Shida

Best Matches (over 3* out of 5*): 

Jurassic Express – Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Wardlow – ***3/4

Hikaru Shida vs. Penelope Ford – ***1/2

TNT Championship: Cody vs. Jake Hager – ***1/4

AEW Tag Team Championships: Kenny Omega and “Hangman” Adam Page vs. Best Friends (Trent and Chuck Taylor) – ***1/4

Some of the Final Thoughts: 

There were a lot of good matches from start to finish although I don’t think any one match really stood out. I was hoping for a little more excitement for this Fyter Fest themed show. The philosophy of this company when it comes to tag team wrestling is to just put everybody in the ring whether heel or face, make sure they get all their shit in during a match, ignore the rules far too often and then go to the finish. I’d rather have more defined characters that can tell a story. There were three title matches with no title changes. I was hoping for a Tag Team title change because I think it’s time to unleash Omega and Page as singles wrestlers instead of two singles wrestlers that have been teaming up for seven months.

WWE NXT (Great American Bash) Review for July 1

The Link:https://tjrwrestling.net/tjr-wwe-nxt-07-01-20-review-great-american-bash-part-1/ 

Show Rating: 8/10

Three Stars of the Show

  1. Io Shirai
  2. Sasha Banks
  3. Tegan Nox

Best Matches (over 3* out of 5*): 

Io Shirai vs. Sasha Banks – ****

Tegan Nox vs. Dakota Kai vs. Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae – ***1/2

Strap Match: Dexter Lumis vs. Roderick Strong – ***1/4

Some of the Final Thoughts: 

I think NXT is the most well-booked show out of Raw, Smackdown and Dynamite. They don’t do the things that frustrate me about the other shows. There isn’t that long promo to start, they don’t have champions lose non-title every week to build up a title match, they don’t have referees that fail to pay attention to the rules and what they’re really good at is taking their time to tell stories. It’s a nice mix of a serious wrestling show, some comedy when needed and then some meaningful promos as well, but there’s never too much talking either. There’s a nice balance.

WWE Smackdown Review for July 3

The Link:https://tjrwrestling.net/tjr-wwe-smackdown-07-03-20-review/

Show Rating: 7.5/10

Three Stars of the Show

  1. Matt Riddle
  2. AJ Styles
  3. John Morrison/Drew Gulak

Best Matches (over 3* out of 5*): 

Matt Riddle vs. John Morrison – ***3/4

Intercontinental Championship: AJ Styles vs. Drew Gulak – ***1/2

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kofi Kingston – ***

Some of the Final Thoughts: 

The first hour was great. That was probably one of the best first hours of Smackdown this year with two awesome matches totaling over 30 minutes of in-ring time. They are clearly pushing Matt Riddle a lot since he did a promo to let the fans know more about him and had a great match with John Morrison. Then AJ Styles and Drew Gulak had a very competitive match for the IC Title. That’s what I like to see. It was a strong wrestling show in terms of matches with nothing that too bad at all in the ring.

Average: 7.38 out of 10

There are about 24,000 words of content there. That’s not a bad overall average either.

I know people like to bitch and moan about things being terrible, but there were plenty of really good matches this week. It’s better than watching the news. That’s for sure.

Thanks for reading and supporting us here at TJRWrestling. Have a great weekend.