10 Must-See WWE Matches, Moments & Segments From This Week
Where does James Ellsworth's WWE World Title match rank among the week's must-see?
It is a Raw-heavy week on the list today. SmackDown has been downtrending with a pair of lame duck shows (likely due to a lack of an imminent pay-per-view to hype) after being the superior brand through the first two months of Brand Split 2.0. The one noteworthy happening was James Ellsworth yet again defeating World Champion AJ Styles. How does that stack up against Raw's most engaging occurrence?
Raw offered strong competition for the week's best moment. Goldberg shocked a lot of people with the passion he displayed and the promo that he delivered in front of an enthusiastic Denver, Colorado crowd. Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, and Seth Rollins continued dancing toward a three-way match. Others stepped their games up as well. What combination was awarded the segment of the week?
The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic continued to produce strong candidates for the Match of the Week. In a not-so-stellar mid-October for WWE in-ring performances, was there even any real threat to NXT's top bout?
What were the most must-see matches, moments, and segments in WWE (and NXT) this week? Let's find out...
10. New Day 420
Since gravitating toward a more heroic tone with their characters, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E have arguably lost a lot of their edge, making their weekly promos more likely to be miss as compared to their lengthy hit-streak from 2015. On occasion, they can still deliver the goods, and Monday Night Raw from the Centennial state offered a solid example of the New Day veering toward a hit.
That having been stated, it was not the charisma or the trombone or the crowd energy that made New Day's promo must-see; it was the recurring theme of the subject matter. Colorado, of course, is one of the few states in America where marijuana has been legalized. It is a controversial topic - the kind of subject that WWE, in its days before being publicly traded, might have tackled more vociferously, but that in recent years it has steered clear of altogether.
New Day did not ignore the opportunity to make subtle statements about marijuana use. Not since the days of Rob Van Dam (or, in fairness, Snoop Dogg's Hall of Fame speech) had so many references been made to smoking weed on the promotion's TV. For fans clamoring for a loosening of the reigns on the PG rating, perhaps New Day 420 would be considered a step in the right direction.