Battleground Predictions

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)

Smackdown 7/16/15 Review

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.

Divas Revolution Raw Review

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.

Fave Five 7/6/15-7/12/15

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.

Bash and Kevstaaa Wrestling Podcast: Royal Rumble 2000

Best Matches of the Year So Far

Here is a list of every match that I've seen so far in 2015 that I have given at least four stars, separated by promotion.

WWE

WWE Championship: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins - Royal Rumble - ****3/4

NXT Women's Championship: Sasha Banks (c) vs. Becky Lynch - TakeOver: Unstoppable - ****1/2

John Cena vs. Kevin Owens - Elimination Chamber - ****1/2

NXT Championship: Kevin Owens (c) vs. Finn Balor - Beast in the East - ****1/4

NXT Women's Championship: Charlotte (c) vs. Bayley vs. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks - TakeOver: Rival - ****1/4

Finn Balor vs. Adrian Neville - TakeOver: Rival - ****1/4

NXT Championship: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Kevin Owens - TakeOver: Rival - ****1/4

Daniel Bryan vs. Roman Reigns - FastLane - ****1/4

WWE Championship: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Roman Reigns (vs. Seth Rollins) - WrestleMania 31 - ****1/4

WWE Championship: Seth Rollins (c) vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Randy Orton vs. Roman Reigns - Payback - ****

WWE Championship Ladder Match: Seth Rollins (c) vs. Dean Ambrose - Money in the Bank - ****

John Cena vs. Kevin Owens - Money in the Bank - ****

WWE United States Championship: John Cena (c) vs. Cesaro - Raw 7/6/15 - ****

NJPW

IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Kota Ibushii - Wrestle Kingdom 9 - *****

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: AJ Styles (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada - Dominion - ****3/4

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahasi (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada - Wrestle Kingdom 9 - ****1/4

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kazushi Sakuraba - Dominion - ****1/4

NEVER Openweight Championship: Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Tomoaki Honma - New Beginnings - ****1/4

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs. KUSHIDA - Dominion - ****

AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito - Wrestle Kingdom 9 - ****

Lucha Underground

Grave Consequences - Fenix vs. Mil Muertes - ****1/2

Lucha Underground Championship: Prince Puma (c) vs. Johnny Mundo - ****1/4

Trios Tag Team Championship: Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc vs. The Crew - ****

ROH

AJ Styles vs. Adam Cole - War of the Worlds - ****1/4

ROH World and Television Championship: Jay Briscoe (c) vs. Jay Lethal (c) - Best in the World - ****1/4

Roderick Strong vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - Global Wars - ****
ROH World Tag Team Championship: reDRagon (c) vs. The Young Bucks - 13th Anniversary - ****
The Bullet Club vs. The Kingdom - Best in the World - ****
The Bullet Club vs. Kazuchika Okada and Roppongi Vice - Global Wars - ****

Other

Hair vs. Hair: Ethan Carter III vs. Rockstar Spud - TNA Impact - ****1/4

PWG Championship: Roderick Strong (c) vs. Zach Sabre Jr. - Don't Sweat the Technique - ****1/4

Raw Chicago Review

For the second straight week, Raw kicked off with Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman. I'll take that over the usual Authority opening promo. Heyman cuts a promo that itself, isn't special, but his delivery is top notch. He just recaps a ton of Brock's accomplishments and reminds us that Brock will beat Seth Rolling at Battleground. In an effort to kill the crowd, they move to Ryback vs. Big Show. I'm not a big fan of guys facing off before a Triple Threat PPV match. I think it hurts the impact of the actual PPV match. The contest itself was kind of shitty as it dragged. Miz came out to cause the disqualification and he ended up eating a Shellshock and chokeslam. That stuff was fine but the match was dreadful. Following that, it was time for a Divas match. Paige took on Brie Bella, who was accompanied by Nikki and Alicia Fox. They worked a better match than the opener, though a distraction from the outside caused Paige to lose. The Bellas and Fox beat her down after the match, standing tall once again. This was nothing of real note and it honestly seems like this is all just treading water until someone from NXT, hopefully Charlotte, gets called up to save Paige. Until then this is all just running on a treadmill and nobody seems to care enough to fix that. Character development and well written angles are more important for the Divas than just giving them more than five minutes to work with.

To close down hour one, Roman Reigns takes on Sheamus. They had a decent match here that went over eleven minutes. As Reigns seemed poised to win, Bray Wyatt seemed to appear. Reigns chased him down and laid him out, but it wasn't really Bray and instead was someone who remained unnamed dressed as him. This decoy led to Sheamus winning via countout. As he celebrated, Randy Orton returned to attack Sheamus. Yay. These two are oil and water when it comes to their matches for the most part. They've had about a hundred and only maybe tow or three have ever really clicked. So this doesn't excite me. Also, where the fuck did Reigns go? Did he just casually walk backstage after he was duped?

Man, that first hour of Raw was long ass hell and just seemed to drag on and on. Rusev and Summer Rae come out to start hour two and ran down Lana and Dolph Ziggler. They showed up and traded barbs. It nearly led to another Lana/Summer brawl, but Rusev and Dolph get in between. This leads to Rusev showing that he's now perfectly healed as he superkicks Dolph and attacks him with his crutch. Summer also kicks Lana in the back of the head and tosses her out of the ring. Rusev continues to beat on Dolph, even leading to a stretcher job. Not the greatest or worst segment I've ever seen but closer to the bad side. Nobody looks good here. Rusev has looked soft, Lana is moving away from made her interesting, Dolph looks like a dick for throwing this in Rusev's face and Summer Rae is just there.

Time for some more filler in the second hour, as Bo Dallas came out to cut a promo on the last segment. He faced Dean Ambrose and we actually somehow got dueling chants, which I never expected. Ambrose won, which was fine. We need more wins like this, rather than having guys go over other established guys. I just wish the company had something to do with Dean. The dude went from multiple PPV title shots to nothing. Again, as more filler, King Barrett beat R-Truth. I think this worked as the finish to their feud. Maybe. It went on a bit too long and was clearly only this long to kill time. Seth Rollins and J&J Security are out next to call out the beast. They have these odd looking kendo sticks with them. Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman come out now. Instead of going after them, Brock gets two axes and proceeds to destroy J&J's shiny new Cadillac. There was a part where he tossed the car door into the crowd and it seemed to hit a kid, which was all over Twitter. I wonder what will come of that. This was followed by Lesnar taking out everyone in what was a really fun segment. He stood tall with the WWE World Heavyweight Title at the end of it, kicking off what would end up being the best hour of the show by a wide margin. I really rather enjoyed this whole segment.

                                                            The New Day is out next for a tag team match and their look at the Cadillac is priceless. They recently ran into trouble with Brock Lesnar and kind of ended up looking like that car. They faced the Lucha Dragons in a tag team match that was a fair amount of fun. These are two of the teams that tend to deliver in the division. The Prime Time Players were on commentary and did a superior job to the actual commentary team. Fine stuff to build towards Battleground, but I don't understand why the Lucha Dragons aren't used more. They should be in title picture in some shape or form.

John Cena's US Title Open Challenge was next and it ended up closing the show. Kevin Owens tried to answer it but Cesaro appeared and wanted a shot after coming close last week. I hated how Owens just allowed for his spot to be taken. What I didn't hate was how Cena and Cesaro went on to wrestle for about 30 minutes and put on a classic. This was better than last week's effort and actually a great match. My only real gripes with it was how they kept trying to tease a submission finish. I can never buy those since Cena doesn't tap. Hell, I barely bought any of Cesaro's near falls because of how he's been booked in recent memory. Still though, this match ruled. Cena retained and Owens tried to attack but Cena ducked and hit an AA. I didn't like this. It made Owens look weak and then he made Cena look weak by shrugging off the AA and walking away. Overall, I'd say this was a completely middle of the pack episode of Raw. The first hour was terrible, the second hour wasn't very good but everything after Brock destroyed the car was really good. 6/10.

Fave Five 6/29/15-7/5/15

1) Kazuchika Okada: As a massive AJ Styles fan, this was disappointing to hear about but yes, he is no longer the IWGP Heavyweight Champion. That honor goes to the "Rainmaker" himself, Kazuchika Okada. Okada and AJ headlined Dominion and, from what I hear, possibly stole the show. Okada was able to pull out the win and recapture the IWGP Heavyweight Title from the man that ended his near 400 day reign back in 2013. Okada coming out on top was enough to earn him the number one spot this week. I have yet to see the match at the time of this writing, but will be doing so within the next day or two. I've heard people give it the full five star treatment and some consider it our match of the year. Regardless, this is a big deal for Okada, now in his third reign.

2) Finn Balor: The "Beast in the East" special was actually a blast to wake up and watch. Had it not been for Dominion, Finn Balor would have topped this list. Instead, he'll have to settle for a strong number two in such a loaded week. The WWE Network special was built around Brock Lesnar and the NXT Championship. The title match delivered in spades. Balor and Owens were treated like big deals, as was the NXT Title itself. Balor was in full "demon" paint and had a great match against Owens. It culminated with him winning the title in a pretty great moment. It was a great match, a great atmosphere, a historic moment and the biggest news coming out of the "Beast in the East" Absolutely awesome stuff.

3) Ethan Carter III: You know it's been a good week when you can win the top title in your company and come in third. Ethan Carter III has been the best heel in wrestling for a while, but of course it's not talked about as much because he's in TNA. While it's very possible that the company is a dying breed, EC3 has worked his ass off to prove that he is legit. I said it before and I'll say it again, he is the biggest missed opportunity I've seen the WWE have. He has all of the tools and it shows now that he has been given a chance. He beat Kurt Angle, rightfully, for the TNA World Heavyweight Title. The only reasons he didn't place higher is because the win wasn't clean and the level of importance of the wins by the guys that are ahead of him. Had he beaten Angle clean, he would have a strong case for the top slot.

4) KUSHIDA: Again, I haven't been able to take in all of Dominion just yet but this was big. In a week full of title wins, KUSHIDA had one of the coolest. Much like the Kazuchika Okada/AJ Styles match from Dominion, I've heard nothing but good to great things about KUSHIDA's victory over Kenny Omega. When he won the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament earlier this year, I noted how much I like the guy and this was pretty sweet. I'll be getting around to watching it soon. He is also set up for a match with Ricochet soon, which should be breathtaking. Add in that he was recently announced for GFW and KUSHIDA is kind of a big deal right now.

5) Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson: This has to be the only week I've ever done where every person or team on the list won a title. Here, we have the IWGP Tag Team Titles. The Kingdom took the straps from the Bullet Club back at Invasion Attack in April. Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson were able to win them back at Dominion. This now marks the third reign for the duo and fourth for the Machine Gun. It wasn't the most high profile title change on Dominion but it was certainly good enough to earn them a spot on this week's list.

Beast in the East Review

I woke up at 5:15 AM this morning to catch this WWE Network Special from Japan. Before the stream began, there were two surprisingly long dark matches. The show itself began with Chris Jericho taking on Neville. This is one of the matches I was really looking forward to. I think Jericho doing a run with NXT, even if it's just the non-televised stuff, would be good. This was a lot of fun. They went back and forth and were given a little more than sixteen minutes to work with. Jericho can still go. Neville got caught with a massive Codebreaker but somehow kicked out, making me think he'd win. However, he gets caught in the Liontamer which ends this. I appreciate that Jericho busted out the Liontamer over the Walls of Jericho. Really good opener here that made me glad I got up at the crack of dawn. ***1/2

Next, we got a Divas Championship match. The original card had Nikki Bella defending against Paige and Naomi in a Triple Threat match. For some reason, Naomi didn't make the trip and Tamina was placed in here instead. We had the triple threat with Naomi back at Elimination Chamber and it wasn't very good. Surprisingly, even though Tamina isn't very good either, having her in this was an improvement. She did some power stuff but would get knocked out to lead to Nikki and Paige doing battle, which is the best main roster Divas duo we can possibly get. Nikki retains after laying out Tamina with a forearm. Decent enough Divas stuff here. *1/2

            Our show now takes a detour into suplex city as Brock Lesnar faces Kofi Kingston. The mood continues to change whenever Brock is around. It's something special. This was expertly booked and went exactly the way it should. Kofi started by running around, trying to avoid Lesnar and springboarding for some offense. Brock shook this off for the most part before busting out the German suplexes. The first one was especially nasty looking. A few of those and an F5 put Kofi down for good. This was the expected squash that was needed. Brock continued the assault after the match and even New Day shows up to take some of the beating. It goes less than three minutes, so I won't really even rate it but it was enjoyable.

The match that most of us were waiting for was next as Finn Balor faced Kevin Owens for the NXT Title. This got a good amount of hype and was given the treatment of a big deal. There were streamers, flowers being presented and "demon" Balor. These two had faced for the title on an episode of NXT earlier in the year and it wasn't nearly as good as this. We had the right amount of false finishes and both guys seemed to bring their A games. I appreciate that Balor didn't kick out of a popup powerbomb, protecting that move and Owens. It took two double stomps for Balor to win, in a very cool moment. More than the opener, this made me glad I watched. The match was great and the moment of Balor winning was even better. Great stuff. ****1/4

That should have actually closed out this show, but we have a meaningless tag match now. John Cena and Dolph Ziggler teamed up to take on King Barrett and Kane. There was still a fair amount of time left on the show, so I hoped it wouldn't go as long. It did. While Jericho/Neville got 16 minutes and Balor/Owens got 19, this match went over 24 minutes. Who thought this was a good idea? It wasn't the worst match ever but it was overly long, dragged and really didn't belong as the main event. Cena wins it for his guys. Not much else to say. *3/4 Overall, I thought this was a ton of fun. Getting up early was strange but a live broadcast from Japan was different and one of the things the Network was built for. The Brock stuff was fun, the opener was really good and the Balor stuff was great. A very enjoyable 90 minutes, but once we got to the main event, things went downhill fast.

Smackdown 7/2/15 Review

Smackdown's opening video package is cool this week, focusing on the J&J Raw segment. Seth Rollins and J&J come out to open the show and brag. Seth brags about the gifts he got them and what they did to Brock Lesnar. He is making the matches tonight, so he pits Dean Ambrose against Bray Wyatt and himself against Roman Reigns. On paper they're good but why waste Reigns/Rollins, an obvious PPV match, on Smackdown of all places? Ambrose runs out with a kendo stick and cleans house, so Seth says that his match is coming up now, bringing out Bray. They work their usual solid match. With Bray having an actual angle right now, we're in that stage where he has to win TV matches before losing the big one on the PPV, so he goes over with Sister Abigail in about seven minutes. Solid opening stuff to the show, but it's stuff we've seen countless times in the past year.

Adam Rose and Rosa Mendes are in the ring and Rose says the fans don't get their love and they're jelly. That's the entire fucking promo. R-Truth comes out for a match, which he wins in about two minutes. There are some recaps next, focusing on Rock's house show appearance and hype for John Cena/Kevin Owens. Ryback faces Mark Henry in a non-title match next. Henry gets mad when he hears Ryback say his name in a backstage interview and seems to go heel. BUT HE WAS FACE ON MONDAY! You know what? I can't even bother to care at this point. Ryback beats him with an impressive Shellshock in under seven minutes. The best part about this was Jimmy Uso getting excited on commentary.

Time for some Divas as Brie Bella takes on Naomi and I'm not sure if Naomi is still heel. I don't blame myself for not knowing, I'm pretty sure that creative doesn't know either. Brie is accompanied by Alicia Fox and no Nikki. I assumed it was because Nikki was over in Japan already, but Naomi is scheduled to be there too. This is your standard stuff between these two girls. Neither is bad, but neither is really that good either. They're more in the middle of the pack when it comes to the Divas. Brie wins after Alicia trips Naomi. Alicia Bella is still really fucking weird. Again, Jimmy Uso is a highlight on commentary. We move into a promo from Bray Wyatt about Roman Reigns. You know, Bray falls into the category of "the less said, the better." I like his promos, but when asked to do them over and over again, they can get repetitive. Is there a reason for him to cut a promo here? He already worked a match. Save it for Raw or something. Next up, the Tag Team Champions, the Prime Time Players, take on the Ascension. Again, I would consider this a basic match. Nothing special and the champions beat the Ascension. Well, really, who doesn't beat the Ascension these days?

Rusev and Summer Rae come out for a promo. Summer apologizes for slapping Lana before talking about how kind and gentle Rusev is. Though when Rusev mentions that Summer knows her place, she does seem offended by it. When the fans chant for Lana, he shouts "I HAVE A BETTER LANA-WOMAN NOW". Summer Rae is a better Lana in Rusev's eyes. I do consider her an upgrade. After Dolph Ziggler and Lana went public on Raw, Rusev will go public now. He promises to eat Dolph's eyes when he sees him. Well then. Time for the main event between Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. Reigns isn't there, so Rollins gets the official to count to ten. He does, but then Roman appears and is somehow not counted out. Why is the match starting? They work a decent five minute match that ends via disqualification when J&J Security get involved. Dean Ambrose runs out with his trusty kendo stick. Seth ends up trying to get him in the Pedigree, but Reigns makes that save. The former two Shield members run off Seth and J&J to stand tall. This was your typical Smackdown episode. The matches weren't bad, but it's just spinning the wheels. Everything is just running in place. Nothing about this show is something you need to see. We'll see the matches again on Raw soon probably. 3/10.