After a few weeks without it, we got back to the weekly Authority opening promo. Triple H, Stephanie McMahon and Seth Rollins come out to hype SummerSlam being four hours. I won't lie, I completely expect that to mean we get more musical performances and an extra long in ring segment like WrestleMania. They run down the card for tonight, hyping everything as being" FIRST TIME EVER!" They literally say that as often as they would say "$9.99" last year at times. John Cena interrupts and is surprisingly nice to the Authority despite them making his life hell last year. Cena runs down Seth again and wants a title shot. Stephanie tells the fans no but Triple H decides that we get the match tonight, only it'll be for the United States Title. We're also told that the Stone Cold podcast will be back next week, with special guest Paige. She certainly seems like a lesser name than his usual interviews, which makes me think this was Hulk Hogan's spot, which obviously can't happen now.
Dean Ambrose vs. Big Show opens the show and is surprisingly, a first time ever match. Miz was on commentary. I honestly have no idea what the point of this match was. Show beats up Ambrose for the majority of it but Ambrose keeps getting up. Show just keeps putting him down and wins via countout. Show tried to attack after the match but Ambrose dodged and he went through the usual corner guardrail spot. Did we need to see that Ambrose was resilient? Have we not seen that already? Did Show need to look dominant only to look like a dumb fuck after? Just strange booking.
Moving on, Neville beat Fandango in a fine little old school lower card match. Stardust cut one of his strange promos after. Give Cody Rhodes a ton of credit because he absolutely lives and breathes this gimmick. He gives it his all. I need more from Neville and creative to buy into this feud more though. With all of the rumors flying around, it's like Neville is a placeholder for Stephen Amell and he deserves better. We got a backstage argument between Team BAD and Paige, Charlotte and Becky. This was fine but my biggest gripe was how they just had to bring up how Stephanie McMahon is the reason for the Divas Revolution. Like, it was fine for her to introduce them to give it an important feel, but leave it alone. The Smackdown video package for Sasha Banks airs against as she and Paige get the first hour main event slot. I really wish Sasha Banks would come out with her title. She talks about being champion, she has it backstage and she has it in her match graphics. Either have her with it or don't mention it, stick with one. Early on, this wasn't the best, but once they got going, it clicked. Sasha Banks is, in my opinion, the best female wrestler in the history of the WWE and she's only 23. Paige is someone else I enjoy but she's been pretty bad since Mania, so seeing her motivated and having a good match was great. Sasha won with the Bank Statement in about fourteen minutes, in the best thing on the show so far.
Rusev and Summer "Lana" Rae come out for a promo, which turned out to be glorious. This entire feud should be atrocious but Rusev is comedy gold right now. He brought out a dog as a gift for Summer, but because it was ugly and neutered he called it DOG ZIGGLER! The next gift is a dead fish that he calls Lana. Rusev is on fire. Lana comes out and rubs Summer's face into the fish before slapping Rusev. When she leaves, RUSEV THROWS THE FISH AT HER! It was short, hilarious and I can't get over the image of him throwing the fish. Next week on Raw, Brock Lesnar will return, which will be in San Jose, the location where he lost the WWE World Heavyweight Title.
As Los Matadores takes on the Lucha Dragons, the Prime Time Players are on commentary. They bill this as FIRST TIME EVER, but it was on a Smackdown earlier this year. I guess Smackdown really is irrelevant. Titus was gold on commentary and the match was solid. New Day came out and, like Rusev, was comedy gold. Kalisto gets the win for his guys but it felt like it played second fiddle to the New Day/PTP beef. Either the match was pointless or there's a multi-team title match coming up at SummerSlam. Why build an actual tag feud for a big PPV when you can just throw a bunch of teams into it?
We were joined by Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper for the next in ring segment. Coming into the show, there were tons of rumors about Adam Rose returning as Leo Kruger and joining the Wyatts. That didn't happen as this was just Harper recommitting himself to Bray. It was overly long, dragged and not very entertaining. What came next however, was enjoyable. Becky Lynch and Charlotte took on NIkki Bella and Alicia Fox. Two Divas matches are the norm now huh? It wasn't as good as Sasha vs. Paige, but was still a fun tag match. Becky made Alicia tap to her armbar, which was good since she's gotten the least amount of shine among the recent NXT callups, despite her being the second best in my eyes.
Do you know what kind of match came next? A FIRST TIME EVER ONE! Kevin Owens faced Randy Orton. Now these are two of the best guys on the roster and I would love to see a big program between them. Sheamus was on commentary and, after eleven or so minutes, he caused the disqualification by attacking Orton. Cesaro ran out to even the odds, but got taken out by Owens. Owens and Sheamus stood tall, but it was nice that Owens stared a hole through Sheamus since they did have beef last week. Overall, this was fine stuff and I'm glad we didn't get the clean finish as Owens/Orton could be great in the future.
Time for the main event, as John Cena defends the United States Title against Seth Rollins. Commentary hyped this as the FIRST TIME EVER THAT CENA DEFENDS THE US TITLE VS SETH! That's reaching. These guys wrestled too many times at the end of 2014 so it's not fresh at all. The match itself was good and Cena took a knee to the nose which clearly broke it. He was gushing and his nose was out of place. Still, he fought through it and ended up winning. Via submission. There is my problem. Seth has been booked poorly as champion but this may have been the worst. He couldn't get himself DQed so Cena wins and can still earn the shot at SummerSlam? Hell, there were tons of better ways to do this and they went with the worst possible option. Cena continues to have good matches, but the booking baffles me at times.
All in all, I'll say this was a middle of the road episode of Raw. Some stuff was good, like the main event match, Sasha vs. Paige, Rusev and the New Day, but some stuff was really bad, like Seth tapping out, the Ambrose segment and the dull Bray Wyatt stuff. For me, the good slightly outweighed the bad. 5.5/10
1) Kota Ibushi: Obviously, the bulk of this week was taken up by the G1 Climax. It's usually really easy for WWE guys and girls to clog the list with all of their TV time each week. Well, there were five G1 shows and NJPW dominates this time around. Leading the pack is a guy that has greatly impressed all year, Kota Ibushi. I first saw him in Ring of Honor back in 2008 and liked him, but he is on another level now. He started the week by losing in a great match to Hiroshi Tanahashi. No shame in that. Then, he defeated Doc Gallows in what was one of the better Gallows' singles matches I've seen. He topped it all on day five by beating AJ Styles in what many are calling the match of the tournament so far. Day five is the only one I've yet to see, but I like both guys so I'm sure I'll be a fan. Basically, Ibushi is the MVP of the G1 Climax so far.
2) Karl Anderson: On night two of the G1 Climax, we were treated to our first upset. In the main event of that show, Shinsuke Nakamura, most people's favorites to win the entire G1, lost to "Machine Gun" Karl Anderson. The most shocking thing was that it was a clean win. No Bullet Club shenanigans or anything. He just beat Nakamura 1-2-3. On night four, he went out and beat the IWGP Intercontinental Champion, Hirooki Goto. While the quality of his matches haven't been up to par with some others on this list, they were both still enjoyable. The major reason he ranks so high is that both could be considered major upsets. He is surprising many as one half of the IWGP Tag Team Champions is doing more than fine for himself in this extremely competitive and important tournament.
3) Tetsuya Naito: Honestly, I was very tempted to put Hiroshi Tanahashi in this spot. Instead, I chose to go with someone who has completely won me over during this tournament. Tetsuya Naito and his new heel persona has been entertaining as hell. On night one of the tournament, he defeated Bad Luck Fale in a match that was kind of just there. Things picked up when he lost in a really good match against Katsuyori Shibata. It is probably my second or third favorite match of the G1 so far. His shining moment came on night five, when he topped Tanahashi. That is a pretty damn big win for Naito. His matches have been good, he's tied for the lead with 4 points and he's been super entertaining.
4) Hiroshi Tanahashi: The "John Cena of New Japan" is having a good G1 as expected. On the first night, he defeated our number one spot, Kota Ibushi in the main event. Following that great match, he competed in another main event against Hiroyoshi Tenzen and won that won as well. While it wasn't as good as the match with Ibushi, it still delivered and was worthy of a main event. On night five, he took on Tetsuya Naito in the match I discussed in Naito's spot. Besides having the obvious tie for first with four points, he also makes the list based on match quality, which has been, as expected, damn good.
5) Michael Elgin: When it was announced that Michael Elgin would compete in the G1 Climax, I saw a lot of unhappy people. There are a ton of fans who strongly dislike him. I honestly got out of following ROH during his run and missed a lot of his work. I figured the G1 would give me a chance to see him in action. So far, he has looked great. He has surprised a lot of people by putting on two very good matches. While he may not have any points, he deserves a spot for his performances. His match against IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada was masterfully booked as he came off looking like a beast. Then, he went toe to toe with Satoshi Kojima in another good match and another losing effort. While I don't expect him to rack up many wins, he is showing that he can hang, at least for now.
So last night was Ring of Honor's Death Before Dishonor Pay-Per-View event. I have actually seen multiple Death Before Dishonors live in the past. Now, unfortunately, I missed the opening contest between Silas Young and Will Ferrara, though it honestly was the match I was looking forward to the least.
I started during the Cedric Alexender vs. Moose match. Moose was on a huge winning streak and Cedric was on a bit of a losing skid when Cedric defeated him on ROH TV. With Cedric showing more heel tendencies, Veda Scott left Moose to manage Cedric. I thought this match was pretty solid. Moose hasn't been wrestling long but has done pretty well for himself in that time. Alexander won by nailing Moose with a foreign object. There is some good heel potential for Alexander. **3/4
Up next, Roppongi Vice took on the Briscoes. Part of me looked at this like it was kind of an off night for the Briscoes. They've been pretty high on the card lately, especially Jay, and this was a bit lower. There was no rivalry here or anything, but commentary did a good job in selling the fact that a win here would put either team in Tag Team Title contention. It was a blast and I really enjoyed seeing Roppongi Vice get more aggressive as the match went on and Trent had a busted eye. They got some near falls before the Briscoes picked up the win. Really fun stuff. ***3/4
I was pretty excited to see Adam Cole vs. Dalton Castle. Castle may not be known for being the best worker that ROH has, but his character is an absolute joy to watch. His matches are usually enjoyable but this was extra fun. Cole played off of him perfectly with some fun facial expressions. It was good to see Castle step into the ring against someone who has been to the top of ROH. As expected, Cole won here and showed Castle respect after the bell. Quality action here. Silas Young ran out to attack Castle after the match. ***1/2
When this actual match happened live, my stream got all messed up, but I found a way to watch it fully this morning. Adam Page faced ACH in a No Disqualifications match. Early on, I wasn't a big fan of this as it started rather slow. Once they got into the actual no disqualification work by bringing in weapons and such. They got creative, which really helped this out. This wasn't overly long and, after involving a ladder and table, Page won. Pretty solid stuff. ***
I was looking forward to the Four Corner Survival Tag Team Title match. The Addiction defended against reDRagon, War Machine and the Kingdom. Right off the bat, Maria Kanellis stole the show by looking amazing. I felt like this had potential to be much better, but it wasn't bad by any means. All four teams worked hard, but War Machine stood out to me. They busted out some impressive offense and looked to be doing their best to go above and beyond. Adam Cole was out on commentary to further build his issues with the Kingdom. This was chaotic, but just a bit underwhelming. The Addiction retain following Celebrity Rehab. ***
It was now time for the main event, pitting Jay Lethal vs. Roderick Strong. Strong is billed as Mr. ROH and Lethal currently holds the World and Television Titles. While this is a big match, I think it's good for a first defense as a win over Strong means a fair amount. The match itself is a really good outing from both guys, but they end up going with the time limit draw. It's hard to have a match go for an hour and not have it feel a bit long but this felt like 60 minutes. I've seen much better hour matches and much worse, but this was in the middle. I also don't agree with the draw decision. I get that they may want to do the rematch down the line, but having Lethal's first defense not end via decisive pin is disappointing and kind of hurts him. I've seen people split on this. Some hated it and some called it a MOTY candidate. I'm more towards the middle as it was good, but not great. ***1/2
Overall, I think this was another good showing for Ring of Honor. I don't believe it was a classic or great event, but it was really solid. Nothing gets more than four stars from me and nothing got less than **3/4. Outside of the main event, the show moved quickly and, while I may not agree with every booking decision, I found the show enjoyable. 7/10
This week's Smackdown is important for me to see since it's Sasha Banks' in-ring debut on the show. However, we actually begin with the arrival of Dean Ambrose. He comes out, followed by Sheamus, who cuts a short promo saying that Ambrose isn't courageous, but reckless. Ambrose says that Sheamus looks stupid and the match starts. I enjoyed this, even more than their King of the Ring match from earlier this year. Thanks to a distraction from Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper, Sheamus defeats Ambrose with the Brogue Kick. Hey, Mr. Money in the Bank actually got a win! We cut backstage, where Jojo interviews Neville, who says that Stardust is unlike anyone he's encountered. He calls him a coward and leaves before Stardust appears on the screen behind him in typical weird fashion.
Speaking of Neville, he's out to take on Adam Rose like this is 2014 NXT or something. This ends exactly the way you'd expect, as Neville picks up the win in about three minutes. Stardust appears on screen, mocking Neville and says that the sharpest arrows, no matter the color, come crashing down. He even throws in a Dusty Rhodes line for good measure. Possible build for Stardust vs. Green Arrow it seems. They run a great Sasha Banks video package. I hope Charlotte and Becky Lynch get these as well. Next, King Barrett comes out to cut a promo and try to salvage his career. He talks about how he beat three "top" Superstars in 24 hours to become King and he took care of R-Truth too. This was standard stuff but I can honestly no longer take Barrett seriously. Moving on, Kevin Owens shows up to cut a promo. He says that he tapped out at Battleground because he didn't want to risk injury while he has a family to feed. I liked this reasoning and it should have been shown on Raw to more viewers. He takes on Rusev and they have a pretty good hard hitting match but Kevin Owens continues his string of walking out on matches, resulting in him taking a countout loss. The prize fighter needs to start finishing matches if he's ever going to earn another shot at a prize. He then cuts off a Cesaro backstage interview and gets in his face. Cesaro tells him to "walk Owens walk."
The Divas were in action next, as Sasha Banks made her Smackdown debut, teaming with Naomi to face the Bella Twins. This was given about twelve minutes and they worked through a commercial break. It was really cool seeing Sasha work with Nikki Bella, as I think there is a good match in the future between them. All four girls brought their working boots. The Bellas continue to show improvement and Naomi seems to have stepped her game up now that the NXT girls are here, showing good chemistry with Sasha. Sasha was her usual great self, giving us a good match. Nikki dropped Naomi with the Rack Attack, giving Team Bella their first win since the "Divas Revolution" began.
In our main event, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins faced off with Cesaro. As anyone who knows these two would expect, this was a fourth good match of the evening. Both guys are incredibly talented in the ring and Cesaro continues to have entertaining matches now that he's been given the chance. After a few close calls, Cesaro ultimately falls short after getting poked in the eyes and eating the Pedigree. Kevin Owens appears post match and hits a popup powerbomb on Cesaro. Overall, this was a really enjoyable episode of Smackdown. The opening match, Rusev/Owens, the women's tag and the main event were all good matches, the fluff was kept to a minimum and we got the fun Stardust promo. This episode gets an 8/10.
After the shitty finish to Battleground, the WWE had the Undertaker himself kick off Raw. While I'm not a fan of the return, it was a nice throwback to have him open the show. He cuts a promo saying that streaks were made to be broken but Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman just had to continue reminding people about it. Nobody interrupts as he just says that Brock will rest in peace like all living things. Taker's deadman stuff can be a bit dated, but at least this was different. Backstage, Triple H and Stephanie are watching and announced Taker/Brock at SummerSlam. Yay. /endsarcasm. Our opener pits Charlotte against Brie Bella. Team BAD was on commentary, while the two girls in the ring did good work. To think that about a year ago, Brie was in a big time angle with Stephanie, while Charlotte was tearing it up on NXT. It's good to see. They were given about nine minutes and Charlotte won via the Figure Eight.
The Prime Time Players are out to take on Los Matadores in a non-title match. It's a relatively short bout that Los Matadores wins for some reason. I mean, I get that the New Day, in their always entertaining fashion, caused a distraction, but there were better ways to get their feud across. No need for a jobber tag team to beat the champions. Next, Miz faces Big Show due to him interrupting Triple H earlier in the evening. Show makes quick work of Miz, winning in under two minutes. Apparently, Miz got legit injured during this. There goes more problems with the Intercontinental Title division. That belt's curse is getting so problematic, it's even hurting challengers.
HHH & Steph gather the locker room to tell them to protect the SummerSlam main event. If I was them I'd be like "fuck that, let them kill each other, then maybe one of us can headline." Paul Heyman come sout and talks some shit about Brock ending the streak. Undertaker does his trickery and just appears in the ring. He goes after Heyman, but Brock shows up and they brawl. The locker room runs out to try and break them up but it's easier said than done. Brock keeps getting free and attacking. He shouts "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU" to which Undertaker expertly responds with "YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO!" The brawl even continues backstage. It was all masterfully done, but, I'm still not excited for the match. As I said before, either Undertaker returned just to lose or Brock is going to lose at SummerSlam and waste two years of extremely protected booking. Couldn't that go towards making a new mega star instead of giving Undertaker another notch on his belt? Side note, but commentary bailed once Brock showed, which gave this an extra little something.
Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper are out. Bray cuts a promo, saying that he's never alone and his family is always by his side. Harper even gets some mic time in. Dean Ambrose shows up to be on Roman Reigns' side as he faces Harper. After about thirteen minutes, this ends with Reigns winning via DQ and we get a brawl between the four. I'm guessing that we get two thirds of the Shield against two thirds of the Wyatts at SummerSlam. Remember how good their six man tags were? This will probably be a lesser version of that. It gives Ambrose something to do, but I wish they had more for him than to be in a tag team match on the second biggest Pay-Per-View of the year.
The WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins is out to brag about retaining his belt. He even has Lillian Garcia enter the ring to rightfully declare Lesnar as the winner but to announce that Seth is still the champion. He's such a good scumbag heel. John Cena interrupts, eliciting groans from the IWC. He talks about what he's done for the United States Title and how he defends it nearly every single week, while Seth has ducked and dodged challengers as champion. While he's not wrong, it did kind of add to making Seth look weak as a champion. On the flip side, it again added to how important the US Title has become. They nearly come to blows but Seth decides against it and retreats. It seems like they may be going for Cena/Seth at SummerSlam, which makes me wonder why they didn't have Cena drop the title to Kevin Owens. Maybe they want to do Title vs. Title, but Cena/Seth would have had a similar effect if Owens had won the strap.
Usually, a nine minute Divas match is enough for the show. Not tonight though as we now get a tag team match pitting Becky Lynch and Paige against Sasha Banks and Naomi. And guess what? This got even more time than Charlotte/Brie. Becky and Sasha were their usual great selves, while Paige and Naomi were on their game, with neither really botching. They built for a hot tag to Paige that the crowd popped hard for. It was a really solid tag team match that ended when Sasha made Paige tap to the Bank Statement. Becky remains the only callup without a win yet but that's fine. She's looked good and man, Sasha making Paige tap out in her first Raw match is pretty legit. It is then announced that this Thursday on Smackdown, Sasha and Naomi will face the Bella Twins. I'm unsure if the shine for the girls will continue but I'm loving it right now.
In the back, Lana is interviewed about Dolph Ziggler's status when Summer Rae appears. She is dressed like a knockoff Lana and when Rusev shows up, he's smitten. He makes out with Summer, who then slaps Lana. We go to our main event which pits Cesaro, John Cena and Randy Orton against Rusev, Kevin Owens and Sheamus. This was a fun match. Sheamus walks out during it, shortly before Owens kicks Rusev and does the same. That was odd, but it left Rusev alone. He actually does well until Lana shows up for a catfight with Summer. That distraction allows Cena to hit him with an AA, before Cesaro swings him and slingshots him into an RKO. Orton covers for the win and the three faces stand tall to close the show. Honestly, this was one of the better Raws in recent memory. I mean, nothing that they did was pointless. Having two Divas matches that took almost 25 minutes was wise. It showcased them and meant that we got important stuff instead of fluff with people that nobody cares about. The main event was good, the Taker/Brock brawl was fun, the Seth/Cena segment was solid and the Wyatt stuff worked. The only things I didn't like were the Miz/Show and PTP stuff. Outside of this, this Raw was great. 8/10.
As always, we start with the Kickoff Show. Much like last month at Money in the Bank, the Kickoff match featured King Barrett taking on R-Truth, also known as King What's Up. These two have met a bunch of times over the past few months since the actual King of the Ring took place. Due to the amount of matches they've had, they've developed a bit of chemistry and had a solid little Kickoff match. It went back and forth with a few false finishes before Barrett was able to win with the Bull Hammer in just over nine minutes. Perfectly acceptable stuff and hopefully, King Barrett can move into a new feud. I'm not asking him to main event, but something different. **1/4
The actual show itself opens with the hometown boy, Randy Orton, taking on Sheamus. I noted before the actual show that these two were like oil and water. From what I read yesterday, they have had 176 matches since 2009 and I can only recall one being any good. This was better than most as Orton moved into a harder hitting style to match Sheamus. That worked well since Sheamus is at his best in those situations. They got a good amount of time and the crowd was pretty hot for this, which helped it. Orton was able to score the win in about seventeen minutes with an RKO. Better than their usual stuff, but nothing special. Hopefully this program is over as we head to SummerSlam. ***
Next, it was time for the WWE Tag Team Championship match. Like the Kickoff match, this was a Money in the Bank rematch. The Prime Time Players defended their titles this time against the New Day. New Day cut a pre-match promo that was pretty great. They continue to deliver in this role. The match itself was better than their previous encounter. The crowd was again hot and the Prime Time Players were able to pick up a win after both Darren Young and Titus O'Neil busted out their finishers in under nine minutes. A really solid tag team bout that managed to deliver. **3/4
In a match of two guys who couldn't really afford a loss, Roman Reigns met Bray Wyatt. I was pleasantly surprised by this match. Going in, I wasn't looking forward to it, but they managed to put on a good showing. That is especially surprising considering they were given the most time of any match. We were treated to plenty of near falls and an intriguing finish when a man in a hoodie attacked Reigns. This allowed Wyatt to secure the victory in just under 23 minutes. The man in the hoodie revealed himself to be Luke Harper, signaling at least some sort of reunion of the Wyatt Family, who never should have split in the first place. Best thing on the show so far. ***1/2
Throughout the night, a Divas match was hyped. Stephanie wanted a rep from Team Bella, Team BAD and Paige's team each to have a Triple Threat match. It seemed like we would get Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte vs. Nikki, but Nikki backed out and sent Brie in. The three girls put on a match that wasn't on the level of the usual NXT work, but was better than every other main roster Divas match this year. Sasha and Charlotte seemed slightly off, but the fans cared about it, it was good and seeing Sasha Banks on a Pay-Per-View warmed my heart. Charlotte won in about eleven minutes, and I hope this continues. ***
Here is where the show really started to hit a bump as the final hour disappointed greatly. We got the rubber match in the series between Kevin Owens and John Cena, this time with the United States Title on the line. It wasn't on the level of their first two matches and then came the awful finish. Cena made Owens tap out to the STF. The prize fighter won the non-title match before coming up short with the prize on the line. Now, Owens is just another heel. Had he beaten Cena here, he could have separated himself from the pack. Even if they have a fourth match for some reason, Owens already lost twice and tapped out like a chump. A heavily disappointing result. Where does Owens go from here? Did Cena really need to win this? ***3/4
Going into this show, I felt that Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins had potential to have a great match. That isn't what we got. What we got instead was Brock tossing Seth around for about ten minutes before a gong went off and the Undertaker appeared. The fans popped but I hated it. Undertaker hit Brock low and then planted him with two Tombstones. We didn't get a finish to the main event and the Undertaker stuff is stupid. Like, why does he all of a sudden want revenge after more than a year now? Why didn't this happen at Mania this year? Why is it happening at all? If they meet at SummerSlam, and Taker wins, Brock broke the streak for nothing. If Brock wins, what was the point of Taker returning for revenge? He'll look like a chump. This was more of an angle than a match but still disappointing. **
All in all, I'd say this was the best Battleground but it didn't have much competition. I was enjoying the show up until the final hour. Having Kevin Owens lose is a monumentally bad decision and the Undertaker return was flat out stupid. An atrocious ending to a pretty good event. 6/10.
It's really hard to look forward to a match that you've seen so many times over the past few weeks, especially when none of them have really been that good. It seems like because the King of the Ring was thrown together at the last minute, there was no plan for what came next and it had led to a meaningless comedy feud. Truth is entertaining in the role, but I guess Barrett wins here to gain back some respectability.
Winner: King Barrett
I like the Prime Time Players, I really do. However, I think their Tag Team Title run has come about three years too late. Considering the injuries that have kept the Usos and Tyson Kidd and Cesaro out of the division, the competition is running low. I think the Lucha Dragons are the best team in the division, but the New Day are the most entertaining. I feel like they absolutely should be the champions, but with the fact that the Prime Time Players just won the titles at the last PPV, I can't see them dropping the titles just yet.
Winners: The Prime Time Players
The oil and water of the WWE. Randy Orton and Sheamus are two talented Superstars who have wrestled tons of times, yet don't have chemistry at all. I can honestly only remember only one of their matches being any good. I honestly, don't see this one being very good either. I can't think of a match I care less about. Normally, I'd pick Sheamus but A) the WWE loves to job out their Money in the Bank winners and B) I need to pick more faces to win on this show.
Winner: Randy Orton
The idea of Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns is a good move, but the program has lacked. Like most Bray rivalries, what is the real reason for any of this? He went from guy who had programs that didn't really have anything to do with wrestling, but now he's upset about being cost a spot in Money in the Bank. This is another feud for Bray to cut weird promos before losing to a bigger star. While the Royal Rumble backlash seems to have stalled them on Reigns, I think it's getting very close to the time to pull the trigger on him. I sense Bray wins in some relatively cheap fashion or we get a non finish so we can have a bigger match at SummerSlam. I'll go with the non-finish.
Winner: No Contest
I said it at Elimination Chamber and I said it at Money in the Bank. I totally want Kevin Owens to win and, after losing the NXT Championship to Finn Balor, there is no reason for him to lose. Kevin Owens 100% needs to win the US Title here. The Cena reign has been good to raise the prestige of the title and should be used to put someone majorly over. That should be Owens or he loses all momentum. Hell, have Cena move to the Intercontinental Title picture and make that title relevant again. However, with all of that being said, I'm sticking with my prediction from the first two matches. I am not picking against John Cena until he actually loses a feud with a hot heel.
Winner: John Cena
This is the most interesting match on the card by far. Seth Rollins has been champion for a few months now, but Brock Lesnar has been untouchable for over a year now. I don't believe they will have Seth beat Brock because not even John Cena was able to do so. I also cannot see them putting the title back on Brock due to his part time status. What I expect to happen is Brock wins via disqualification or something like that so he can stay dominant and the title stays on Seth.
Winner: Brock Lesnar via disqualification
2015 Prediction Record: 29-22
2014 Prediction Record: 22-18 (Only five PPVs)
The show opens with Roman Reigns, who comes out and says that Bray Wyatt isn't in his head. He does want Bray to stay away from his match tonight, when he teams with Dean Ambrose against Big Show and Sheamus. Bray interrupts on the tron, cutting a pretty cool promo about all of the gifts that Roman has. He says that Reigns is a monument for all of the good in the world but Bray will destroy it with a hammer. This was fine as Bray got to be his creepy self while Roman held his own with the short and sweet approach. Bray ends it with "anyone but you Roman, anyone but you." Bray continues to do good work on the mic but I just can't buy him winning any big matches.
Our opening contest pits the Lucha Dragons against the New Day with PTP on commentary. With Tyson Kidd and Cesaro not currently teaming due to Tyson'd injury, these are my two favorite teams in the division. It was a really fun tag team match here as they were given just over ten minutes and did fine work with it. Look, if Smackdown is going to be the show without much angle advancement, give them time to have good matches like this. It's the worst when Smackdown has a bunch of two minute contests. New Day win and cut a promo on PTP after, but when they get in the ring, New Day exits. Next, King Barrett goes up against Jack Swagger. These random Swagger appearances are just that. Random. Barrett beats him in two minutes. Truth appears in his strange getup and Barrett tells him that he won the prestigious tournament to be King but Truth makes a mockery of it and it ends on Sunday. Moving on, Raw featured a great match between Cesaro, Rusev and Kevin Owens. Here, Cesaro got a one on one match with Rusev. Like the tag match earlier, this was given a lot of time, clocking in at under fourteen minutes. It wasn't on the level of Raw but it was still good stuff. And you know what? Cesaro beat Rusev clean, becoming only the second man to do so. This could be a big deal if acknowledged and mentioned. The fact that it happened on Smackdown has me worrying that it will be swept under the rug like most things to happen on the B show. I hope it matters.
In a rematch from Raw, Stardust takes on Neville. I think these two could have a cool feud if given care and not just rematch after rematch. They get a short match where Neville gets his win back from Monday. Both wins have been via rollup so I assume we get a rubber match soon. Maybe on Sunday? Hell, I'd have liked Rusev/Cesaro to be saved for that too. After a recap of the "divas revolution" from Raw, Jojo's cute self interviews Sasha Banks, Naomi and Tamina. I marked out seeing that Sasha had the NXT Women's Title with her. I think that's such a good thing, similar to Owens bringing the NXT Title to the main roster. They are team BAD because they're the best at dominating. Well, at least Sasha is.
In a main event that would make Teddy Long proud, we have a tag team match playa. Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose teaming makes sense, but why against Sheamus and Big Show? Show is feuding with Ryback and Miz and Sheamus is in the awful program with Randy Orton. It's like the bookers didn't even care and just threw together people who happened to be at the arena. It was your standard Smackdown tag, ending via disqualification when Bray Wyatt attacked. Reigns overcame those odds and laid out him and Sheamus to stand tall. Overall, this was a solid episode of Smackdown. The opening promo worked, the tag opener was fun, Cesaro/Rusev ruled and seeing Sasha with her title was great. Everything else was either short or average and nothing was really bad. 7.5/10.
For the third straight week, Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman come out first on Raw. The Heyman/Lesnar opening segment is the new Authority opening segment. Heyman did his usual thing as Brock stood there doing his usual standing. Seth Rollins and Kane appear and they bicker before announcing there will be a contract signing later. They try to hype the next match as a "WWE All-Star Team" but that's not the case. Sheamus and Big Show took on Ryback and Randy Orton. They worked through a commercial and got about fifteen minutes. It was solid but nothing to write home about. The crowd was surprisingly hot for this segment, which was won by Orton and Ryback. As usual, the Money in the Bank winner took the pin here because it's still more important to protect Big Show.
Next, we were supposed to get Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose and I'm so happy that it didn't happen. We've seen it a ton and it killed Dean's momentum last year. Instead, Roman Reigns appeared and attacked him. It was nice build for Sunday and allowed Reigns to get some revenge. Our next was the best part of the show. Nikki Bella, flanked by Alicia Fox and Brie, came out to talk trash. Stephanie McMahon interrupted and said that Nikki needs new challengers. She brings out Paige and then debuts Becky Lynch and Charlotte! They side with Paige as I marked out. Naomi and Tamina came out next, leading to the debut of SASHA FUCKING BANKS! I went nuts in my house. She sided with Naomi & Tamina, and this led to a huge brawl. The NXT girls stole the show, putting their respective submissions on Team Bella. This was a really good segment that got the kind of reaction it needed to. The crowd loved it and hopefully, this means a ton of good things for the Divas division. The biggest issue with this was how Stephanie just decided to play the face here.
Following that, we move into a series of segments that were a letdown after that Divas high. The Prime Time Players and Mark Henry (who is randomly face again) defeated the New Day. For some reason Henry got the pin. Then R-Truth beat King Barrett in another in their never ending series of matches. Time for the John Cena US Title Open Challenge, where things picked up. No promo from him, which is a welcome surprise. Rusev comes out to answer, but then Kevin Owens shows up and wants to win the title tonight, instead of Sunday. Cesaro interrupts him and I think we're getting a tag. Instead, we get a triple threat with the winner getting the shot. The Triple Threat makes three straight weeks with a fantastic Cesaro match. This got about 24 minutes and was excellent. Owens walked out midway through since he has a shot Sunday, leaving Cesaro and Rusev to kill it. Rusev was able to win this amazing match. Just all around great stuff from everyone involved.
Rusev is out of breath and nearly dying as his match with John Cena starts. Cena is in control throughout, until Rusev counters the AA into the Accolade. Before anything else could happen, Kevin Owens runs out to cause the disqualification. This was a good way to building Rusev back up, but it kind of made him seem face here. Stardust returned by cutting a backstage promo, even weaving some Dusty Rhodes lines into it. He faced Neville and we got the cool graphic to the left. Stardust won the match with a handful of tights. I like seeing Stardust win but remember when Neville was giving Cena, Seth and Sheamus runs for their money? Now he's kind of just there. He's literally just the guy with the cool finisher. He's Evan Bourne.
Our closing segment on this episode was of course, the Battleground contract signing. Paul Heyman said the same thing he always says to promote the match. Brock Lesnar flips the table over to reveal that Seth Rollins had a hidden axe handle under it. Seth quickly took it back so Brock threw the table at him. Brock went nuts and basically killed Kane in a good segment. Seth ran away to close the show as Brock stood tall with the WWE Title. This was a good way to build the Battleground main event. Overall, this was a step up for Raw from recent weeks. Granted, it had some bad, like the few segments that were pretty much just there, but there was a lot of good. The Triple Threat match, the closing segment and especially seeing the NXT girls on Raw were all highlights. 7.5/10.
1) Timothy Thatcher: First, I realize that the gif I used isn't from this week but whatever. In a relatively slow week, Timothy Thatcher stood out above all others. I admit some ignorance as I've seen very little of the man's work, but winning two titles in one night is an impressive feat. That's exactly what Thatcher did at Evolve 45 this past weekend. He defeated Drew Galloway to win both the Evolve and Dragon Grate Open the Freedom Gate Championships. That in itself would normally be enough to top a list, but he added to it by successfully retaining the Evolve Title against Chris Hero, who is having a fine 2015 himself, the following night. A very good week indeed.
2) Zach Sabre Jr.: Again with the pictures not being from this week right? I only recently started getting into Zach Sabre Jr and he always delivers. His match against Roderick Strong at PWG Don't Sweat the Technique earlier this year is in my top ten matches of the year. From what I've been told, they somehow topped it at Evolve 45 this weekend. I'll be doing my best to find a way to watch that sometime this week. This time around, it was Sabre who was able to eek out the victory. To add to that, he would then best TJ Perkins in what it being called another great match the next night. You gotta love those double shot weekends. They really help guys on the indies make it higher on this list, which is always a plus. If you're not already watching Sabre, go out and find more matches of his to check out.
3) John Cena: Outside of his rivalry with Rusev, John Cena has been having the best year of his career from my eyes. Yea he's had more successful years but bringing prestige back to a midcard title that is often overlooked is something impressive. This week, that title closed Raw in a great match between Cena and Cesaro. I don't consider it a match of the year candidate like some people have, but it was still damn good. Cena was able to retain after nearly 30 minutes of war. It was probably the best match on Raw all year long and another in a string of really good John Cena Open Challenges. The US Title means something and we can thank Cena for that.
4) Cesaro: Since his days as Claudio Castagnoli, I've been a relatively big fan of Cesaro. Let me get this out of way; I don't really believe the man can be a main eventer in the WWE. That being said, I would like to see them actually try. For the past two weeks, he's had the match of the night on Raw against John Cena, with this week's being the best match on Raw all year from what I can recall. Cesaro and Cena have a very good chemistry and the crowd was firmly behind him in Chicago. Despite losing, the man was in a thirty minute Raw main event and put on one hell of a performance. He absolutely deserves to be included here.
5) The Vaudevillains: In the main event of NXT this week, the Tag Team Title scene got some shine, which was a nice change of pace. In that main event, the Vauevillains took on Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady to determine the number one contenders to Blake and Murphy. A lot of people expected Enzo and Cass to earn another shot but the Vaudevillains surprised many people, myself included, when they won the match. They now have a Tag Team Title shot in their future and it'll be interesting to see if it happens at TakeOver: Brooklyn. I fully expected Enzo and Cass to get the shot in New York.
