#WWE Ride Along 1x02

[spotlightsaga]

Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews… WWE Ride Along (S01E02) Northbound to Newark Airdate: February 8, 2016 @wwe Ratings: WWE Network Only Score: 5/10

**********SPOILERS BELOW**********

Since WWE is continuing with ‘Ride Along’, we thought we’d go back and brush up on any episodes of S1 we hadn’t seen yet and give them a proper review… Starting with this one. We’ve been promising our readers who are of WWE Family more than just #SDLive & PPV Tweets for ages now and this is the first way of many we plan to deliver. 'Ride Along’ has proved to be a rather fun way to gain a bit of real insight to who these men and women outside of their 'WWE Superstar Personas’ and get a better sense of their real personalities, thoughts, opinions, and plain old witty car trip banter.

Now this is an older episode from the 1st season, so it’s kind of wild to go back and see Wade Barrett going back and forth with Sheamus, especially since Barrett is no longer with the company. Already here, you can hear Barrett talk about never holding the WWE Title. At this point in his career he’s accepted that he’s probably never going to hold it and that’s actually a bummer to hear. There were a few times Barrett really had some serious momentum building up and moving forward to great heights, but each time he was met with a disappointing injury that literally killed everything he’d worked to up to that point.

On a lighter note, it’s amusing to hear the two European Born Superstars talk about that gap when it comes to understanding and grasping American Pop Culture… Even going as far as saying that to them, Michael Jordan is more of 'that guy in Space Jam’ than he was the athletic legend and almost untouchable entity he is here in the states. These men both agree that they’ve carved out a nice little niche in the WWE (especially Sheamus, who is undoubtably the most successful Irishman to ever touch a WWE canvas), but it’s cool to hear them both have such high hopes for Neville since they both remark that no one from England has ever held the World Title (Should’ve been William Regal, y'all). At the time of filming, Neville was having trouble connecting with crowds but was still razzling and dazzling them with his skills and his patented 'Red Arrow’. Now Neville is holding Gold and literally is a Cruiserweight Beast, but I can definitely see the man take it even further and I truly hope that he does.

Cant have two guys from the U.K. in the car without them swinging to the subject of Europe’s favorite pastime. Their banter when it came to what most of us in the states would refer to as soccer, but is actually (the real) football, was endlessly entertaining! You can tell it’s something these two are incredibly passionate about, as at one point I had no idea what the other was saying… They were so excited they were basically talking over each other. Also gotta take the time to point out that old footage WWE dug up of pre-WWE Sheamus vs Barrett match in 'Irish Whip Wrestling’. Believe it or not Sheamus was actually using the Sheamus name before his WWE run, he just had the last name O'Shaunessy… And most likely Barrett was using the name Stu Sanders at the time. IWW is still throwing shows today, tho you aren’t likely to see Barrett (Stu Bennett) back there anytime soon as he is attempting to focus on his acting career. Good luck with that one Stu, maybe your buddy Sheamus can help you out with that one. Whatever happens in the future for either of these men, I really appreciate that WWE went out of their way to find that type of footage to bring it to a wider audience! I’m sure IWW was happy to sell them the footage as well!

Renee Young and Summer Rae are joined by R-Truth in their ride, making for a entertaining combination. Apparently Truth has gotten Dean hooked on taking Epsom Salt baths, (/enter witty Bath Salt joke here). 😋 This is actually the first time I ever noticed that the back window is blacked out with a curtain… That has to be illegal right? If that doesn’t make you nervous enough, Summer is clearly not the most attentive driver… Several times she’s shown messing with the GPS, driving with one hand, and constantly taking her eyes off the road. I kept thinking, 'Protect Renee at all costs!’ Truth makes a Archie Bunker reference and neither of the girls know who he’s talking about so he bets Renee that if she called her dad and asked him who he was, that he’d know. She calls and to no ones surprise he does know… R-Truth, baby, that’s because you are one of the oldest active men on the roster! 🤣 I’m just happy these three made it to their destination in one piece and that Summer didn’t land them in a ditch in Jersey somewhere. Hopefully in S2 they won’t be tarping off that back window… People kind of need that to drive!!!