With another week of WWE television behind us, here’s the top 5 performances of the week.
WWE offers up plenty of programming over the course of a week. Even when there’s no pay per view, there’s at least seven hours of original programming. With Raw and SmackDown Live on USA, plus 205 Live and NXT on the WWE Network, it’s a lot to focus on at times.
But for those of us who can make it through the marathon, there’s usually quite a bit to keep our interest. Regardless of what some people say about the quality of programming, as far as in-ring talent goes this is one of the golden periods for WWE. Sure, storylines may be stale, boring, and ridiculous – even nonsensical – but the matches themselves are rarely terrible across the board.
To try and keep track of who stood out on a week to week basis, here at Daily DDT we’ll be taking a look at the top five performers in a given week. Since WWE is a wrestling company (despite what Vince McMahon may try and tell us), we’re going to focus on wrestling performances.
5. Cedric Alexander
Alexander did the lion’s share of the work for his team on Raw. His pure athletic ability is undeniable, and outshining Enzo Amore at this point isn’t hard to do. (Gran Metalik literally did two moves on Monday, so I’m pretending he wasn’t in the match.)
But on 205 Live, Cedric was the clear star of the show. He eliminated three of his opponents in the fatal five way match Tuesday night. A trio of Lumbar Checks were enough to eliminate Tony Nese, Gran Metalik, and The Brian Kendrick. Mixed in between was a truly awesome Spanish Fly on Metalik – Cedric even made taking a triple superplex look amazing.
Sadly, Alexander was rolled up by the opportunistic Enzo. So he doesn’t get a shot at the Cruiserweight Championship just yet. But if he continues performing like he did on 205 Live this week, he should be challenging Neville in no time.
4. Tye Dillinger
Another superstar who had a terrific performance despite missing out on a win was The Perfect Ten. Dillinger went up against Baron Corbin on SmackDown Live this week. This one was a grudge match. It came about after Corbin had assaulted Tye after the latter’s match against AJ Styles the week before.
There are a lot of things Baron Corbin is known for. He’s strong, powerful, and ruthless in the ring. Lately, he’s shown he’s outspoken. But one thing he has never really proven is an ability to carry a great match. The best Baron Corbin matches are those where his opponent carries things.
Enter Tye Dillinger. The journeyman competitor had one of his best matches in WWE, showing off a wide variety of skill. Mainly, he was able to make Corbin look truly impressive. Because Tye kept fighting, The Lone Wolf had to resort to a cheap shot just to pick up a victory.
The aftermath of the match really proved how good a performance Dillinger had. Backstage, AJ Styles came up to him – having watched the match at the commentary table. Styles told Tye that the next US Title Open Challenge wasn’t open at all. It was being reserved specifically for The Perfect Ten. Not bad for a guy who took more than ten years to make it to WWE, huh?
3. Jason Jordan
It should be pretty clear by this point of the list that wins and losses, while important, are not the sole test of “how good” a wrestler is. Here, we have our third straight superstar who lost this week, but still looked better than some winners in the long run.
In the opening match of this week’s Raw, Jason Jordan faced his toughest opponent to date in John Cena. I would venture a guess that 90% of WWE fans – if not more – would know the outcome of this match before it happened. On the off chance that Jordan picked up a win, it would have to be due to some kind of distraction, right?
Of course, Cena won the match – cleanly, too. But after a bit of a slow start (more on that in a minute), Jordan more than held his own with the 16-time world champion. In fact, at different points in the match, Jordan had Cena reeling, looking to regroup. It’s not a familiar place for Cena, so Jordan has to get bonus points for that.
The slow start wasn’t necessarily a bad thing – I’m a sucker for mat wrestling, and it plays into Jordan’s amateur background. But the first things fans see on a three hour television show? Usually some more excitement right out of the gate works better. But it’s a million times better than a promo, and things picked up in the second half of the match.
And I’m not going to say a guy who hit picture perfect rolling Northern Lights Suplexes wasn’t one of the best things of the week, either.
2. Shinsuke Nakamura
Ah, finally getting to some superstars who picked up a W this week. First up from SmackDown Live, Nakamura earned another WWE Championship match against Jinder Mahal. He did this by winning the main event against Randy Orton.
It was a bit of revenge for Nakamura – a week prior, Orton blindsided him with an RKO “from outta nowhere.” And surely, Shinsuke wants another crack at Mahal, after their SummerSlam match suffered from interference by The Singh Brothers.
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But the big story for Nakamura this week was how good he looked in the ring. His main roster time thus far has been a mixed bag. His debut got fans talking, but his early matches were, for lack of a better word, garbage. They didn’t properly show how special a talent The King of Strong Style is.
It may have taken a few months, but it looks like Nakamura has righted that ship. The fire that burned during his NXT career – as well as everything pre-WWE – was back. And one doesn’t need to look past his counter for the RKO – into an armbar – to see that his talent has never been in question. Has anyone reversed an RKO in such a manner? I can’t think of anyone.
By becoming the number one contender for the WWE Title again, Shinsuke Nakamura is clearly worthy of one of the top performances of the week. But there is one other superstar who juuuuuuuuust outshined him by a bit…
1. Braun Strowman
I mean, was there any doubt?
Folks, I don’t know how many more times it can be said, but Braun Strowman is the best WWE creation in a long time. For the past 15 months or so since the draft, Braun has been must-see TV. You can’t miss anything he does, because just when you think he’s peaked, he goes and flips an ambulance over or something.
In the main event of Raw this week, Strowman faced Big Show in a steel cage match. Immediately, fans heard warning bells ringing. “They’re going to break the cage, aren’t they?” Yes, fans. they were.
But even before that, Strowman was the clear cut star of Raw. His backstage promo while the crew was reinforcing the ring was amazing. He made Big Show look like the monster he was twenty years ago, as opposed to the afterthought he became two to three years back. And he made it look easy while he threw a 400 pound brickhouse around the ring and into the cage.
But the real money moment came after the match. Strowman has his sights set on Brock Lesnar and the Universal Championship. What better way to strike fear into The Beast’s heart than throwing Big Show through the cage to the floor?
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It was going to be tough to top a superplex that broke the ring. WWE sure reminded us all night as to how crazy that was. But somehow, someway, Strowman made it happen. And that’s why he earns top performance of the week honors.