Monday Night Raw
Date: August 27, 2018
Location: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Jonathan Coachman

I’m interested in where the big story goes this week. Last time around Shield came in and cost Braun Strowman the chance to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase, which in theory should make them villains. I mean, Strowman told everyone what he was going to do and Reigns knew he was there but Shield came out anywhere. Maybe we’ll get something this week, especially with the Cell coming up. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Here’s Roman Reigns to open things up and the fans aren’t exactly thrilled. He does however do the always cool fist bump to a very excited kid. Cole recaps last week’s match with Finn Balor, calling it a “thirty minute barn burner”. Eh, nineteen minutes, thirty minutes. Close enough. Cole also talks about Reigns defending the title over the weekend at live events, which is a nice touch.

Reigns says he told Braun Strowman to meet him out here at 8pm and it’s 8:05. If Strowman isn’t out here, the open challenge is on because he won this title to defending it. Cue Strowman to say he doesn’t think much of Reigns because of how he got out of trouble last week. Reigns says the Shield is a brotherhood of workhorses. All Strowman knows how to do is say GET THESE HANDS, but those hands never raise titles. Reigns has won everything there is to win around here so cash in that briefcase and let’s have this title match.

Strowman isn’t doing that tonight because he knows Rollins and Ambrose will run straight in for the save. Instead, he’ll cash in on September 16 inside the Cell, where no one can help Reigns. That’s cool with Reigns, but here are Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre to interrupt. Ziggler says Summerslam was a crime because the Intercontinental Title was stolen from him. He’ll cash in his rematch clause on his terms, but for now he needs a new challenge.

Drew says Reigns and Strowman are at the top of them mountain and now they have to come tumbling down. That’s a challenge, but Reigns wants to do it right now. Baron Corbin comes out, approves Strowman’s cash-in for the Cell, and makes the tag match that was just announced.

I’m split on the Strowman vs. Reigns announcement. I really, really like the idea of announcing the cash-in in advance to mix things up for a change, but Strowman is done when he loses again (which he will). It’s almost like having Reigns wait an extra four months to get the title was a really bad idea as Reigns is going to keep the belt for a LONG time, meaning Strowman still isn’t going to win and we spent over a year waiting on him to get a grand total of nowhere. But hey, at least Reigns had another crowning moment, because winning the World Title in the main event of Wrestlemania was just a thing.

Corbin comes to the ring and announces himself vs. Finn Balor, right now, meaning he’s ready and Balor isn’t.

Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin

Corbin runs him over and does the slide underneath the ropes clothesline. The chinlock (take a shot) goes on as the fans think Corbin can’t wrestle. Balor fights up and jumps over the ropes, only to get knocked to the floor. Back in and we hit the chinlock again (that has to be a rib of some sort) before Corbin throws him outside again. A Sling Blade on the floor puts Corbin down and we take a break.

We come back with, you guessed it, Corbin holding a chinlock. The second slide underneath the ropes is cut off by a forearm but Deep Six gets two. Corbin gets knocked outside for the big flip dive but he can’t hit the Coup de Grace. Instead Corbin hits him with the chair for the DQ at 11:10. Actually hang on as Corbin says he forgot to mention that this was No DQ. More chair shots set up the End of Days for the pin at 12:38. So Balor goes from squashing Corbin at Summerslam to nearly winning the Universal Title to losing to Corbin in a pretty weak match to continue their already too long feud. Thanks for that WWE.

Rating: C-. This can be added to the list of matches I never need to see again. That being said, I could probably see the match coming up again at the pay per view, possibly even in the Cell. The problem continues to be that WWE seems to have no idea how to end a feud, because there’s no good reason to keep this going after the destruction at Summerslam. Give Balor ANYTHING else to do, like feud with Ziggler or McIntyre for example. Actually we can’t do that either, because their several months long feud with Rollins is still going. See how this is a problem?

Clip of HHH’s big speech against Undertaker last week.

Various legends (Jeff Jarrett, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, Christian and Mick Foley) have weighed in on the match. It’s not that big of a deal.

Dana Brooke and Apollo Crews talk about flips and getting Dana on Evolution. Titus O’Neil comes in and says she has a match tonight. It’s against Sasha Banks. Dana is nervous and leaves as Apollo thinks Titus is nuts. Titus believes in her though and Apollo goes along with it.

Sasha Banks vs. Dana Brooke

Dana rolls her up for one to start and seems to let Banks up before the kickout. The threat of a Bank Statement sends Dana bailing to the floor but it’s time to pose back inside. A step up enziguri gives Dana two and she hammers away with some right hands. The top rope Meteora drops Dana and the Bank Statement is good for the tap at 2:31. Dana got in some offense here and it was nice to have Banks and Bayley get away from the Riott Squad for a bit.

Jinder Mahal comes up to Dean Ambrose and talks about all the anger inside him. Meditation is offered and Dean sees himself breaking a lot of Mahal’s bones. That’s enough for Mahal.

Here’s a well received Seth Rollins for a chat. He looks at the Shield shirt and says it’s time for the family business. They’re proud of being workhorses (second member of the team to say that) so let’s have an Open Challenge. Cue Kevin Owens to a MONSTER pop to say that his return to Raw has been a nightmare. If he had his best friend at Summerslam, he would be Universal Champion right now. The terrible summer ends tonight because he isn’t leaving here without a title, even though he’d rather be in Montreal. Owens speaks some French

Intercontinental Title: Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens

Rollins is defending and Owens is still rather popular here. Feeling out process to start with Rollins hitting a clothesline to put Owens on the floor. Back in and Rollins hits a slingshot Fameasser onto the middle rope. A clothesline off the steps puts Owens down and we take a break.

We come back with Owens holding a chinlock and getting two off a backsplash to the arm. The armbar goes on and Rollins starts to scream. They head outside with Owens missing the Cannonball into the barricade, allowing Rollins to chop away. Back to back suicide dives have Owens in trouble but he blasts the third attempt with a right hand. Rollins hits the other dive anyway and we take a second break.

We come back with Rollins hitting the frog splash, stopping to shake his bad arm, and then getting two. Owens sends the bad arm into the post and puts on a Crossface. As Rollins crawls to the ropes, Owens turns it into something like a camel clutch to keep Rollins in trouble. A foot on the ropes gets Rollins out of trouble and frustration is setting in. Some right hands to the face just annoy Rollins and he jumps over the Pop Up Powerbomb. A low superkick rocks Owens but he counters the Stomp into a Stunner of all things for two.

The fans are WAY into this and Owens takes him up top, only to get reversed into a running buckle bomb. Owens no sells it and superkicks Rollins for a hot near fall and they’re both down. It’s Owens up first but Rollins catches him on top and they slug it out. Rollins gets shoved down and lands on the arm but is still able to avoid a moonsault. The Stomp retains the title at 22:11.

Rating: B+. Heck of a fight here and I was actually buying the chance that the title was going to change. Owens is someone who can bring the great stuff when he’s given the chance and that’s what happened here. It’s amazing how much better Rollins is when he doesn’t have Ziggler doing the same stuff every week as this was a nice change of pace.

Post match, Rollins nods at him in respect.

Kurt Angle isn’t sure if his vacation is permanent or not.

We recap the opening segment.

Strowman officially gives Corbin the briefcase to confirm the cash-in.

Back from a break with Owens sitting in the ring in a chair. He says he quits and leaves, taking the tape off his hands as he goes.

Ziggler and McIntyre are ready to face Strowman and Reigns because there is no way they’re healthy either physically or mentally after last week. It’s time to change things around here.

B Team vs. Revival

Non-title and JoJo seems to laugh during the B Team’s entrance. Scott Dawson really isn’t happy with B Team holding the titles and sent out a tweet apologizing to the Midnight Express for allowing it. Axel gets sent into the corner to start but comes back with a running dropkick. The announcers talk about Owens, which does mean more at the moment. Revival is sent outside and we take a break. Back with Dallas trying to fight out of a chinlock but getting taken down with a drop toehold.

A tornado DDT doesn’t work though and Dallas hits his hanging swinging neckbreaker. Wilder seems to be holding his neck and brings Dawson in while laying on the apron. The hot tag brings in Axel to clean house but Wilder breaks up the PerfectPlex. A small package has Axel covered but Dallas turns it over again, just like at Summerslam. Unlike at Summerslam, this one is only good for two and the Shatter Machine finishes Axel at 8:50. That’s the B Team’s first loss and thankfully Wilder seems fine.

Rating: D. Another match that just came and went as WWE gets to show off its creative muscles by using option B to set up a title match. The whole point of the B Team is they use dumb luck to win matches and now they’re just losing clean in a short match on Raw. That’s the result of their face turn though, because WWE doesn’t know many ways to book a face act.

Post match the Revival holds up the titles and says we went from the Road Warriors to the Andersons to this. They can take the titles whenever they want them so keep the them warm. Top guys out.

Here’s Elias for some guitar. He talks about how things will get tough but never stray from the truth: WWE stands for Walk With Elias. The fans seem to agree but it’s time for Elias to sing. Actually hang on as Elias just had a moment of clarity. When Drake said he started from the bottom, he meant Toronto. Cue Trish Stratus of all people to interrupt and of course that gets a reaction. Elias makes this seem like a big deal for her and Trish says she’s a fan.

Trish tells him to hold his applause and shut his mouth but Elias says another performance in Toronto is like the Maple Leafs winning the Stanley Cup: it’s never happening in their lifetimes. Trish: “Kind of like you winning a WWE Championship.” She talks about ending her career here in Toronto but she’s coming back to face Alexa Bliss at Evolution. Elias says he’s looking forward to the swimsuit pillow fight so Trish tells him to get out. She clearly just wants to walk with Elias but he doesn’t date women in their 60s. That’s good for a slap and here are Ronda Rousey and Natalya as Elias bails.

Natalya vs. Alicia Fox

Before the match, Alexa Bliss says Trish is looking great but all that Stratusphere Yoga isn’t going to get her ready for the beating at Evolution. For tonight though, Bliss says she’s invoking her rematch clause against Rousey at Hell in a Cell. Of course it’s not here because she doesn’t like Canada and those accents freak her out. Mickie James comes out to keep an eye on Trish and we’re ready to go.

The threat of an early Sharpshooter freaks Fox out so Natalya dropkicks her in the ear instead. Back in and Fox knocks her down for two and asks WHAT IS GOING ON. The chinlock doesn’t last long and it’s the Sharpshooter to make Fox tap at 2:15. Like the Canadians were losing here.

Post break Trish, Ronda and Natalya run into the Bellas and take a picture.

More legends speak on HHH vs. Undertaker.

Corbin is calling for a masseuse when Bobby Lashley comes in to laugh at him. Therefore, Lashley can face someone next.

Bobby Lashley vs. Ascension

Lashley runs Viktor over with a shoulder to start but Konnor gets in a shot from behind to take over. Viktor’s front facelock has almost no effect and gets thrown away. The spinebuster gives Lashley the pin at 2:26.

Dean Ambrose vs. Jinder Mahal

Dang he looks a lot like HHH. Ambrose clotheslines him outside in a hurry and chops Mahal up against the barricade. Back in and Mahal knees him in the face, followed by a knee drop for two (I guess they’re both like HHH). Ambrose drops him ribs first on the top rope, shrugs off the Khallas, and finishes with the Dirty Deeds at 3:48.

Rating: D. The match was nothing but happy days are here again with Jinder being treated like the jobber that he always should have been. A win over him doesn’t mean anything but Dean gets to look dominant after a competitive match last week. Thankfully they didn’t try to make this competitive because Mahal is right back where he was two years ago, but with a big line on his resume.

Strowman and Reigns don’t like each other but they’ll work together tonight. In 20 days, Strowman destroys him. Reigns says in 21 days, Strowman is waking up.

Next week: Bellas vs. Riott Squad, B Team vs. Revival for the titles and Shawn Michaels talking about HHH vs. Undertaker.

Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns/Braun Strowman

Roman and Ziggler start as it’s already after 11pm. A clothesline puts Ziggler on the floor and Strowman approves. The apron dropkick rocks Ziggler but McIntyre kicks Roman in the face to take over. Back in and Ziggler gets two off the running DDT, followed by the sleeper. The big jumping elbow gets two and it’s right back to the sleeper.

Reigns finally shoves him away and the big boot drops Ziggler. The hot tag attempt is broken up by McIntyre, who throws Reigns with an overhead belly to belly. Reigns Superman Punches Ziggler out of the air and Strowman gets the hot tag….but doesn’t get in. Reigns gets stomped down as Strowman watches from the apron. The referee disqualifies…..I’m not sure actually but the match ends at 8:50.

Rating: D+. Just an angle and there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s something wrong with wasting the last year plus on Strowman for the sake of having him be Reigns’ first victim, but that’s another rant for another time. As usual McIntyre looks better in ten second than Ziggler looked working most of the match, but that goes without saying.

Post match Strowman says he’s not finished with Reigns and beats him down. Ziggler and McIntyre join in until Ambrose comes in for the failed save. Rollins runs down and gets beaten up as well. A bunch of powerslams leave the Shield laying and Strowman poses with his new friends to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. I’m not sure what to think of this show. I wasn’t bored and they kept things moving, but there were so many issues in it that the good took some hits. First of all there’s the big angle, which makes me shake my head at how long we waited on Reigns to win the title, all while Strowman was the most popular guy in the company. I’m so glad that we spent all that time, just so Reigns can have a big name victim. It’s nice that they have something in mind, but this company really doesn’t buy into the concept of striking while the person is hot.

Then there’s the women’s stuff, which was more of the “oh we’re all sisters and love each other” between the Bellas and Rousey and Natalya, which is really just rather annoying. Then again that may be the Bellas in general (I guess wine and lingerie weren’t paying the bills now that Cena is gone).

Evolution is turning into one of the weirder builds they’ve done in a long time, especially since it’s over two months away and there are two other big shows in the middle. I’m curious about where Lashley and Owens’ stories are going, though at the same time you have Balor vs. Corbin killing interest every time the non-Demon version of Balor is out there.

It’s like they’re trying to focus on everything at once and that doesn’t really work when the stories aren’t the greatest in the first place. The show wasn’t bad, but I could go for them cooling it with Super Show-Down and Evolution for a week or two. At least until after the Cell, which should be a bigger deal than it’s being made out to be with two and a half weeks of shows left.

Results

Baron Corbin b. Finn Balor – End of Days

Sasha Banks b. Dana Brooke – Bank Statement

Seth Rollins b. Kevin Owens – The Stomp

Revival b. B Team – Shatter Machine to Axel

Natalya b. Alicia Fox – Sharpshooter

Bobby Lashley b. Ascension – Spinebuster to Viktor

Dean Ambrose b. Jinder Mahal – Dirty Deeds

Roman Reigns/Braun Strowman b. Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre via DQ when Ziggler and McIntyre double teamed Reigns

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Main Event
Date: August 23, 2018
Location: Barclays Center, New York City, New York
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Percy Watson, Vic Joseph

Here are Summerslam results if you need a recap.

No Way Jose vs. Mike Kanellis

Mike headlocks him to start as we hear about Maria Kanellis injuring her wrist but trying to get back by Evolution. That’s one of the first times we’ve heard any specifics about her status. Jose pops up without much effort and grabs a hiptoss, only to miss a charge into the corner. Showing some intelligence, Mike stomps away on the arm but spends too much time blowing a kiss, allowing Jose to avoid a charge of his own. A fireman’s carry flapjack gets two but Mike snaps the arm across the top rope. Kanellis’ superkick gets two but he’s slow going up, allowing Jose to punch him out of the air for the pin at 5:16.

Rating: C-. Better than most Main Event matches and that’s always nice to see. They were trying something with the arm and Kanellis was a little better than usual here. I get why Jose stays on Main Event so often as his energy is going to be more than enough to get the crowd going at the start of the night. Mike though….just hope Maria gets back soon.

From Raw.

The women’s division is around the ring (including the Bellas) for the presentation to Ronda Rousey and here’s Stephanie strutting to the ring to soak in their applause. After putting over Evolution, we see a package on Rousey destroying Alexa Bliss last night to win the title. Stephanie is proud of Rousey because this never would have happened without Stephanie’s business prowess. She shined Rousey up like a diamond and now everyone around the ring wants to be like Stephanie and Ronda.

Here’s Rousey but Stephanie wants to know why the fans aren’t chanting for her. Rousey says this isn’t about Stephanie for once and wants to know why the women aren’t all in the ring. They get on the apron and Rousey cuts Stephanie off again, saying that this is about everyone instead of just one person. Rousey puts over Natalya as the cornerstone of the division and the Banks vs. Bayley match from Takeover a few years back. She’s not Brock Lesnar because she’s going to be a fighting champion.

Stephanie says it’s true that Rousey isn’t Lesnar because this isn’t the Rousey who wanted to break people’s arms. Just look at poor Alexa Bliss, like in this clip where Rousey dislocated her elbow. Rousey wants to break everyone’s arm and take all of the spotlight. Actually that’s not true as Rousey is only going to break the arms of those who deserve it.

Stephanie gets her arm barred again (with the elbow being regularly bent, meaning it shouldn’t hurt that much) and since it’s not Wrestlemania, it works just fine. The face women, including the Bellas, pose with Rousey and it’s a big group hug because they’re all sisters or something. I’m not sure why this was necessary but at least it ended well.

From later in the night.

Stephanie is getting her arm looked at with Corbin and Bliss in the trainer’s room with her. Angle comes in and Stephanie yells at him, saying he needs a vacation. Stephanie makes Corbin the new acting General Manager. If that means one less boss, fine. I’m so sick of this story anyway that I’ll take any change at this point.

We get a clip of the Becky Lynch promo and subsequent brawl with Charlotte from Smackdown, but I’m not going to copy it from the old review as usual because it’s rather different. The version aired here doesn’t include Lynch ranting against the fans or really anything to suggest that she’s a heel. In other words, it’s made to look like she’s a fired up woman who got ripped off, suggesting that they’re changing the entire story. That might not be the worst idea, though it’s a pretty hard about face.

From Smackdown, unedited this time.

Miz and Maryse open things up with Miz looking rather serious until the Daniel Bryan chants start up. Miz says he was able to close his eyes and feel that in a way he never could before. Two nights ago, something happened at Summerslam and now he has a family to think about. Maryse is hugging Miz as he looks near tears and says that with a heavy heart….hang on as he needs to cry some more. He announces his retirement and there’s a YES chant.

Actually it’s his retirement of ever facing Daniel Bryan again because Sunday was a satisfying conclusion. Miz did exactly what he promised to do when he beat Bryan in front of a sold out Barclays Center. The 100 punches from Bryan didn’t equal one Miz punch because he has the hardest punch in this entire arena. Bryan promised to punch him but when Miz did it, he got the pin. Miz praises Maryse and plugs Miz and Mrs. but here’s Bryan to interrupt.

Bryan calls Miz a coward over and over again as Miz hides behind Maryse. It doesn’t matter what Bryan calls him because the record books will always say that Miz got the win at Summerslam. Bryan asks him to shut up for once because Miz is just hiding behind things, like the makeup he’s wearing right now. On Sunday, Bryan got to do what he wanted: expose Miz as a wannabe Hollywood star cosplaying as a wrestler.

Maryse tells Bryan to change his name to Daniel Bella but here’s Brie to punch Miz in the face. Miz and Maryse bail and Bryan announces a mixed tag for Hell in a Cell. Good thing Maryse chose now to bring Brie into it. I can go with this as A, Brie was always less annoying than Nikki and B, this isn’t the kind of match that should be in the Cell so having it move forward in another way is the right idea.

From Smackdown again.

Renee Young brings out AJ for an interview on the platform. AJ isn’t happy with what happened at Summerslam but he wouldn’t change a thing. He has a promise for Joe: the next time Joe mentions his family’s name, he’ll rip Joe’s heart out. Joe trips AJ from behind and pulls him down off the platform for the Koquina Clutch knockout. Joe: “OH WENDY!” AJ can’t come home and tuck in the kids because he’s already gone to sleep.

Stills of New Day winning the Smackdown Tag Team Titles.

Rhyno vs. Mojo Rawley

Mojo grabs the rope to get out of an early armbar attempt and we take a very abrupt break. Back with Rhyno fighting out of a chinlock and a collision staggering Mojo. The running shoulder in the corner sets up a belly to belly for two but Mojo chop blocks the knee. A running right hand in the corner sets up the sitout Alabama Slam to finish Rhyno at 6:52 in a match that had a lot clipped out in the middle.

Rating: D+. That clip in the middle didn’t do them any favors and I’m curious about what they did in the middle. Rawley has completely stopped meaning anything on Raw after his short push came to an abrupt ending, which is kind of a shame as he’s not a bad heel. Rhyno is the same guy he’s been for the last ten years and that’s why he’s still got a job to this day.

From Raw to wrap things up.

Universal Title: Roman Reigns vs. Finn Balor

Reigns is defending and runs Balor over to start. Balor does his jump over the top to avoid a charge but gets punched in the face to send us to a break. Back with Balor fighting out of a chinlock (good grief come up with something else) and kicking Reigns into the barricade. The running apron kick is broken up and Reigns drops him onto the apron. A hard whip sends Balor into the corner and Reigns yells at him a bit.

Balor takes him down though and scores with the double stomp to the chest. That’s all for the comeback as Reigns takes him into the corner for the clotheslines but Balor knocks him to the floor again. A good looking running flip dive has Reigns in trouble and we take a break. Back with Reigns hitting an uppercut but getting caught by a Pele. Balor gets all fired up and stomps away with an aggression you don’t often see from him. Reigns is right back with a sitout powerbomb for two but the Superman Punch is countered into an Eye of the Hurricane for a very hot two as the fans are completely into this one.

Rating: B+. The fans helped carry this one and they had me believing that a title change might happen. I mean, that went away as soon as Cole kept saying “HE’S GONNA DO IT!” but they had me for a few seconds. Reigns needs a win like this and as usual, when he’s putting in the effort, the match was very good. Really strong main event and the post match stuff is going to be a big deal.

Post match Strowman is in the ring and kicks Reigns down as the cash-in is…..hang on a second as we’ve got Shield music (and no bell, meaning the cash-in didn’t take place). Cue Rollins and Ambrose in the Shield gear as the fans are VERY pleased. Strowman goes after Reigns but the triple beatdown is on. The trio knocks Strowman outside but he fights off the TripleBomb, only to get speared down. Now the TripleBomb connects to end the show.

I’m not sure what the thinking here is, but Strowman looked like a face with the cash-in and Shield looks like heels by thwarting the cash-in, but since Shield won’t be booed, they’re going to wind up being the faces no matter what. It should be fun seeing WWE try to twist Strowman into a heel, especially when he was willing to fight Shield on his own and Reigns welcomed the challenge of a cash-in.

Overall Rating: C+. The talking carried this show (again) as the promos have been on fire as of late. This was an interesting week for WWE as it felt like they were more worried about keeping the Brooklyn crowd from taking the shows over, but that made for some very good television. I know it gets boring at times and I’m right there with those making the same complaints, but when WWE turns it on, they can still do some great stuff.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Summerslam 2017
Date: August 20, 2017
Location: Barclays Center, New York City, New York
Attendance: 16,128
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Booker T., Tom Phillips, John Bradshaw Layfield, Byron Saxton

It’s kind of amazing how these modern shows go in one ear and out the other. Aside from the main event, I couldn’t tell you a single thing on this show, and I can tell you every match (mostly in order) from the first seventeen or so Wrestlemanias. It’s the nature of the shows being built up so fast and then running so long, as the same is true of shows I’ve been to even this year. Let’s get to it.

Kickoff Show: The Miz/Miztourage vs. Hardy Boyz/Jason Jordan

Rematch from Raw. Now this one I remember because it took place about twenty minutes into the two hour Kickoff Show and the place was embarrassingly empty with MAYBE twenty percent of the place full. It’s just awful looking as the fans who aren’t in yet (as in the majority of them) are going to be annoyed at missing a match and the wrestlers have to go out in front of this empty building like they’re on some nothing indy show (in a huge arena for some reason). I mean, what in the world is the point?

Matt headlocks Axel to start and it’s quickly off to Jeff as the dozens and dozens of fans get behind the good guys. Jordan comes in to crank on the arm to no reaction, at least partially because there aren’t many people here to cheer. A dropkick gets two on Dallas and Jordan muscles him down to the mat.

Everything breaks down and Jordan directs traffic as the Hardys chop away in the corner. Axel saves Dallas from the Swanton and we take a break. Back with Jeff getting two off a basement dropkick as the crowd is now just embarrassing instead of depressing. Dallas pushed Jeff off the top though and it’s time to start the stomping in the corner. Miz (oh yeah he’s in this match) comes in for a reverse chinlock but Jeff kicks him away without too much effort.

Instead it’s Axel coming in to twist Jeff’s neck around as the fans chant for BROTHER NERO. Jeff dropkicks Miz and Dallas off the apron and knocks Axel away as well, allowing the lukewarm tag off to Matt. The middle rope elbow to the back of the neck gets two on Miz but he’s right back up with the YES Kicks. Matt shrugs those off though and there’s a Side Effect for the same. Jordan comes in to throw Axel around, including a suplex for two. Everything breaks down and Miz makes a blind tag, setting up a Skull Crushing Finale to pin Jordan at 10:31.

Rating: C. The crowd killed what would have otherwise been a pretty good six man tag. When you can hear the wrestlers breathing, it’s pretty clear that there isn’t much going on in the arena, which isn’t exactly the atmosphere you want for a show billed as a big party. The match itself was fine, and it helps to not have watched it six days earlier.

Kickoff Show: Cruiserweight Title: Akira Tozawa vs. Neville

Tozawa, part of Titus Worldwide, is defending after winning the title from Neville on Monday. He also has a banged up shoulder. You remember Neville. He was the awesome guy who turned into one of the best heels in the company but WWE decided that having him put over Enzo Amore made more sense and since there was apparently no way Neville could be a heavyweight again, he walked out a few months later.

Neville shoulders him down to start and then dropkicks the glare off of Tozawa’s face. That’s it for now though as Neville sends him outside and screams a lot, as is his custom. The jumping backsplash crushes Neville back inside but he’s able to snap Tozawa’s throat across the top rope. Back from a break with Neville scoring off a missile dropkick to the back for two and stopping to sneer.

The chinlock lets Tozawa have a breather and he fights up to send Neville outside again. That means the big suicide dive and a Saito suplex but it’s too early for the top rope backsplash. Instead Tozawa reverses a fireman’s carry into an Octopus hold as he’s certainly keeping things varied. Neville makes the ropes so Tozawa hits a Shining Wizard for two.

An enziguri staggers Tozawa but he’s right back with a second Shining Wizard to put both guys down. Tozawa is up first but gets pulled down by the bad shoulder. His legs are fine enough to kick Neville in the head and it’s time to go up again. After knocking Neville off the top, the backsplash hits knees and the champ is in big trouble. Neville jumps up top and hits the Red Arrow to the back for the pin and the title at 11:45.

Rating: C+. I get what they were going for here with the title change taking place on Summerslam but why not go with the first title change here and then switch it back tomorrow or the next week on Raw? Or, dare I suggest it, on 205 Live? Other than that it felt like they were just kind of going through the motions at times, but Neville going through the motions is still pretty good.

The crowd is fine now.

Kickoff Show: Smackdown Tag Team Titles: Usos vs. New Day

New Day is defending in what is kind of another Smackdown rematch, though it’s a different New Day lineup. Tonight it’s Woods and Big E., who has a huge cape. On the way to the ring, Kofi talks about how this is the place New Day first sang together and the original Francesca was born. Her sacrifice is what allowed us to have Francesca II: TURBO. Tonight they’re here to tear the house down with the Usos one more time.

Woods and Jimmy start things off in a technical sequence until Woods hits a roaring elbow to knock Jimmy’s block off. Some forearms in the corner have Jimmy in trouble but he gets in a shot to the face to stagger Woods. Back from a break with Jey putting on a chinlock and then slinging Woods into the corner. Woods knocks Jey off the top and avoids a charge from Jimmy. A missile dropkick has Jey in trouble but Jimmy pulls Big E. off the apron.

Thankfully the hot tag isn’t just a few seconds later and a backbreaker/middle rope knee combination gets two. Woods is in big trouble but scores with a victory roll faceplant (not a bad little move), which is finally enough for the hot tag to Big E. House is cleaned, including the release Rock Bottom out of the corner for two on Jey. Big E. powerbombs Woods onto Jey as the fast tags begin.

Woods even manages to electric chair Big E. so he can splash Jey as well but Jimmy comes in for a save. The double spinebuster gets two on Big E. and there’s the running Umaga attack for good measure as the pace picks up. Woods comes back in for a Rock Bottom into a Backstabber, which is somehow only good for two. That’s a heck of a finisher for those two if they’re ever a regular team.

Jey gets a blind tag but Woods knocks both Usos to the floor just in case. Big E.’s spear through the ropes is cut off by a superkick and a Superfly Splash while he’s still stuck in the ropes. The regular Superfly Splash gets a close two on Woods but he pulls Jey into a Koji Clutch. That’s broken up as well so Woods goes with a Shining Wizard for two.

A tornado DDT to the floor plants Jey and Jimmy takes the Midnight Hour, only to have Jey dive in at the last second for another save. Jimmy Samoan drops Woods to the floor and Kofi gets sent into the steps for checking on his buddy. Big E. is right back up with the spear through the ropes to take Jey down. Woods is done though and it’s four straight superkicks to Big E. into the double Us to give the Usos the titles back at 19:09.

Rating: B. Is there any surprise that this was the best thing on the Kickoff Show? This took some time to get going but these four delivered, as always. They know how to work well together and the diving saves for the false finishes were great. You could run these two over and over again, which is exactly what happened for the next few months. That can only go on for so long though, and that’s why the division isn’t great to this day.

The opening video starts with a shot of Brooklyn before heading backstage. The bigger matches get a quick look as someone spray paints the Summerslam logo onto a wall. That’s rather generic for the opening of such a big show.

John Cena vs. Baron Corbin

Corbin attacked Shinsuke Nakamura after Nakamura beat Cena, who made the save. Cena then cost Corbin his Money in the Bank cash-in to really hammer this home. The fans, ever so nice, ask Baron where his briefcase is. Cena slides outside to mock Corbin, even throwing on JBL’s hat. Well that makes any adult look like a moron so Corbin gives chase but Cena slides back in.

A headlock keeps Corbin on trouble as JBL points out the Cena issue with the crowd: they’re always chanting about him, whether it’s positive or negative. That’s not the best sign for the opponents, but at least Corbin had the chant to start the match. Some knees to the ribs put Cena in trouble and Corbin pops him in the jaw with a right hand.

The slide underneath the corner sets up the hard clothesline for two and Corbin is already looking frustrated. A suplex gets the same so it’s time to yell at the referee. Corbin hits a World’s Strongest Slam and we hit the chinlock. The fans ask about the briefcase again so Corbin says it’s on Cena. Another comeback starts up with the flying shoulders until Corbin slides under the ropes again, only to slide back in for a chokebreaker.

Cena blocks a superplex attempt and hits a tornado DDT, sending the fans right back into their chorus of booing. The AA is reversed into a Deep Six and Corbin can’t believe the kickout. He’s so serious that the shirt comes off and more slugging ensues. Cena sends him into the corner for the third slide but this time Corbin eats a big clothesline. The AA is good for the pin at 10:12.

Rating: D+. So that happened. The story wasn’t great, the action was nothing to see and Cena hit all of two moves to win in the end. Cena would go on to feud with Roman Reigns for the real rub, but that’s not the best way to boost Corbin. Just a complete nothing of a match here and it felt like they were getting it out of the way instead of featuring it, which is really weird to see for Cena.

Cena hugging kids and throwing his wristbands and dog tags is always cool to see. That just works.

Some wrestlers played Rocket League.

We recap Naomi vs. Natalya. Naomi won the title at Wrestlemania but Natalya thinks she’s turned it into a toy. Natalya attacked Becky Lynch after a match so Naomi made the save. This qualifies for the build to a title match.

Smackdown Women’s Title: Natalya vs. Naomi

Naomi is defending and gets slapped in the face at the bell but snaps off a hurricanrana to get herself out of trouble. A Blockbuster off the steps gives Naomi two more but Natalya posts her hard to take over. Back in and Natalya stomps away but the emotional offense has never been her strong suit. James Ellsworth and Miss Money in the Bank Carmella are watching in the back (she held that thing so long that she is still champion and Ellsworth has left, returned and left again in less than a year) as Natalya hits a running clothesline.

Naomi’s kicks to the legs don’t have much effect so Natalya grabs an abdominal stretch. That goes nowhere so Natalya hits the discus lariat for two and loads up a superplex. Naomi slips out and hits a super Russian legsweep, which of course gets us to even despite both of them taking the same impact. A spinning kick to the head and a headscissors driver give Naomi two but the dancing kicks are shrugged off (as they should be) with Natalya dropkicking her in the face.

Natalya gets caught in the ropes though and a slingshot legdrop gives Naomi two. The reverse Rings of Saturn is countered into the Sharpshooter but Naomi pulls rolls through and sends Natalya head first into the buckle. Not that it matters though as the split legged moonsault misses, setting up another Sharpshooter to make Naomi tap at 10:50.

Rating: D+. I was bored during this as Natalya is a black hole of charisma and Naomi isn’t the best at being serious. The wrestling was dull too and there was nothing happening here to draw me in. It doesn’t help when the women’s division on both shows have been dominated by the Four Horsewomen for so long that it’s almost impossible to get invested in anyone else (though Naomi has come a long, long way in the last year).

Post match Naomi is rather depressed.

We recap Big Cass vs. Big Show. Cass and Enzo Amore have split up and Show is standing up for him. Tonight though Enzo is being locked in a cage (good start) and Show has a broken hand thanks to Cass crushing it in the shark cage.

Big Show vs. Big Cass

Before the match, Enzo makes various Brooklyn/New York City rap references. He talks about loving to talk and how his worst day is better than Cass’ best and Cass has no heart. Thankfully Cass comes out to cut off the never ending promo and Enzo goes up in the cage. Show, not being the brightest guy in the world, hits Cass with the broken hand as Enzo is already running his mouth. He dances in the cage a bit, shouting about having the best seat in the house.

Cass gets thrown around and kicked in the ribs and there’s the side slam, only to have Show bang up the hand again. Enzo shouts something about Patrick the Starfish as Show misses a Vader Bomb, injuring his hand again. Cass’ big boot is blocked by a weak KO punch for two but the second attempt hits Show’s chest. It’s time to start in on the hand even more, despite that not really doing anything that’s going to let Cass pin him. Something like an armbar has Enzo jumping up and down, further making me want to see him put inside a wood chipper.

The fans call the hold boring so Cass stops, poses, and puts it on again. Show throws him down and hits a left armed clothesline, followed by the chokeslam for two. The hand goes into the post as Enzo is leaning through the cage bars. With Show down, Enzo pulls off his pants and whips out a bottle of lubricant (there’s no way I’m touching that one), oils himself up, and gets out of the cage. The match completely stops until Enzo gets down so Cass can kick him in the face. A pair of big boots put Show down and the Empire Elbow is good for the pin at 10:29.

Rating: F+. What in the world was that supposed to be? This was all about the bad hand but somehow it became about Enzo, that loudmouthed idiot, and then Cass just wins clean. I have no idea how this was the best idea they had but it was an awful match and a big waste of time. If I ever see Enzo oiled up again, I’ll be off in the next room gouging my eyes out.

General Manager Kurt Angle and Daniel Bryan get in a YES/NO off about which show will be better for the rest of the night.

Randy Orton vs. Rusev

Rusev jumps him from behind before the bell and Orton is in trouble. They get inside for the bell and it’s the RKO in ten seconds. That would be your “well the card is huge and we have to cut something” match of the night.

Bayley wishes Sasha Banks good luck tonight. Banks is taking her place due to a shoulder injury.

Raw Women’s Title: Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss

Banks is challenging and has special gear that makes her look like a peacock (so she’s copying Charlotte tonight). Bliss gets fired up to start and slugs away in the corner but Banks flips her around and hammers at the champ’s head. One heck of a forearm drops Banks and Bliss talks some trash. With the forearms boring her, Bliss pulls Banks’ hair around the ropes and crotches her on the middle rope for painful measure. We hit the chinlock as it’s almost all Bliss in the early going.

A lot more trash talk sets up a choke shove to put Banks down again as the fans are trying to get behind Banks. The middle rope knees into the moonsault knees give Bliss two more and she drops Banks on the back of her head for the same. Bliss goes to the middle rope and chokes some more until Banks slams her down. A dropkick and clothesline put the champ down for two but she knees Banks in the face to take over again. Bliss’ Code Red out of the corner is countered into something like an Alabama Slam, followed by just kneeing the heck out of Bliss in the corner.

The Bank Statement doesn’t work as Bliss is right next to the ropes. Bliss pulls her down into the ring skirt and dumps Banks to the floor for a near countout, with Bliss freaking out when she gets back in. Twisted Bliss only gets two more and now Bliss doesn’t know what to do. Since hitting it again is out of the question, Bliss picks her up and gets pulled down into the Bank Statement. Banks’ shoulder gives out so she tries the hold again and Bliss taps at 13:17.

Rating: C. Nothing much to see here with Banks shrugging off everything Bliss threw at her and winning without a ton of drama. Bliss got to show off the offense here and looked very good, though there’s not much she can do when Banks is on offense for all of a minute and a half and wins completely clean. Banks would lose the title just eight days later, continuing her trend of not being able to remain champion for very long.

Video on wrestlers auditioning to be the new Colonel Sanders. A fight breaks out and Shawn Michaels winds up winning in one of the most random, bizarre things you’ll ever see. Becky Lynch as the Colonel oddly works.

We recap Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt. Bray had targeted Balor as his latest false idol, beat him on Raw, and covered him in fake blood. Balor then decided to bring the Demon back to fight as hard as he could. This worked in NXT but not up here and that was mainly for one reason: Cole explaining/hyping the Demon EVERY TWO FREAKING SECONDS, saying over and over that “the Demon is Finn Balor’s alter ego” because WWE doesn’t think its fans are that bright. I don’t think NXT ever actually explained it (if they did it was once) because they know how smart fans can be. And that’s why the Demon has never been back.

Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt

Cole mentions the Demon idea again during Bray’s entrance but gets cut off as He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands starts playing for Finn. We get the big smoky entrance with Finn looking awesome and the camera getting an AWESOME shot of him with his back to the ring and the crowd posing with him. Balor gets to the ring and LET’S HIT THAT EXPLANATION again. Seriously it’s not exactly a character that needs to be broken down and it’s made worse when Cole does it.

Wyatt is hesitant to start and a right hand just ticks Balor off. Balor shows him how to throw some real right hands and Wyatt needs a breather on the floor. You don’t do that to Balor, who charges around the corner to drop Wyatt again. Back in and Balor isn’t phased by the upside down stare so Wyatt bails to the floor. This time it’s a big flip dive as it’s all Balor so far. Bray finally pulls him off the apron and hammers away, followed by something like a reverse Stunner out of the corner.

Of course that means a chinlock, because even though Bray is a cult leader, he still follows WWE wrestling tropes. Balor is right back up with a Pele kick and a baseball slide to the floor. The double stomp from the apron to Bray’s back keeps him in trouble, causing Graves to drop a (failed) external occipital protuberance reference. I knew I liked him for a reason.

Bray kicks him in the face and hits the release Rock Bottom for two. The running backsplash gets the same but Finn kicks him to the floor for the shotgun dropkick against the barricade. Back in and Bray scores with a kick so it’s spider walk time. Balor pops to his feet, hits a Sling Blade, another shotgun dropkick, and the Coup de Grace for the pin at 10:39.

Rating: D. This was as exciting as Bray hitting some basic offense while Balor did all of his usual stuff. The problem again is in the Demon, which was what Balor would bring out for his biggest, most violent fights. When it’s just the standard wrestling match and even a pretty dominant Finn performance, the whole Demon character is pretty much a waste.

Ad for the Mae Young Classic. In other words, the modern NXT women’s division.

We recap Seth Rollins/Dean Ambrose vs. the Bar, which is built around the idea of Dean and Seth not being able to trust each other. They kept offering the Shield fist until they FINALLY got back together, mainly due to having to deal with the Bar. Now they’re united after a very well done series of segments that them saving each other but not being willing to trust each other. They got in a fight though and the Bar coming out to join in was FINALLY enough to get them to agree to fight together. This was actually a heck of a build and I got sucked into it, both live and again during the recap video.

Raw Tag Team Titles: The Bar vs. Seth Rollins/Dean Ambrose

Sheamus and Cesaro are defending and it’s Sheamus getting taken down so the challengers can drop some elbows. Rollins Downward Spirals Cesaro into Dean’s boot and the champs are cleared out early on. A quick distraction lets Sheamus Brogue Kick Dean so Seth tries a suicide dive onto both guys. That gets him slammed down hard as momentum changes in a hurry.

We settle down to Cesaro gutwrench suplexing Seth and the chinlock goes on. Rollins fights back and hits a Blockbuster but Ambrose is still down off what is apparently the most devastating Brogue Kick of all time. Sheamus keeps Rollins in the corner as Cesaro runs into the crowd and destroys a beach ball, because Cesaro is more awesome than you. An enziguri gets Rollins out of trouble but this time it’s Cesaro cutting him off. Seth sends him outside though and Cesaro comes up holding his knee.

Rollins goes out after him with Sheamus following, meaning it’s Dean diving onto everyone at once. Back in and Rollins rolls underneath Cesaro and makes the hot tag to bring in Ambrose. Everything breaks down and Seth springboards in with a clothesline to Sheamus. There’s the double suicide dive and the fans are eating up all these double team spots. We settle down again with Ambrose powering out of the Neutralizer and hitting the rebound lariat, only to have Sheamus cut off the tag.

Ambrose catches him on top with a superplex into a very fast frog splash from Rollins but Cesaro makes the save. Rollins and Ambrose are tired of this tagging stuff and unload on Sheamus in the corner but he’s right back with a tilt-a-whirl slam. Cesaro swings Dean for all of two rotations and the Sharpshooter goes on, with Dean looking more surprised than in pain. With Dean getting close to the rope, Cesaro rolls over into a Crossface to change focal points.

Instead of going for the submission, Cesaro loads up a powerbomb with Sheamus adding a top rope clothesline for another close two. Rollins finally comes in and gets knocked outside just as fast. Dean tells the champs to bring it so they load up a spike White Noise. Hang on though as Rollins is right in there with a hurricanrana to send Cesaro into Dean and Sheamus for the save. The wind up knee into Dirty Deeds finishes Sheamus for the titles at 18:38.

Rating: B. This took some time to get going but there was no other way to go with the finish. Rollins and Ambrose are a great team and the fans love them so let them have a long match and take the titles for a change. There was some chemistry here and that made for a good, long match that the show desperately needed.

We recap AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens. They’ve traded the US Title for a few months now and Owens is claiming a conspiracy thanks to the referee missing his shoulder being up in the most recent title match. Therefore, Shane McMahon is guest referee tonight, despite having a history with AJ and a history of being a crooked referee.

US Title: AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens

AJ is defending with Shane as guest referee. They get in a fight before the bell with Shane pulling them apart twice in a row, because Shane is going to be the focal point here. The bell rings and they fight out to the floor with AJ hitting a knee from the apron. Back in and AJ keeps him down, followed by a knee drop. One heck of a clothesline takes AJ’s head off and the Cannonball gets two.

The backsplash gets the same and the near fall off the Edge-O-Matic has Owens yelling at Shane. AJ is right back with a belly to back faceplant and the fireman’s carry into a backbreaker gives him two of his own. They’re both banged up and the delay allows Owens to “accidentally” shove Shane into the ropes to crotch AJ on top. He’s fine enough for a springboard 450, which hits Shane after Owens pulls him in. For reasons of storyline convenience, AJ is down after splashing Shane, allowing Owens to hit the Pop Up Powerbomb for two, thanks to a delayed count.

That means ANOTHER argument with Shane, allowing AJ to grab the Calf Crusher but Owens pokes him in the eye. Owens sends AJ into Shane to knock him to the floor, meaning there’s no referee to see Owens tap to another Calf Crusher. Now it’s AJ’s turn to yell at Shane, who shoves AJ into a rollup for a pretty fast two. The annoyed AJ puts him on top, only to get caught in the swinging superplex for the big crash.

Owens wins a slugout but gets reversed into a Styles Clash for a clean two. The Pop Up Powerbomb gets three, though with AJ’s foot on the ropes at one. Shane: “TWO!” That means another argument with Shane, who shoves Owens into a rollup for two, meaning they’re not repeating spots from earlier in the match. The Phenomenal Forearm into the Styles Clash retains AJ’s title at 17:23.

Rating: B-. Well of course most of the match was about Shane, because that’s what a Summerslam title match should be about. The wrestling was fine but you kept waiting on Shane to do something else. I’m not sure how this was the best they could do with Styles, but at least there’s an Owens vs. Shane story set up for the next eight months. That’s more important than the US Title and Summerslam right?

Video on some fans winning a sweepstakes and got to go to the show.

We recap Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jinder Mahal and I can feel the headache coming. Mahal won the WWE Championship in a period of Vince McMahon insanity and has held it since May. Nakamura has hit Kinshasa on a bunch of people, including Cena to become #1 contender. In other words: help us Shinsuke Nakamura. You’re our only hope.

Smackdown World Title: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jinder Mahal

Nakamura is challenging and a live violinist plays him to the ring. The fans singing the song is awesome as usual, especially when you consider it doesn’t have words. Jinder grabs a wristlock to start so Nakamura spins around into a headlock, much to the crowd’s delight. Nakamura puts him up against the ropes for the arm shaking and the required COME ON. Mahal bails to the floor so it’s a triple COME ON, including the Singh Brothers. The fans chant for 3MB because the comedy version of Mahal is better than the main event version.

With nothing else going on, let’s go to the Japanese commentary team. I don’t speak Japanese so it’s all Greek to me. Back in and Nakamura drops a knee and hits some Good Vibrations as Mahal has nothing. As in all together, not just so far. The Singh Brothers offer a distraction though and Mahal knocks him off the apron to take over for the first time. Some knee drops set up a chinlock, followed by Mahal doing the COME ON pose but shouting his own name.

After that brilliant display of saying his name, it’s back to the chinlock. Nakamura fights up with a kick to the face and some YES Kicks to set up the running knee to the ribs. With the covers not working, Nakamura grabs a triangle choke but Mahal gets his foot in the ropes. Nakamura’s running knee in the corner hits buckle and Mahal adds a jumping knee to the face for two of his own. Mahal goes shoulder first into the post but the Singh Brothers’ distraction lets Mahal hit a chinlock slam (he has ONE MOVE and can’t even do that right) to retain at 11:25.

Rating: D-. You know, it’s been about nine months since Mahal lost the title and e-freaking-gads I had forgotten how awful his title reign really was. This felt like a bad house show main event and it’s the biggest Smackdown match on the second biggest show of the year. You can feel the fans dying out there when Mahal is….well doing anything actually, but in this case I’ll go with being on offense and winning. I remember watching Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura beat the living tar out of each other for twenty minutes at Takeover: Dallas. Now though, a weak/botched/terrible cobra clutch slam puts him down? Not a chance.

We recap the Universal Title match with Brock Lesnar defending against Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe. Lesnar was announced as facing all three challengers and since he wasn’t happy, he’s threatened to leave WWE if he loses. The three challengers all say they can be the man to take out Lesnar. There’s just not much else to be said here but this is by far and away the main event.

Universal Title: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe

Lesnar is defending and it’s one fall to a finish. Cole picks Reigns to win because Reigns beat Undertaker at Wrestlemania. Cole: “How can you bet against that?” You pick the guy who did it first, you nitwit. Reigns is of course booed out of the building because….oh you know the drill by now.

The brawl is on to start (well duh) with Strowman throwing Reigns to the floor and Brock hitting a belly to belly on Joe. Strowman gets posted and it’s time for the Reigns vs. Lesnar showdown that no one but WWE seems to love. Booker tries to say that Lesnar knew nothing but winning in UFC, which I’ll leave you to make fun of. Some suplexes put Reigns on the floor and it’s Strowman time.

Now THIS gets the fans’ attention but Reigns and Joe are right back in to break up the fun. That lasts all of five seconds before it’s back to Strowman vs. Lesnar, meaning another YES chant. Strowman LAUNCHES Brock into the corner and hits a heck of a clothesline to put the champ on the floor. As usual, Lesnar’s selling is very underrated. Everyone is on the floor now and Joe chokes Lesnar but sidesteps a Reigns spear, sending Lesnar through the barricade. That spot will always look cool.

Strowman is back up and loads up the title (with Graves hoping he uses Saxton as a weapon), setting up a running powerslam to drive a kicking Lesnar through it. The fans REALLY like that but here’s Reigns to kick Strowman in the face and kill their buzz all over again. Joe is back up with a suicide elbow to take Reigns out, meaning the fans are won right back. Thankfully Cole is doing a great job of explaining how cool it is to see people this big doing this stuff.

That’s exactly what he should be doing and it’s working here. Strowman throws an announcers’ chair at Joe and Reigns in a cool spot, followed by a second powerslam through a table to put Lesnar down again. Heyman has a look on his face that says “well, I didn’t see that one coming”. Fans: “ONE MORE TABLE!” Greedy twits. To mix things up a bit, Strowman picks that one up and turns it on top of the already out Lesnar. Half a dozen people come out to get the table off of Lesnar and a stretcher is brought out as Heyman seems to be near tears.

We’re not done yet though as Strowman hits Joe and Reigns in the head with the steps. With the steps in the ring, Reigns fires off the corner clotheslines and hits a good steps shot into Strowman’s shoulder. Joe’s rollup gets two on Reigns but he’s right back up with a Samoan drop for two. The Superman Punch is countered into the Koquina Clutch but Strowman (with some blood next to his ear) is back in with a double chokeslam. Everyone is down so here comes Lesnar again.

Strowman is the only one on his feet so it’s time for the big showdown. A running clothesline takes Strowman to the floor and there’s a German suplex each to Joe and Reigns. Strowman comes back in and elbow his way out of a German suplex, only to get caught in the Kimura. That’s broken up with a Superman Punch, with Joe and Lesnar taking one each as well. Reigns spears Lesnar for two so here’s Strowman for a dropkick to Reigns, just because he can do that too.

The powerslam gets two on Joe with Lesnar pulling the referee out at the last second. A Superman Punch gets two on Strowman, whose kickout puts Reigns on his feet. There’s a powerslam to Reigns with Lesnar making the save but getting loaded up into the F5. That’s broken up by a Reigns spear, drawing Joe back in for a Clutch on Lesnar. Brock reverses into the F5 but Reigns is right in there with some Superman Punches. Three in a row put Lesnar down but the spear is countered into the F5 to retain Brock’s title at 20:53.

Rating: A-. What a fight and that’s all it needed to be. They were making Godzilla/King Kong references here and they nailed the idea to near perfection. The best thing here was Strowman looking awesome and like the man that could beat Lesnar if he had the chance, with the bonus of Reigns taking the fall again. It’s not like Reigns losing was going to hurt him (it hasn’t yet) so going this was was the right call. This was all about violence and that was the story: big, strong people beating each other up for twenty minutes and all of the chaos that it caused. Well done, all around.

Lesnar can barely stand to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. This show suffered from the same problem as the modern Wrestlemania. It’s not the length that is the problem (the show never really did drag) but rather that almost nothing has a chance to sink in. Everything jumped from one match to the other and most of the matches didn’t have a ton of time.

It was “well that happened so let’s move on” time after time and that doesn’t make for a special show. The show isn’t terrible but aside from the main event, nothing on here felt important and that’s not what Summerslam needs to be. In other words: cut some stuff out and let it breathe, which might as well be the standard operating criticism around here.

Ratings Comparison

Miz/Miztourage vs. Hardy Boyz/Jason Jordan

Original: C-
Redo: C

Neville vs. Akira Tozawa

Original: C

Redo: C+

New Day vs. Usos

Original: B+

Redo: B

John Cena vs. Baron Corbin

Original: D

Redo: D+

Naomi vs. Natalya

Original: C-

Redo: D+

Big Cass vs. Big Show

Original: D

Redo: F+

Randy Orton vs. Rusev

Original: N/A

Redo: N/A

Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks

Original: B-

Redo: C

Bray Wyatt vs. Finn Balor

Original: C+

Redo: D

Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins vs. The Bar

Original: B

Redo: B

Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles

Original: B

Redo: B-

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jinder Mahal

Original: D+

Redo: D-

Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman

Original: A

Redo: A-

Overall Rating

Original: B

Redo: C-

Time has NOT been kind to this show and aside from two (or maybe three) matches, it’s not worth seeing.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

kbwrestlingreviews.com/2017/08/20/summerslam-2017-the-star-of-stars/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Summerslam 2016
Date: August 21, 2016
Location: Barclays Center, New York City, New York
Attendance: 15,974
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Mauro Ranallo, David Otunga, John Bradshaw Layfield

A year has passed since I saw this show and I can barely remember much about it. That’s very telling when you look at how stacked this show really is. There are multiple top level matches here and it really wasn’t clear what was going to close the show until the night of the event. Hopefully that means that this SIX HOUR show holds up. Let’s get to it.

So here’s a quick plug. I’m going through the pre-show and there’s a three expert panel of Booker T., Jerry Lawler and Lita. Earlier this year, I met all three of them at WrestleCon. If you’re ever at a Wrestlemania weekend, treat yourself to an amazing time and GO TO WRESTLECON. I met over 120 wrestlers in about four hours. Where else are you going to get to do something like that? Anyway, on with the show.

Pre-Show: American Alpha/Hype Bros/Usos vs. Breezango/Ascension/Vaudevillains

Who would have thought that Breezango would be the most entertaining out of all these teams? This is pretty much the still titleless Smackdown tag division at this point as they had to bring in the Headbangers and throw together Heath Slater and Rhyno to be able to have a tournament. This is also a rematch from Smackdown, which shows how little effort they were putting into the tag division at this point.

Gable and Breeze start things and the fans are WAY into Gable. Chad twists around as only he can to escape a wristlock and it’s off to Jey, who is quickly driven into the corner. English comes in and says that he’s what a man is. That earns him a right hand to the jaw and it’s off to Mojo to work on a wristlock. Ryder comes in to quite the reaction as Mauro says the Hype Bros have more chemistry than the Periodic Table.

Everything breaks down (What took them so long?) and Ascension clears the ring, only to have American Alpha come off the top (the same corner) with double clotheslines (that’s pure Steiner Brothers). English posts Ryder though and we take a break. Back with Gotch putting Ryder in a chinlock, followed by Viktor doing the same. The other heels take turns stomping on Ryder until Breeze grabs his own chinlock. Fandango adds a slingshot legdrop as this is going WAY longer than it needs to.

JBL thinks cold beer uniting the APA is more effective than furry selfie sticks uniting Breezango but maybe he’s wrong. Ascension knocks the good guys off the apron but Viktor misses a charge in the corner, allowing Ryder to get in a neckbreaker on Konnor. The hot tag (with a limited reaction) brings in Jimmy to clean house.

Jordan gets the real hot tag and does his fired up sequence (which he really is awesome at) with a belly to belly getting two on Breeze. We hit the parade of secondary finishers as the referee is imploring them to tag. Mojo powerbombs Breeze and Viktor out of the corner and the Usos add stereo superkicks to set up stereo dives. Back in and Grand Amplitude plants Gotch, only to have Jey tag himself in for a Superfly Splash and the pin at 14:31. Gable is really not cool with that. Eh just wait until your team is split up for a pretty lame story where Jordan is Kurt Angle’s son.

Rating: B-. If you cut out a few minutes from this, it’s a heck of an opener. There are too many people in the match of course but they kept it moving fast enough (for the most part) to really get something fun out of it. Jordan’s house cleaning spot is a heck of a way to fire the crowd up and it made the match more fun than it should have been. Tweak this a bit (eight/ten man tag or shorten the match a bit) and it’s even better.

Pre-Show: Dudley Boyz vs. Sami Zayn/Neville

Sami works on D-Von’s arm to start and it’s off to Neville for more of the same. Both of them get in more shots as we hear about the rivalry over the NXT Title. I do appreciate the history, especially when Graves should know about that match very well. Bubba is sent outside but D-Von breaks up a springboard dive, allowing Bubba to nail Neville from behind to take over. The fans want tables but a back elbow to Neville’s jaw cuts them off in a hurry.

Back from a break with Bubba hitting his neckbreaker out of the corner. Things slow down even more as Bubba is talking even more than he usually does in a match. Bubba: “COME ON ENGLISH BOY! O-LAY! O-LAY!” The middle rope backsplash misses though and the hot tag brings in Sami. D-Von takes the Blue Thunder Bomb for two but the reverse 3D gets the same. Neville escapes the regular version though and we get some heel miscommunication. The Helluva Kick sets up the Red Arrow to put Bubba away at 7:55.

Rating: C-. That would be it for the Dudleys in WWE as they would have one more segment tomorrow night where Anderson and Gallows sent them packing. It’s also pretty much it for Sami and Neville as a team, which is quite odd as you would think they would be a fine choice for a team. The match was nothing you wouldn’t expect on Raw.

Pre-Show: Cesaro vs. Sheamus

You know, because two matches just weren’t enough for the pre-show. This is the first match of the Best of Seven Series, which really wasn’t too well received. After Cole says Cesaro is facing Cesaro and both Cole and Saxton say this is about establishing physical dominance, we’re ready to go. Sheamus misses a very early Brogue Kick but the spinning springboard uppercut is blocked as well.

Cesaro charges into an uppercut but comes back with a dropkick for one. The ten forearms to the chest are broken up so Sheamus clotheslines him onto the apron instead. It’s off to an armbar on Cesaro’s chronically taped up shoulder but Cesaro lifts him up into that kind of reverse Angle Slam of his. They’re certainly hitting each other hard here, which is pretty much the draw of the whole feud.

Sheamus hits a tilt-a-whirl slam and it’s off to a break. Back with Cesaro fighting out of a chinlock because that rule even applies on pre-shows that will never end. The Irish Curse gives Sheamus two as Cole runs down the pay per view card, which only makes me think that there are FAR too many titles in WWE. They fight over a suplex and fall out to the floor in a heap. Back in and Cesaro starts firing off the running uppercuts in the corner, capped off by a dropkick to knock him off the ropes.

The apron superplex (which wasn’t from the apron) gets two but Sheamus counters the Neutralizer into White Noise for two. There’s the super Regal Roll for two more and frustration is really setting in. Another Brogue Kick attempt is countered by one heck of a clothesline though and Cesaro adds a high crossbody for two of his own. Cesaro tries the Sharpshooter but Sheamus gets to the ropes. Back up and a poke to the eye sets up the Brogue Kick to give Sheamus the pin at 14:11.

Rating: B. They beat the heck out of each other and it was a fun match but it also brings up the problem: I’m not going to want to watch them fight six more times. No matter how good things are, having them happen so many times in a row over several weeks is going to get tiresome. It happens in all these series and it’s happening here too.

And now, after more wrestling than you get on an average Smackdown, here’s the actual pay per view.

The opening video looks at New York City, with the narrator telling you how AMAZING the city is. I’m not sure if New York City or Texas is worse about bragging about their home’s greatness. As usual, this switches over to a series of quick looks at the biggest matches on the card.

Enzo Amore/Big Cass vs. Chris Jericho/Kevin Owens

Well duh. That’s about as easy of a choice for an opener as you could ever find for this show. As you might expect, the crowd eats up the opening promo with a spoon and of course we hear a ton of New York City music references. Included are Frank Sinatra, Biggie Smalls and Jay-Z, plus more that probably go over my head. Cass adds in a few songs of his own as this is the only way this show could have opened. Since Graves is the best heel commentator in wrestling today though, he points out that Enzo is from New Jersey.

Jericho and Owens jump Enzo at the bell and the STUPID IDIOT chants start rolling. Enzo comes back with a crossbody and a running right hand to the jaw for two. It’s off to Cass, who drags Owens inside for a beal. That’s some scary power. Enzo gets launched into the corner to crush Jericho but the Canadians bail to the floor. That’s fine with Cass who tosses Enzo over the top onto them in a huge crash. I’ve always loved that spot as it just looks cool.

Back in and Enzo ax handles Owens but turns into a middle rope dropkick from Jericho. The Canadian violence begins with Owens kneeing Enzo from the apron and doing his dance on the apron in a rather funny visual. Owens’ comedic skills aren’t given enough credit more often than not. It’s back to Jericho for the Arrogant Cover and a chinlock with Owens telling Jericho to do it like he taught him.

Owens comes in and adds a gutbuster for two, followed by the running start for a chinlock. It takes real talent to turn a chinlock into an art form but Owens has somehow pulled it off. Enzo finally rolls away but Jericho is there to break up the diving tag attempt. Owens drops the frog splash for two and his stunned looked on the kickout is the usual awesome visual. Enzo gets pulled off the corner to make things even worse but, after blowing a kiss to Jericho, misses the Cannonball.

That means the hot tag to Cass and everything breaks down. Jericho dives into a big boot but Owens breaks up the Bada Boom Shaka Lacka. Cass gets posted on the floor and now the Cannonball against the barricade connects. Back in and Enzo scores with his top rope DDT on Jericho with Owens making the save. A pop up Codebreaker (didn’t look great as Jericho was too far away) ends Enzo at 12:09.

Rating: C+. Odd choice for an ending aside (not surprising of course but odd), this was a good way to get the crowd going. I could have gone for another hope spot from Enzo and more of Cass cleaning house but that pop up Codebreaker could have been a heck of a finisher if done right. Nice opener, though would it have killed them to put Enzo and Cass over in Brooklyn?

Smackdown bosses Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon run into Raw General Manager Mick Foley to brag about how awesome their shows are. Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart and his son come in to ask what Foley is thinking to work with Stephanie. He rants about abuse of power but realizes she’s right behind him. Stephanie yells at him about how great it is to abuse power but thankfully New Day comes up. As the Smackdown bosses and Foley much on cereal, New Day asks Jon if he’d like to do something. He gets out as fast as he can and Stephanie isn’t amused.

We recap Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks. Sasha won the Women’s Title on the first exclusive show after the Brand Split and tonight is the rematch. The other big idea here is Charlotte never loses singles matches on pay per view and Banks has to recreate the magic one more time.

Raw Women’s Title: Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte

Banks is defending and we get the Big Match Intros. Some early WOOing sets up a slightly less early Bank Statement but Charlotte bails to the floor. Back in and Banks climbs the corner for a wristdrag before sending Charlotte face first into the middle buckle. Banks gets caught on top though and Charlotte basically drops her onto the ropes for a backbreaker which almost had to hurt horribly. The fact that Banks had a bad back coming in and Charlotte still did some rather sloppy moves like that got her in some hot water.

We hit a Gory Stretch on the champ for a bit but she comes back with a pair of running clotheslines. That just earns her another backbreaker and Charlotte stomps away at the back. The Figure Eight is broken up but Sasha misses a charge into the corner and gets caught in the Tree of Woe. Charlotte picks her up for a super Razor’s Edge but since that would, you know, kill Sasha, she reverses into a hurricanrana to put them both down.

Back up and a WOO earns Charlotte a string of slaps before Sasha avoids a charge in the corner and hits the double knees to the back for two. Charlotte kicks her in the leg to break up a charge but gets knocked outside again, setting up the double knees from the apron. Back in and the Backstabber doesn’t work but Natural Selection is countered into the Bank Statement (thankfully too as the Natural Selection clearly didn’t send Sasha’s head anywhere near the mat).

Charlotte makes the rope for the break and takes out the knee again. Natural Selection gives Charlotte two so she yells about being better than Sasha. Another Bank Statement goes on but Charlotte reverses into a rollup for the pin and the title at 13:52. Saxton: “Just like that?”

Rating: B. This was just a straight match and that’s the key to the whole thing. The women are getting to show that they can have a good match without the smoke and mirrors, which never would have been the case otherwise. If nothing else it got the kind of time that a title match deserves to develop the story of Banks having a bad back (which would keep her on the shelf for about a month). Strong match here and another of many to come for these two.

Doctors Anderson and Gallows (oh man I had forgotten how stupid this was) run into AJ Styles for a Club reunion. Finn Balor comes up and doesn’t think much of it. Somehow, this has still never gone anywhere.

Intercontinental Title: Miz vs. Apollo Crews

Crews is defending after winning a triple threat match. Miz comes out wearing a glittery Phantom of the Opera mask while Maryse is basically in a one piece swimsuit. In a sign of the changing times, Mauro talks about Miz’s look instead of Maryse. Miz stomps away in the corner and gets two off a running kick to the chest. Crews gets the same off a rollup, only to walk into the short DDT as it’s almost all Miz to start. We’re already in the reverse chinlock before Miz sends him into the apron to cut off a comeback. Miz takes too long coming off the top though and dives into a dropkick to put both guys down.

A crossbody into a nipup has Miz in trouble as JBL rants about Otunga calling Crews a Jackrobat (jacked acrobat). The Toss Powerbomb is countered so Crews gets two off a tilt-a-whirl powerslam. An overhead belly to belly sets up a standing moonsault, which Otunga sums up perfectly: “A man with that kind of size and that kind of muscle should not be able to do that.” Miz teases taking a walk but Maryse cuts him off, allowing Miz to post Crews. The Skull Crushing Finale retains the title at 5:36.

Rating: D+. Standard Smackdown match and something that could have been cut, or at least put in the Kickoff Show in the place of the Dudleys match. Crews felt like an easy obstacle to overcome because there was nowhere near enough build to set the match up. Put some more effort into the title already people, as it’s just not working.

We recap John Cena vs. AJ Styles. They set up the first match when Styles and Cena were in the ring together, only to have Anderson and Gallows interfere to turn Styles heel. Styles went on a great rant about how Cena was a fraud who couldn’t hang in the ring with someone like him. Cena went into a great speech about how he’s here out of love because it never gets old. AJ beat him at Money in the Bank with assistance from Anderson and Gallows, setting up a rematch between the two here.

AJ Styles vs. John Cena

This just feels big. AJ grabs a waistlock to start but is easily knocked away. The announcers go out of the way to put over how AJ has been on big shows before but nothing this big. Oh I don’t know. I remember him being at that Wrestlemania thing earlier in the year. The dueling chants begin and the AJ STYLES side is pretty clearly stronger.

Cena’s headlock is countered and AJ scores with the dropkick but the bragging earns AJ a right to the jaw. A hard whip into the corner sends AJ down for a bit with Cena doing some rare trash talking. They head to the floor and the fans start belting out JOHN CENA SUCKS, only to have AJ turn it into some gasping with a suplex onto the apron. Cena is right back with a dropkick for two and it’s time for some more right hands to the head.

AJ comes back with a forearm to the face, earning himself Cena’s finishing sequence. It’s way too early for the AA though as AJ hits a Pele, followed by the Styles Clash for a close two. The fans were actually more into the near fall than I was expecting as you would think they’d know better this early. The AA gives Cena two of his own and both guys are down again.

Styles slips out of the super AA and grabs the torture rack for the spinout powerbomb. They’re trading bombs at this point and it’s the only way they should be going here. Something like a Big Ending gives Cena two but he can’t get the STF. Instead it’s the AA neckbreaker for two on Cena (not the same as the AA JBL) but the springboard 450 only hits mat.

A faceplant puts Cena down again though and AJ can’t follow up. He manages the springboard forearm but Cena reverses into the worst STF I’ve ever seen. Thankfully AJ slips out and grabs a Crossface, which Cena powers out of as well. That’s reversed into the Calf Crusher which AJ is smart enough to twist away from the ropes. Cena reverses that into another horrible STF (AJ’s face is on the mat) so AJ is quickly up with the enziguri. A tornado DDT plants AJ and there’s the top rope Fameasser for two.

Cena heads up again and gets taken down with a super hurricanrana (Mauro: “MAMA MIA!”), followed by the Phenomenal Forearm for a VERY near fall (drawing Mauro to his feet). It’s Cena’s turn now as he takes AJ up for the super AA and….it’s two. NOW the fans know it’s on as I don’t think anyone has ever kicked out of that before. Cena is stunned and the AA is countered into another Clash. The Phenomenal Forearm puts Cena away clean at 23:10.

Rating: A. I know it’s not going to sound good but a lot of this goes to Cena. At the end of the day, the crowd completely lost it when AJ kicked out of that super AA. AJ wins here not because he got a pin but because he beat Cena clean. That’s a very, VERY short list and that’s what makes it feel so important. Think back to how big of a deal it was when Warrior pinned Hogan clean. That felt like an era changing win, and while this isn’t quite that big, it’s the same idea.

Oh yeah and it’s an outstanding match and possibly the Match of the Year. This was the heavyweight slugfest formula as they beat the heck out of each other with both guys hitting everything they could until one of them couldn’t get up. That’s a really hard match to pull off and these two did it in an incredible match. It belonged on the grand stage and gives Cena one heck of a mountain to overcome, which he somehow did in a better match at the Royal Rumble.

Post match Cena takes off his wristband and leaves it in the ring. He would do dark matches for a few weeks and then be back wrestling on TV in less than a month so this didn’t mean anything.

Some fans won a contest and got some stuff. In other words, let the fans have a breather.

Here’s Jon Stewart for your celebrity appearance. He makes fun of himself for interfering in Cena’s match last year and says the big lesson he learned was to tuck your shirt in when you’re taking an AA. As for tonight though, he’s here to be in New Day’s corner to help deal with Anderson and Gallows. In honor of the moment, he throws on a unicorn horn and does Big E.’s (out injured due to getting crotched against the post) entrance.

Tag Team Titles: New Day vs. Anderson and Gallows

New Day is defending of course and unfortunately Anderson and Gallows are still doing their stupid doctor nonsense, complete with jars for Kofi, Xavier and Jon’s testicles. I hear Paige can help you with one of those. Anderson headlocks Kofi down to start but he’s right back up with the jumping back elbow to the jaw. Kofi flips onto his feet and gets two off the standing double stomp. You can tell the fans are still recovering from the previous match and it’s off to Woods.

That goes badly as the he gets taken into the corner for a beating from Gallows. At least it does bring the fans back a bit with the rhythmic clapping. Gallows gets taken into the corner for the Unicorn Stampede (which they’ve kind of stopped doing in recent months) and the fans are really not responding. Woods sends him outside so Kofi can hit a running dive (while posing in the air) to take him down again. Back in and Gallows kicks Kofi in the head to take over for real this time with Anderson working on the arm.

That goes nowhere as the hot tag brings in Woods to clean house. Anderson sends him to the apron for an enziguri, setting up the rope walk elbow drop. Everything breaks down and Anderson kicks Kofi in the chest, setting up the Magic Killer. Stewart gets in though and it’s time to crotch him as well. Hang on though as he has to tuck in his shirt first. Cue the returning Big E. for the save though and that’s a DQ at 9:09.

Rating: D. I don’t know if it was the previous match or what but sweet goodness the fans did NOT care for this one. It’s not a good match in the first place as Anderson and Gallows aren’t funny in the doctor roles, but the bigger problem here was the focus being on Stewart at the end. Oh and the ending sets up a rematch, which really isn’t what they need to be going with here. Bad match but Big E.’s return did wake up the crowd.

Big E. drinks the fluid in the jar holding his “testicles”. Stewart dances with New Day and the fans…well they care when Big E. dances at least.

We recap Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler. Dolph won a six way match to earn the shot and then it all went nuts. Ziggler started talking about how he was tired of being told that he always either too good or not good enough. It was time to turn up the jets and become champion for the third time. Serious Ziggler was nice but I don’t think anyone was buying him as having a real chance here. You know, because he’s Dolph Ziggler.

Smackdown World Title: Dolph Ziggler vs. Dean Ambrose

Dean is defending and Shane and Daniel are here for no apparent reason. The fans are behind Ziggler and they trade some grappling on the mat with Ziggler getting the better of it (not exactly a surprise). The threat of a neckbreaker sends Ambrose bailing to the floor so Dolph splashes him against the barricade.

Back in and Ziggler’s jumping DDT is countered with Dean throwing him outside again. Ziggler escapes a super Dirty Deeds so Dean slaps on a half crab of all things. You can tell Dean is playing the subtle heel here as the smark crowd is always going to cheer for Ziggler. Dean heads up top and gets dropkicked out of the air but he’s right back with a double chickenwing facebuster.

Ambrose tunes up the band (which is now mocking Ziggler instead of anything involving Shawn Michaels) but shakes his head and tries Dirty Deeds instead. That’s reversed into the jumping DDT and both guys are down again. A double collision gives us another lay down period until Dean is up first and hammering away.

The top rope elbow gets two so Ziggler grabs the sleeper, earning them both a tumble out to the floor. Ziggler gets in the superkick on the floor but it’s barely two back inside. The Zig Zag gets the same but Dean pops back up with the rebound lariat. Ziggler catches Dean on top and pulls him back down, right into Dirty Deeds to retain the title at 15:22.

Rating: D+. And that people, is Ziggler choking again. This would lead to him saying he’s never won the big one, which would turn into him never holding the World Title that long because holding the title is more important than winning it. The match was nothing all that good as we were just waiting on Dirty Deeds, which only happened so Dean could keep it warm for AJ next month. That was completely obvious the second AJ pinned Cena again and that’s all this title needed to do.

Package on Summerslam weekend.

Natalya/Alexa Bliss/Eva Marie vs. Becky Lynch/Naomi/Carmella

Dang I didn’t know the Glow was a year old. Actually hang on a minute as Eva Marie is suffering from exhaustion, anxiety and stress (likely brought on by reading too many Wellness Violation messages, which meant she would never wrestle again) so we have a replacement. At least we got that amazing entrance one more time.

Natalya/Alexa Bliss/Nikki Bella vs. Becky Lynch/Naomi/Carmella

So yeah, you know full well that Nikki is going to be all that matters in this match because IT’S HER BIG COMEBACK THAT EVERYONE TOTALLY CARES ABOUT BECAUSE WE LOVE HER SO MUCH! She does get one heck of a pop though, which is rather scary. During her entrance, Mauro declares her return “miraculous”. Oh man this is going to be a long one.

Bliss rolls Becky up to start and gets in a hard slap for good measure. Naomi comes in to scare Alexa off so it’s Natalya instead. A forearm puts Natalya down and the splits legdrop gets two. Carmella comes in for the Staten Island Shuffle before a missed charge sends Natalya outside. Back in and a powerslam out of the corner plants Carmella before it’s off to Nikki, the heel, for a strong face pop.

We hit the chinlock but hang on as we need some Nikki pushups. Alexa chokeshoves Carmella down for the moonsault knees to the ribs as the crowd is dead all over again. The abdominal stretch keeps things slow until Carmella finally rolls over and makes the hot tag to Becky. All three heels are send into the corner for the springboard kicks from Lynch, followed by a Bexploder on Natalya.

Becky’s top rope legdrop gets two with Nikki making the save. A blind tag brings in Naomi for the dancing kicks with the fans just not reacting at all. Bliss’ springboard splash hits knees so it’s off to Nikki vs. Carmella. A bad looking Bronco Buster gets two on Nikki and everything breaks down. Nikki’s big forearm sets up the Rack Attack 2.0 (Nikki: “I’m back.”) for the pin at 11:16.

Rating: D. This was all about Nikki’s return and that’s not enough to carry a dull match. Naomi’s Glow stuff wasn’t over yet, Becky was stuck around people who weren’t up to her level and Carmella was showing that she didn’t need to be on the main roster yet. The same was true for Alexa and Natalya was her usual self. Just not a good match and it showed the lack of depth to the division.

We recap Rusev vs. Roman Reigns. Rusev and Lana were married and so Reigns interrupted for no apparent reason to insult them and shove them into a cake.

Maria Menunos interviews Rusev and Lana, who don’t like her questions about Reigns. They won’t stand for this and Lana is sure that her husband will destroy Reigns.

We recap the Universal Title match. Basically we need a new title due to the Brand Split and Universal Title was the best they could come up with. Seth Rollins was put into the match as Raw’s #1 draft pick and Finn Balor earned his way in by winning a series of matches. Not much else to it as there’s no major animosity between them but it’s better than pulling the title out of a suitcase.

Seth did get in a great promo talking about how he’s done everything Balor has done but he’s done it a little bit better. He’s not wrong, though that’s not the best thing to do when you have someone so new to the main roster. Then Balor showed up as the Demon and scared Rollins to death.

Universal Title: Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins

Anything goes and the title (which isn’t that well received due to a bad case of being hideous) is vacant coming in. Unless I’m forgetting something, to date this is the only time Balor has wrestled as the Demon on the main roster. We get the Big Match Intros and the title itself receives some hearty boos. Balor dropkicks him into the corner at the bell but it’s too early for the Coup de Grace.

Instead Balor hits a suicide dive to the floor, followed by some kicks to the knee back inside. They head outside again with Seth getting in his first offense via a suplex on the floor. Balor is right back with something like a Phenomenal Forearm off the barricade. Back in again and Balor hits a basement dropkick for two as this is almost one sided so far. Finn stays on the leg as the fans are singing something.

Balor jumps over the ropes but Rollins slides between his legs and powerbombs him into the barricade, completely destroying Balor’s shoulder and putting him on the shelf for the better part of eight months. We’re less than four minutes in though and you can see the shoulder looking all messed up. Back in and Seth gets two off a backbreaker, setting up a chinlock. The chants are still going and it sounds like THAT TITLE SUCKS to the tune of John Cena Sucks.

Seth starts the trash talk and cuts off a comeback attempt. A snapmare into a kick to the back has Finn in even more trouble but Seth would rather walk around than follow up. It’s back to the chinlock for a good while until the springboard knee to the head sets up Seth’s frog splash for two. What looks like a Rainmaker is countered into a DDT to give Balor his first major offense in a long time and he follows up with some forearms.

A basement dropkick sets up the Sling Blade but Seth kicks him down without much effort. An enziguri stuns Balor but he’s right back with the Pele, earning a very nice round of applause. If nothing else the chants about the title have stopped. 1916 (reverse implant DDT) gives Finn two but the Coup de Grace is countered into a triangle choke of all things. Finn falls outside because rope breaks don’t count (anything goes remember) and things slow down a bit.

Back in and the buckle bomb sets up the low superkick for two on Balor with Seth looking stunned on the kickout. A small package driver gets the same count and reaction so Seth goes up, allowing Balor to hit a very loud enziguri to put him on the floor. Balor adds a shotgun dropkick to send him into the barricade, followed by a top rope double stomp to the back of the head for two. The Coup de Grace misses and it’s a Pedigree for two. Finn counters a second Pedigree into a double stomp, followed by the Coup de Grace for the pin and the title at 19:23.

Rating: B+. When you factor in that shoulder injury, this is quite the impressive performance. Above all else though, how good is it that Balor won the title here? If he loses his first major pay per view match and then goes away until April, he’s lucky to come back to the cruiserweight division.

This was a heck of a match with both guys beating the heck out of each other. It took some time to get built up but once they finally got there, the fans really started to accept things, which is a very positive sign. Balor is someone who is going to get a very positive reaction no matter what and giving him the title here was entirely the right call.

Balor can barely move his right arm after the match but finally holds the title up. On his WWE 24 special, he said you could feel and hear the shoulder crunching and crackling as he lifted the title and it probably did more damage to the arm.

The pre-show channel chats a bit and throws us to a KFC ad with Dolph Ziggler dressing up as Colonel Sanders to beat up Miz dressed as a chicken. It’s actually dumber than you remember it being.

Here’s Lana to introduce Rusev, albeit while wearing half of a wedding dress, the bottom of which looks like a diaper. She’s one of the most beautiful women on the roster but she looks ridiculous here.

US Title: Rusev vs. Roman Reigns

Roman is challenging and the booing is strong with this one. Rusev jumps him before the bell and they fight out to the floor with Roman being sent into the steps. The fans chant RUSEV MACHKA because they’ve given up on America over their hatred for Reigns. Roman gets in a Superman Punch as the bell hasn’t rung yet. They fight over a chair with Reigns getting the better of it and destroying Rusev. Reigns finally leaves but comes back with a spear, all while the fans chant WE WANT SLATER. No match of course, likely due to time issues.

We recap Randy Orton vs. Brock Lesnar. This match was announced as Orton’s return match from surgery and the build focused on Orton being able to hit the RKO anytime, including a sweet moment where Orton interrupted a Lesnar promo with an RKO. The hype video even includes some OVW clips as they came up through developmental together and debuted within a few months of each other. This had a heck of a build and felt like something important but the question was whether Lesnar would have an actual match or just do his usual Lesnar stuff.

Randy Orton vs. Brock Lesnar

Heyman handles Lesnar’s introduction, saying he’s conquering out of the University of Suplex City. Brock seems to get into his MMA stance to start before driving Orton into the corner for the shoulders to the ribs. Orton escapes the first German suplex attempt but can’t hit the RKO.

Now the first suplex connects (with Mauro knowing that it’s the 33^rd Lesnar has hit at Summerslam because he’s awesome that way) and Brock follows with two more. Orton is almost out on his feet so Lesnar suplexes him again. It’s nothing but suplexes at this point and it’s already getting dull. They head outside for a much needed change of pace with Orton being thrown over the announcers’ table.

Orton gets thrown from the front row through the table as this is dominance. The other table is loaded up but whatever Lesnar is trying is countered into the RKO onto (not through) the table. The hanging DDT plants Lesnar back inside and another RKO gets two. Orton realizes he has no choice and tries the Punt, only to have it reversed into the F5 (bad one) for two more.

That’s enough for Lesnar so he takes off the gloves and pads and hammers on Orton. An elbow to the head actually busts Orton open VERY badly. Lesnar just keeps hammering on him while the fans chant GOLDBERG until the referee FINALLY stops it at 11:47. I’ve heard a bunch of answers about what happened but I believe this was the planned ending and a hard way opening.

Rating: D. Yeah this didn’t work when it happened and it didn’t work again this time around. Lesnar suplexing Orton for five minutes then selling a few big moves doesn’t make me think it’s an awesome main event. This was everything wrong with Lesnar’s current WWE run in one match and that made for a really dull match, save for the odd finish that seemed designed to protect Orton. You know, after he was basically squashed.

Lesnar keeps hammering on him until the always intimidating Shane McMahon comes out, earning himself an F5 (which thankfully didn’t lead anywhere). Heyman panics as they leave to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. If you cut an hour (or more) out of this, it’s bordering on the classic level. As it is, this is just a good show that runs WAY too long. At some point you have to cut something out and WWE just refuses to do that. Cut out the Dudleys match or the women’s tag and give us some breathing room here because sweet goodness this show could use it.

Now that being said, there’s some outstanding stuff on here with the Styles vs. Cena match as an instant classic, the Women’s Title being very good, a great Universal Title match and really only the Tag Team Title match being without much value. The show is certainly good and the positives outweigh the negatives but unless the show is a masterpiece, fans are going to start losing interest near the end. It’s a solid show but cut out a good forty minutes to really make it great.

Ratings Comparison

American Alpha/Hype Bros/Usos vs. Breezango/Ascension/Vaudevillains

Original: C

2017 Redo: B-

Dudley Boyz vs. Neville/Sami Zayn

Original: C

2017 Redo: C-

Sheamus vs. Cesaro

Original: B-

2017 Redo: B

Chris Jericho/Kevin Owens vs. Enzo Amore/Big Cass

Original: C+

2017 Redo: C+

Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte

Original: B

2017 Redo: B

Miz vs. Apollo Crews

Original: C

2017 Redo: D+

John Cena vs. AJ Styles

Original: A

2017 Redo: A

New Day vs. Anderson and Gallows

Original: D+

2017 Redo: D

Dolph Ziggler vs. Dean Ambrose

Original: B-

2017 Redo: D+

Natalya/Alexa Bliss/Nikki Bella vs. Becky Lynch/Naomi/Carmella

Original: C

2017 Redo: D

Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins

Original: B+

2017 Redo: D+

Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton

Original: C+

2017 Redo: D

Overall Rating

Original: B

2017 Redo: B-

That’s quite the drop on Ambrose vs. Ziggler and Lesnar vs. Orton. Some of them are spot on though and that’s not the biggest surprise.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2016/08/21/summerslam-2016-they-didnt/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Summerslam 2015
Date: August 23, 2015
Location: Barclays Center, New York City, New York
Attendance: 15,702
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Jerry Lawler

Opening video focuses on New York City (of course) and then goes into the main events.

I forgot how annoying that “We Cool For The Summer” song can be.

Randy Orton vs. Sheamus

Some fans won a contest from Draftkings.

Tag Team Titles: New Day vs. Lucha Dragons vs. Los Matadores vs. Prime Time Players

Jon Stewart brags to Neville and Stephen Amell (celebrity here for a match) about being friends with Undertaker. The lights go out and Undertaker (or someone who looks a lot like him) walks past. The bragging quickly ends.

Rusev vs. Dolph Ziggler

Another catfight ensues.

We recap Stephen Amell/Neville vs. Stardust/King Barrett. Neville and Stardust had been doing a comic book inspired feud between a hero and a villain. One night Stardust shoved Amell (the star of the Green Arrow TV show) and a tag match was made with Barrett joining in due to having nothing else to do.

Stephen Amell/Neville vs. Stardust/King Barrett

Amell finally gets in an enziguri and dives over for the tag to Neville. The rapid fire kicks set up the middle rope Phoenix Splash on Barrett but Stardust makes the save. The villains are sent to the floor and Stephen dives off the top onto both of them for the big spot of the match. Back in and the Red Arrow finishes Barrett at 7:34.

Look at WWE taking over Brooklyn.

Intercontinental Title: Ryback vs. The Miz vs. Big Show

The Shell Shock plants Show but Miz runs in with the Skull Crushing Finale for two on the champ. Miz covers both of them twice each but it only serves to tick Ryback out. Shell Shock is broken up with the KO and Miz makes ANOTHER save. Another KO drops Miz but Ryback clotheslines Show to the floor and steals the pin on Miz to retain at 5:34. Cole: “CLASSIC TRIPLE THREAT MATCH!” Oh shut up.

Wyatt Family vs. Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose

WWE World Title/US Title: Seth Rollins vs. John Cena

WWE Network ad.

Pre-show panel chat and they have to talk over a THANK YOU STEWART chant.

Team B.A.D. vs. Team Bella vs. Team PCB

B.A.D. – Sasha Banks, Naomi, Tamina Snuka

Bella – Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Alicia Fox

PCB – Paige, Charlotte, Becky Lynch

This is under elimination rules, meaning the a single fall eliminates an entire team, making the match far less interesting from the start. Brie and Becky start things off as we hear about the history of Summerslam being in the New York area. Becky is sent into the ropes for a running knee to the face (with Brie shouting TEAM BELLA instead of BRIE MODE, which may or may not be worse) but Tamina tags herself in to superkick Becky in the jaw.

Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens

Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker

Overall Rating: B. This is a really strong show with nothing bad and a bunch of good matches but the top two are ruined by the horrible booking choices. Above all else though, this show was ruined by the length. This show runs nearly three and three quarter hours with a lot of stuff that could have been cut.

Ratings Comparison

Sheamus vs. Randy Orton

Original: C-

Redo: C+

Prime Time Players vs. New Day vs. Los Matadores vs. Lucha Dragons

Original: B-

Redo: B-

Rusev vs. Dolph Ziggler

Original: C

Redo: C

Stephen Amell/Neville vs. King Barrett/Stardust

Original: B+

Redo: C+

The Miz vs. Big Show vs. Ryback

Original: C-

Redo: C+

Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose vs. Wyatt Family

Original: C+

Redo: B

John Cena vs. Seth Rollins

Original: B+

Redo: B+

Team Bella vs. Team PCB vs. Team B.A.D.

Original: C-

Redo: C

Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro

Original: B-

Redo: B

Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar

Original: B+

Redo: B+

Overall Rating

Original: B-

Redo: B

That original overall rating is probably a bit high as I liked almost everything more the second time around. Being able to watch this in pieces instead of in a straight sitting helps it a lot.

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2015/08/23/summerslam-2015-a-long-long-very-long-summer/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Summerslam 2014
Date: August 17, 2014
Location: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
Attendance: 14,079
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Jerry Lawler

Pre-Show: Cesaro vs. Rob Van Dam

We take a break and come back with Cesaro holding a chinlock as the announcers give us one final hype for Cena vs. Lesnar. Rob fights up for a rolling cradle and the split legged moonsault for two, followed by a superkick to put Cesaro back on the floor. This is Van Dam 101 here, which was the biggest criticism he faced during this time. The Five Star is broken up by a big uppercut but Rob is still able to block a superplex.

Intercontinental Title: The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler

The threat of a superkick sends Miz bailing to the floor as we hear about the Shawn Michaels vs. Rick Martel match from Summerslam 1992 where it was agreed that neither would hit the other in the face. Back in and a quick rollup gets two for Dolph but he gets whipped chest first into the corner as Miz takes over. With his variety of stomps used up, Miz kicks Dolph hard in the face before slapping on a chinlock.

Divas Title: Paige vs. AJ Lee

A top rope clothesline to the floor drops Paige again. The Shining Wizard gets two but Paige kicks her in the face, only to have the Paige Turner countered into the Black Widow. Just like at the Raw after Wrestlemania though, Paige powers out again and scores with the Rampaige for the pin and the title.

Summerslam 2015 will be in New York/New Jersey. That would be slightly changed to Brooklyn

Jack Swagger vs. Rusev

Speaking of things still going on later, these two are still having the same match the following summer. This is also a flag match, meaning a regular match with the winner getting their flag raised. Lana (rocking the white suit here) and Zeb Colter (remember him?) are the seconds. Before the match, Lana says that Hollywood is a great example of everything wrong with America. In real life, there is no happy ending and America is full of worthless cowards.

Rusev attacks Colter post match and the Russian flag comes down.

Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose

Rollins is literally carried back to the ring but Dean is waiting on them with a huge dive off the top. Back in and Dirty Deeds is countered but Ambrose blasts him with the rebound lariat. NOW the crowd is way into things and Dean curb stomps Seth, only to have Kane come in for the save. The lumberjacks get in another fight because they all have anger management issues. Dean dispatches the Wyatts but walks into a briefcase shot to the face for the pin.

Bray Wyatt vs. Chris Jericho

Bray serenades us post match.

We recap Brie Bella vs. Stephanie McMahon, which was a recap I needed when I watched this show live as the whole thing was such a mess. So Stephanie was all evil to Daniel Bryan, but Bryan is on the shelf with his neck injury so the feud was transferred over to Brie, because Brie and Bryan are totally the same thing.

Stephanie McMahon vs. Brie Bella

Randy Orton vs. Roman Reigns

WWE World Title: Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena

Ratings Comparison

Rob Van Dam vs. Cesaro

Original: C-

Redo: C-

Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz

Original: C

Redo: C-

AJ Lee vs. Paige

Original: B-

Redo: C+

Jack Swagger vs. Rusev

Original: C+

Redo: C

Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins

Original: B

Redo: B-

Bray Wyatt vs. Chris Jericho

Original: C

Redo: C-

Brie Bella vs. Stephanie McMahon

Original: C+

Redo: D+

Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton

Original: C

Redo: B-

Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena

Original: A-

Redo: A+

Overall Rating

Original: A

Redo: C+

…http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2014/08/17/summerslam-2014-on-the-a-list/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

 

Monday Night Raw
Date: August 13, 2018
Location: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina
Commentators: Michael Cole, Renee Young, Corey Graves

Now this should be an interesting one as Renee Young will be the first woman to do a full night of commentary on Raw. We’re also in WCW country and it’s the go home show for Summerslam. It’s hard to say what we’ll be seeing tonight as it’s not clear if Brock Lesnar will be around or not (I wouldn’t get my hopes up). Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

No In Memory of Jim Neidhart graphic. Seriously?

Here’s a somber Ronda Rousey to say that Natalya won’t be here tonight. She talks about the importance of fathers, including Neidhart who passed away earlier today. Natalya was the first person to help her out when she got here and Rousey will be the first person to stand up for Natalya in her absence. Alexa Bliss had to cheat to beat Natalya and on Sunday, she’ll beat Bliss to win the title. That’s the same thing Ember Moon is going to do right now so it’s time for a match.

Ember Moon vs. Alexa Bliss

Bliss has Alicia Fox, with plants in her hair and wearing one sleeve of a jacket due to the armbar from last week. Hang on though as Bliss wants to rant about Rousey being such a bully. Bliss is tired of having everyone say Rousey is going to destroy her on Sunday. Rousey has had three matches and Bliss is a five time Women’s Champion.

It’s not fair that Kurt Angle is willing to protect Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns but Rousey is allowed out here during this match. Therefore she’s talked to Constable Baron Corbin and has gotten her own security tonight. Four large guys come out and get in the ring, allowing Bliss to knock Ember into Rousey, knocking the latter off the apron. Rousey beats up the security and the match is after a break.

We’re joined in progress after a break with Moon grabbing an armbar so here’s a promo for Reigns vs. Lesnar. The match wasn’t back on for a minute and it’s off to the split screen nonsense. Back with Moon getting two and Bliss rolling to the floor, earning herself a baseball slide. Back in and we hit a chinlock for a bit before Bliss dropkicks her in the ribs. Bliss gets kicked to the floor again and we take a break, four minutes and fifteen seconds into a match with a minute of that in split screen.

Back with Moon rolling her up for two but getting caught in a chinlock. A basement dropkick cuts Moon off again and Bliss glares at Rousey, who doesn’t seem happy. Moon screams a lot and comes back with the tornado DDT into the snap suplex ala Wade Barrett but Rousey stops to beat up Fox. Bliss actually goes after Rousey and throws her into the barricade in a bit of bravery/loyalty you wouldn’t have expected. Back in and Moon hits a gutbuster, followed by the Eclipse….for two as Fox comes in for the DQ at 12:20.

Rating: C-. All of the cuts didn’t help things but they did the right thing by not having Bliss take a fall there. I was expecting Rousey to come in and get Moon disqualified but this way works better. Bliss being loyal to Fox was surprising as she tends to change friends a lot (Mickie James anyone?) and it was nice to have them not go with the champion losing going into a big match.

Long recap of two weeks ago when Brock Lesnar attacked Paul Heyman (but we need to cut out time from a match for a promo video) and Heyman’s interview from last week. We get some extra footage, with Heyman implying that there might be a way for Reigns to win but cutting himself off and leaving. Heyman turn or Shield reunion perhaps?

Angle and Corbin argue about Corbin making the match earlier. Corbin doesn’t apologize for going over Angle’s head and goes to the ring. Dolph Ziggler (with his hair down and straight for a weird look) and Drew McIntyre come in to complain about Seth Rollins not being here. Angle says Rollins had some travel issues after his publicity tour of China but he’ll be here tonight.

Baron Corbin vs. Tyler Breeze

Corbin is picking both his and Finn Balor’s opponents tonight. Breeze has his old NXT music back for a nice change of pace. Corbin breaks up a wristlock attempt with a hard shove and we’re already in the chinlock. As the hold stays on, Renee and Corey argue over Corbin’s abuses of power. Breeze fights back with a dropkick to put Corbin on the floor, only to catch Breeze coming off the apron.

Graves asks Renee how she can prefer Balor to Corbin, with Renee saying she plays favorites a bit. We hit the second chinlock (someone has to be telling him to do that hold so often as he couldn’t be dumb enough to think it’s a good idea) but Breeze fights back up with a kick to the face. Corbin gets clotheslined to the floor, where he sidesteps a dive to send Breeze crashing to the floor. They get back in and a wicked Deep Six ends Breeze at 4:13.

Rating: D. The ending was the right result, even though it continues this really bad story between Corbin and Balor. I like Corbin using something other than his finisher to get the win here, as it fits the narrative of Corbin being big enough to beat someone that much smaller. Then when Balor kicks out of it on Sunday, he’ll look like a bigger star. Not a good match, but they kept it short.

Post match Corbin praises himself and brings out Balor’s opponent: Jinder Mahal. Actually hang on a second as we’ll throw in Kevin Owens to make it a handicap match.

Jinder Mahal/Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor

Corbin introduces Balor as the little engine that can’t. Hang on again though as here’s Angle to give Balor a partner.

Jinder Mahal/Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor/Braun Strowman

I had this written before Angle’s music stopped playing because WWE is that predictable. Strowman gets a heck of a home state reaction and Graves calls him the Meat Castle. Renee: “….the Meat Castle?” Jinder takes Balor down to start as Renee talks about her Monday meditation app. Renee: “Everybody get your chi right.” Balor rolls through a sunset flip and dropkicks Mahal but it’s quickly off to Owens for some stomping.

We hit the armbar for a bit but Balor slips out and knocks Owens down, allowing the hot tag to Strowman. Owens bails to the floor as Strowman runs over Mahal, followed by picking up an unsuspecting Balor and slamming him onto Jinder. It’s time for a big dive from Balor but Owens trips him (or at least swipes at his feet), drawing Braun over for the chase. That’s enough to put Mahal and Owens together for the big flip dive and we take a break.

Back with Mahal holding Balor in a chinlock (the same arm trap one that Corbin uses) before handing it off to Owens for some right hands to the head. That sounds like the time for an NXT Takeover: Brooklyn promo and we’re back WITH THE SAME MAHAL CHINLOCK. Balor comes back with a Sling Blade on Owens and there’s the hot tag to Strowman. After running Mahal over, Strowman heads outside for a lap around the ring, though this time he picks up Sunil Singh and drives him into Owens for a change of pace. Back in, Strowman shrugs off Mahal’s jumping knee and powerslams him for the pin at 14:00.

Rating: D+. As sick as I am of that chinlock, I’m at least slightly interested in Owens vs. Strowman. I’m not sure who is going to win there and they could go either way with the briefcase. That being said, Strowman is in big trouble if they have him drop the briefcase and not become Universal Champion at some point. Eventually you have to win something that matters, and being a failed Mr. Money in the Bank isn’t enough.

Post match Strowman chases Owens off, leaving Corbin to hit End of Days on Balor. For the love of all things good and holy, please let this terrible feud end on Sunday.

Angle can’t get hold of Rollins so here are Ziggler and McIntyre again to mock Rollins for not being here. If Rollins can’t be here for the contract signing, there’s no title match. Ziggler asks to see the contract for the title match to make sure nothing has slipped through the cracks. Angle calls them idiots after they leave.

Here’s a singer named Ricky Roberts, who says Elias is his favorite singer. He’s not very good right not but he’s going to wind up in the Country Music Hall of Fame. With a name like that, I’d expect him to be more of a Rock N Roll fan. Then Elias is going to come find him and he’ll say “Hello, I am Elias.”

Cue the real Elias to shill the What Would Elias Do bracelet and offer his respect to Roberts if he can beat Bobby Lashley tonight. Elias mentions his New York City concert on Saturday and mocks the North Carolina fans, but here’s Lashley to interrupt. Lashley says we already have a no talent musical clown around here so Roberts hits him with the guitar. The annoyed Lashley hits a heck of a spinebuster and glare at Elias. No vertical suplex?

Bo Dallas is doing the math before tonight’s triple threat match when Curtis Axel comes in to tell him to be positive. Dallas panics because the odds are lower against them than usual. Axel: “The odds are always against us.” Dallas has checked the numbers over and over, even DM’ing mathematicians on Twitter. Axel: “You can’t spell Raw Tag Team Champions without B team!” Dallas: “Or a whole bunch of other letters!” They’re going to go out there and run for their lives. B Team!

Ziggler and McIntyre are looking over the contract.

Tag Team Titles: Revival vs. Matt Hardy/Bray Wyatt vs. B Team

The B Team is defending and it’s one fall to a finish. Wilder pulls Dallas into the corner to start and it’s already time to take turns on him. Matt comes in pretty quickly though and clotheslines Wilder in the corner (not a splash Cole), followed by a Side Effect for two. After a shout of V1 (little flashback), the middle rope elbow to the neck looks to set up the Twist of Fate. Dawson makes a blind tag though and a Hart Attack (nice touch) gets two. Wilder gets two more off a legdrop and we take a break.

Back with Wyatt hitting release Rock Bottoms on everyone but Axel (and Hardy, but I thought that was understood). Dawson sunset flips Wyatt, sending Axel flying in a German suplex at the same time. Wyatt heads outside and counters Wilder’s suicide dive into another Rock Bottom onto the apron. A dive off the steps from Dallas knocks Wyatt down but Hardy superplexes Dawson onto the big pile. Back in and the Revival reverses a double Sister Abigail into the Shatter Machine, only to have Axel steal the pin to retain at 10:30.

Rating: C. It dragged a bit at the beginning but they got to a nice pace for a few moments there after the break. The B Team retaining is fine and hopefully they don’t have a title match on Sunday. The card is already loaded and there’s no need to do a rematch, or just a two on two title match, and make the card even heavier than it already is. What we got here was good enough and the B Team’s roll continues.

The B Team celebration goes to the back and they run into an unimpressed Roman Reigns.

Ziggler has found an issue in the contract: Seth is allowed to have someone in his corner. Angle is willing to take it out if Drew isn’t allowed to be in Ziggler’s corner. Ziggler lets it go.

Here’s Roman Reigns for his last big speech before Sunday. Reigns says every day he tells himself to leave a place better than he found it. He can’t do that with Brock Lesnar still around though and Lesnar needs to go. Reigns is sick of hearing about him and seeing him so it ends at Summerslam. On Sunday, he’s taking back his Universal Title (which he’s never held) and sending Lesnar so far back into the UFC that his head will be stuck inside Dana White.

Cue a perky Paul Heyman to say it’s a new day, yes it is. If he was going to steal a line from someone on Smackdown though, it would be the Usos, who are the future of the tag team division. He doesn’t actually steal an Uso line, but he’s looking at the future of another division in Roman Reigns. Roman: “This is gonna be good y’all.” After being accused of crying on command, Heyman says Reigns can make history right here, right now. He brings up what he was about to mention last week in the interview: he’s willing to tell Reigns each and every single one of Lesnar’s secrets.

Reigns thinks he can beat Lesnar on his own, but with Heyman in his corner, he’s GUARANTEED to win the Universal Title. Heyman extends his hand and that gets a big YES chant. Reigns says he knows all those secrets already because he won in Saudi Arabia and would have done it a lot faster without Heyman. That’s true and Heyman hopes his sins won’t be held against him. Heyman sees himself as the new advocate for Reigns next week and offers his hand again.

Another YES chant gets turned down as Reigns talks about his father teaching him to swim with the sharks. He also knows how to see someone who is drowning, like Heyman. The thing is Heyman isn’t worth saving so the answer is no. Heyman talks about riding with Reigns’ father Sika and speaks some Samoan, which gets Reigns’ attention. Heyman even has an agreement written up, which Reigns can answer on Sunday.

As Reigns looks at it, Heyman pepper sprays him and leaves. Cue Brock Lesnar to beat Reigns up and put him out with a guillotine choke. Lesnar and Heyman walk up the ramp but Lesnar goes back for an F5. So did Heyman and Lesnar make up or was two weeks ago a big ruse? I ask rhetorically because I don’t expect an answer from WWE. Heyman was great here as usual and Reigns sounded good for a change. I still don’t want to see the match, but they did a nice job here.

Mojo Rawley/Authors of Pain vs. Titus Worldwide/Bobby Roode

Rezar runs Crews over to start and we hit the neck crank, meaning let’s have an inset promo about Rousey vs. Bliss. Back with Akam holding his own neck crank but Rawley comes in and can’t hit a belly to back suplex. Instead it’s a hot tag to Roode for some clotheslines and a Blockbuster for two. Everything breaks down and the Glorious DDT finishes Rawley at 2:47. At least it was short and ended clean, so expect multiple rematches in the coming weeks.

Reigns is getting his eyes washed out.

We get a tribute to Jim Neidhart, focusing on how he broke into the business and the Hart Foundation. Thankfully we get some of Neidhart’s over the top promos and laugh. I was worried when they didn’t even have a graphic earlier tonight so this was a welcome surprise.

The announcers talk about the Hart Foundation, including a mention of their Summerslam 1990 match with Demolition. I loved that one.

Summerslam rundown, including the Revival vs. the B Team added to the Kickoff Show. Better than adding it to the regular show. The Cruiserweight Title is on the Kickoff Show as well, because we NEED three matches on the Kickoff Show.

We look back at Rousey snapping and beating up Bliss’ security, including one running away in a funny bit.

Sasha Banks vs. Ruby Riott

Banks wastes no time in taking Riott down and pulling on her head. A very early Bank Statement has Riott in the ropes and they head to the floor. Ruby uses a Riott Squad distraction and kicks Banks into the steps, with her hand getting caught to really give Riott a target. Back in and Riott twists the hand around before stomping on it as we take a break.

We come back with Riott working on the hand until Sasha runs the corner for an armdrag to break the hold. The hand is hurting, so Banks dives onto Sarah Logan in a big crash. Liv Morgan pulls Banks off the apron so Bayley is right there for the save. Banks hits Ruby in the hand though and a rollup is good for the pin at 8:59.

Rating: C-. They’re going to add something else to Sunday aren’t they? This Bayley/Sasha feud has been running on a treadmill for months now and there’s no sign that it’s going to get better anytime soon. The hand thing was fine but how many times can we see these people wrestle over and over without getting anywhere?

Photos of Seth Rollins in China last week.

Rollins isn’t here so Corbin tells Angle that Stephanie will NOT be happy.

Here’s Angle for the contract signing, though first he says that Lesnar isn’t going to be suspended or stripped of the title, because he wants Reigns to bring the title back to Raw every week. Cue Ziggler and McIntyre to say they don’t believe Angle. He’s already lost one title match since Rollins isn’t here so Angle won’t let the other one fall through. Ziggler says there’s no Rollins here tonight because he’s scared.

Angle intros Rollins twice but no one shows up. McIntyre goes into a rant about why they got together in the first place: to battle complacency from people who think they belong on top just because they got here. People like Rollins are on top of that list because he worked so hard to get where he is. Ziggler would know because he did the same thing. The fans mean nothing though because the second a shiny object loses its luster, everyone turns on you.

It’ll happen to everyone because this vicious cycle can never end because of people like them. Where were they during the hard times? Ziggler knows what it’s like to have someone who has his back and now he doesn’t care about anyone in the crowd or in the back. He signs and here’s Rollins, just a few seconds late because for the first time ever, we don’t have a camera watching people show up.

Rollins has actually been here for awhile but he didn’t want to come out here until Ziggler actually signed. It’s true that he was dealing with travel issues, but they weren’t his travel issues. See, there was that clause in the contract about Rollins having someone in his corner because he’s tired of dealing with McIntyre all the time.

Since there’s going to be a Scottish psychopath in one corner, Rollins better have a lunatic in his. Cue the returning Dean Ambrose, now with a beard and a big haircut (he looks like a less muscular HHH), to a major reaction. The fight is on (with Renee not saying a word) and a superkick knocks McIntyre into Dirty Deeds and Rollins signs the contract to end the show.  I like the new look and this is exactly where the story should have gone.

Overall Rating: C+. The first hour was really, really rough with some flat out bad segments and stories (Corbin vs. Balor makes me want to rip by hair out, especially anything Corbin does) but the rest picked it up a few notches. Ambrose returning helped a lot and the Reigns/Heyman/Lesnar segment was quite good.

The biggest problem around here though is not knowing how to advance and then end stories. How many stories and feuds just keep going week after week and match after match? Corbin vs. Balor, Rollins vs. Ziggler, Bayley/Sasha and Reigns vs. Lesnar among others. That was on display tonight with several matches and segments that I feel like I’ve seen a dozen times already. There were some good ones, but this company needs a seminar in structuring a wrestling story. I’m more interested in Summerslam (at least parts of it) than I was coming in though so we’ll call it a slight success.

Results

Ember Moon b. Alexa Bliss via DQ when Alicia Fox interfered

Baron Corbin b. Tyler Breeze – Deep Six

Finn Balor/Braun Strowman b. Jinder Mahal/Kevin Owens – Powerslam to Mahal

B Team b. Revival and Matt Hardy/Bray Wyatt – Shatter Machine to Wyatt

Titus Worldwide/Bobby Roode b. Authors of Pain/Mojo Rawley – Glorious DDT to Rawley

Ruby Riott b. Sasha Banks – Rollup

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: August 6, 2018
Location: Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville, Florida
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Jonathan Coachman

With less than two weeks to go before Summerslam, we have the main event set, along with the issues between Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle. It’s hard to say what else we might get set up in the next two shows, but tonight will be focused on Ronda Rousey’s in-ring TV debut. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a video showing the whole Lesnar/Paul Heyman/Angle story from last week.

Opening sequence.

Here are Angle and Baron Corbin with Kurt hyping up Rousey’s match tonight. She’s a former UFC Champion who has no problem fighting on Raw. Corbin warns Angle to watch it but Angle goes on a rant about Brock having no integrity after last week. Heyman still has his job though because he did get Lesnar out to the ring before the show. Cue Roman Reigns to interrupt to say Lesnar attacked because the Big Dog wasn’t here to protect the yard.

Corbin laughs at this but Reigns is worried about a potential Lesnar suspension. That’s not happening and the Summerslam match is still on. Angle wants to see Reigns give Lesnar the beating he deserves, which Corbin thinks is rather unprofessional. Reigns accuses Corbin of running away last week but Corbin says he left after beating up Finn Balor. The guy who actually won the Universal Title. Corbin yells at Angle for just being the guy that makes matches so Angle makes Reigns vs. Corbin right now.

Roman Reigns vs. Baron Corbin

Corbin hits him in the face before the bell but Reigns gives him a Superman Punch for two. Back from an early break with Corbin sliding under the bottom rope for the clothesline, giving Reigns a look like he just dislodged something from his throat. We hit the chinlock for a bit until Corbin just slams Reigns head first onto the mat. He’s not the most diverse guy in the ring but he can make things look painful.

Another chinlock goes on for a few more moments so Reigns fights up with a clothesline to the floor. The apron dropkick connects but Corbin posts him to send us to a second break in less than nine minutes. Back with Corbin holding a chinlock (dude, enough) and Reigns fighting up with clotheslines (dude, also enough).

The Deep Six gets two but Reigns hits his second (a lot of repeating in this match) Superman Punch for the same. Corbin looks to take a walk, drawing out Finn Balor to cut him off. The third Superman Punch, this one off the steps, drops Corbin and the spear gives Reigns the pin at 18:45.

Rating: D. Back in the 80s, Dusty Rhodes yelled at Big Bubba Rogers for botching a move. His words: “Don’t do s*** you don’t know how to do.” That’s the case with putting Baron Corbin in these long matches. He doesn’t know how to do them and we’ve seen him go nearly forty minutes combined in the last two weeks with about six chinlocks combined. Corbin has two cool moves. Let him do those, then get out in about eight minutes. The matches are boring and Reigns wasn’t helping things here. Also, who is Reigns going 18 minutes with a guy like Corbin less than two weeks before the World Title match at Summerslam?

Post match Balor dropkicks Corbin into the corner and hits the Coup de Grace.

We recap Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre jumping Seth Rollins again last week.

Rollins comes in to see Angle and gets a tag match set up for tonight with a partner to be named. They wouldn’t bring Dean Ambrose back tonight would they?

Bobby Roode vs. Mojo Rawley

Fallout from last week’s brawl in the locker room. Roode slugs away and dropkicks Rawley off the apron as we take a break. Back with Rawley holding a waistlock (better than another chinlock) and dropping a knee to the ribs for two. The waistlock goes on again (Mojo: “How you feel right now? A little bit glorious?”) until Roode fights back with more right hands. Roode’s neckbreaker drops Rawley and the Blockbuster does it again. Rawley tries a fireman’s carry but Roode slips out and hits the Glorious DDT for the pin at 8:08.

Rating: D+. You build Mojo up for a few weeks and have Roode pin him clean? Other than the song, what is there to like about Roode? The match was more boring stuff as neither guy showed any energy and, just like the first match, a lot of it was spent in a hold on the mat. The ribs didn’t even go anywhere this time. I like Rawley so I’m annoyed to see him lose, but having it be to Roode is even worse.

Elias is in the back and seems to be in the middle of filming another documentary. The first one was decent enough so why not.

Here’s Elias to play some guitar. He brags about the album’s success, which is pretty impressive to only have four songs. The documentary came out last week but it was wrong, which is why he’s filming his own version. Elias wants the camera crew to circle around him but the audience isn’t right. Maybe their faces could be blurred or cropped out with another crowd? I don’t think Elias knows what cropping means. Elias isn’t happy, just like he wasn’t last week when bobby Lashley interrupted him.

Cue Lashley to say that he liked the original documentary but Elias wasn’t a fan. That thing made him seem egotistical! Lashley is here to steal the spotlight, just like when he came back in April. Lashley’s comeback has been a joke, but he doesn’t want to hear anything else from Elias. The filming crew leaves and Elias throws a clipboard at him so the beatdown can be on. Lashley gets in a spinebuster and has the cameraman film while he gives Elias the delayed suplex. At least do a delayed Jackhammer.

Cole makes it clear that Ambrose will NOT be Rollins’ partner. Thanks for taking care of the option people might be interested in seeing.

Tyler Breeze offers to be Rollins’ partner, saying he’s kind of gorgeous if you’re into that whole Crossfit Jesus look. Breeze offers the Shield fist when Reigns comes in to say he has Seth’s back. In case 18 minutes of Reigns wasn’t enough for you.

Titus O’Neil vs. Rezar

Rezar knocks Titus down as we hear about his MMA career. Titus’ right hands give him a breather and a big boot rocks Rezar. Akam offers a distraction though and Rezar gets in a big boot of his own. A spinebuster finishes Titus at 3:12.

Rating: D. At the beginning of this match, the announcers talked about Titus being almost a hometown boy here after college and his charity’s big Back to School Bash event, which was a really cool event. Better make sure to do this match, which could have been swapped with last week’s match IMMEDIATELY because this great feud, which started with the Authors squashing Titus Worldwide in two minutes, needs to be advanced. Little things like that almost bother me as much as the big dumb things they do.

Braun Strowman vs. Jinder Mahal

Clip of Rollins and Reigns doing the Shield pose with a fan over the weekend.

Corbin gives Angle a phone call from Stephanie McMahon, who has an order for him. Angle isn’t pleased.

We get a sitdown interview with Reigns to talk about his match with Lesnar. We go through their whole history, including the great Wrestlemania XXXI match, the pretty bad Wrestlemania XXXIV match, the stupid Greatest Royal Rumble match and then last week’s Lesnar segment, which really had nothing to do with Reigns. He’s sick of Lesnar using WWE and disrespecting the fans, so Lesnar is learning a lesson at Summerslam.

This was a long recap of their story, and did little more than tell us that it’s been going on for a very long time. Your stat of the night: Lesnar has held the title 487 days. He’s had five televised title defenses and three of them have been against Reigns. Two of them have also involved Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman. In total, four different people have gotten title shots in 487 days.

Corbin tells Reigns that he can’t be Rollins’ partner due to Stephanie’s orders. If he tries to wrestle, he’ll lose his Summerslam title shot. Handicap match time, but only after Reigns punches Corbin in the ribs.

Balor vs. Corbin is set for Summerslam.

Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre/Dolph Ziggler

Rollins slaps McIntyre in the face and gets a chase going, setting up a low superkick to really put him down. Ziggler distracts Rollins on top though and McIntyre tries to catch a high crossbody. I say try because McIntyre kind of drops him on the knee but Rollins seems to be ok.

The armbar goes on for a good while until Ziggler comes in for the first time. It’s not a good time though as he misses a charge in the corner, allowing Rollins a much needed breather. McIntyre posts himself and it’s a Sling Blade to Ziggler. The suicide dive sends Ziggler into the barricade and there’s the buckle bomb back inside. Rollins avoids the Fameasser but McIntyre runs him over again. The superkick puts Rollins away at 7:07.

Rating: C-. I can’t count how many times I’ve said this in recent years, but I’m already burned out watching these two fight. Starting with Ziggler’s title win on June 18, that’s the sixth time he and Rollins have been against each other in some form. You have this big of a roster and there’s no other way to do this feud? Have them fight some jobbers to the stars and then cut promos. Is that really thinking outside the box anymore?

Replays show that Ziggler wasn’t legal. Ok then.

Video on Alicia Fox, trying to make her seem important before her match with Rousey. Did you know she’s been on Total Divas???

B-Team vs. Revival

Non-title. B-Team now has a very new theme, sounding like a high school cheer. I liked their old theme but this fits them much better. Wilder and Axel start with the former being taken into the wrong corner. Dallas comes in and gets the same treatment, with Revival clubberin away. It’s off to Dawson for a chinlock….and there go the lights. They come back up and it’s Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt on the apron instead. The two of them come in and it’s a no contest at 3:10.

Rating: D. Well at least Revival didn’t lose. We can have the triple threat match at Summerslam because Heaven forbid we don’t have one of those crammed in. This division isn’t in great shape right now and Matt/Bray aren’t really adding anything to it other than a face team. But hey, at least another comedy team gets the titles.

We get a sitdown interview with Paul Heyman, who doesn’t know where he stands with Brock Lesnar. Brock has disconnected his phone number and won’t respond to intermediaries. Heyman looks like he’s about to burst into tears as he says Lesnar is just going to get annoyed at this interview. He considers Lesnar a friend and this isn’t how he pictured it ending.

They had talked about riding off into the sunset together with the Universal and UFC Heavyweight Championships on his shoulders. Heyman starts crying but says just do it. When asked about any potential new clients, Heyman says it would be inconceivable just a week ago, but doesn’t say year or no. He still picks Lesnar, because he’s never been so angry. Reigns doesn’t stand a chance. This was the best thing on the show tonight, mainly because it was actually different.

We look back at Strowman turning over the stage.

Summerslam recap.

Riott Squad vs. Bayley/Sasha Banks

Sasha starts with Morgan and sends her face first into the middle buckle. Bayley comes in for the sliding clothesline and an armbar on Logan. The middle rope crossbody gets two but Bayley goes hard into the corner to put her in trouble. Back from a break with Logan holding a chinlock (of course) to keep Bayley down. Bayley powers up and sends her into the corner before avoiding a charge from Morgan.

The hot tag brings in Banks to clean house, including a knee to Logan’s face. The super hurricanrana from Bayley sets up the top rope Meteora for two on Logan with Morgan making the save. Bayley loads up a dive from the apron but a hooded woman pulls Morgan out of the way. The hood comes off to reveal Ruby Riott, whose distraction lets Logan roll Banks up for the pin at 10:39.

Rating: D+. I’m glad to have Ruby back but I’m so over the Bayley/Sasha program. Are we supposed to be setting up a handicap match for Summerslam? We went from the I love you to this in the span of three weeks? I can understand why they would back off of that, but a little closure, even a line explaining why it’s barely been mentioned since then, would have been nice. Or at least any kind of story to be seen here.

Video on Ronda Rousey’s WWE career so far, including her success and being in the title match when Alexa Bliss cashed in Money in the Bank, setting up their match at Summerslam.

Next week: B-Team vs. Revival vs. Matt Hardy/Bray Wyatt for the Tag Team Titles.

Ronda Rousey vs. Alicia Fox

Natalya and Alexa Bliss are the seconds. Before the match, Bliss is asked about Rousey and mocks the interviewer for not being able to come up with something better. Fox shows a clip of herself beating up Rousey last week and talks about how great Rousey is at everything else. Was she the captain of the Raw Survivor Series team? Bliss cuts her off and thanks Fox for everything she’s done. Rousey can deal with what’s left of Rousey in Brooklyn and here’s Rousey to cut her off.

We get the Big Match Intros and Fox chills in the corner at the bell. Rousey isn’t impressed by the trash talk and shoves her to the floor. Back in and Fox bails right back to the floor again. A Bliss distraction doesn’t work very well as Natalya cuts her off, only to be posted. Fox tries a charge at the distracted Rousey but the referee stops her for some reason.

Fox pounds away in the corner….and there’s the death stare. The rights and lefts have Fox rocked and the judo throws have Fox rocked. Fox bails for the third time but Rousey follows her for a whip into the barricade. Back in and Fox gets suplexed with ease, followed by the armbar (with a lot of shouting to Bliss) for the tap at 3:47.

Rating: C+. The stuff where Rousey was smashing Fox was fun but this would have been better served as bell, armbar, bell. To be fair though, it’s kind of hard to complain when Rousey beating the heck out of people is some of the most entertaining stuff WWE can do. Maybe not as fun as WWE trying to turn Fox into something worthy of the spot but still fun nonetheless.

Post match Rousey gets interviewed by Bliss tries a sneak attack. Rousey flips her over and gives Bliss a look saying “are you kidding me?” Bliss bails and Rousey promises to win the title.

Overall Rating: D. This was the rough show that only WWE can pull off. The Heyman promo and the Rousey destruction were fun but other than that, it felt like WWE dragging us along on the way to Summerslam whether we like it or not. It’s the same problem that has been around for so long: it’s really hard to make myself are about the same matches on pay per view that I’ve seen on TV so many times already. The Reigns vs. Lesnar stuff has been a rough sit and I have a feeling it’s not going to be the end of Reigns being screwed out of the title. I didn’t like this show and it was getting harder and harder to watch all night long.

Results

Roman Reigns b. Baron Corbin – Spear

Bobby Roode b. Mojo Rawley – Glorious DDT

Rezar b. Titus Worldwide – Spinebuster

Jinder Mahal b. Braun Strowman via DQ when Strowman used the briefcase

Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre b. Seth Rollins – Superkick

B-Team vs. Revival went to a no contest when Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy interfered

Riott Squad b. Bayley/Sasha Banks – Rollup to Banks

Ronda Rousey b. Alicia Fox – Armbar

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: July 30, 2018
Location: American Airlines Arena, Miami, Florida
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Jonathan Coachman

You can tell it’s a big night around here as Brock Lesnar is actually gracing us with his presence for the first time in three months. Now a lot of people would find that to be a really bad idea but it’s been the case for a long time in WWE. Just to make it work even better, he’ll be confronting Roman Reigns. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

In memory of Nikolai Volkoff and Brian Christopher.

We open with a recap of Reigns beating Bobby Lashley last week to become #1 contender.

Lesnar is here. The fact that that is newsworthy tells you a lot about WWE today.

Here’s Reigns in the arena to a mixed reaction. He thanks the fans in Miami for always having a special energy that you don’t get everywhere else. Reigns thanks Lashley for last week because that was a heck of a fight and he respects Lashley for it. He doesn’t respect Lesnar though because Lesnar doesn’t have time to show up here like he does in the UFC. Lesnar is coming to Summerslam and Reigns is going to hit him in the mouth.

This brings out Paul Heyman, to talk about the definition of insanity being trying the same thing over and over again and expecting the same result. If that’s true, Reigns should be in a padded room somewhere. This week’s spoiler: Heyman is going to put Reigns down and then become a two sport champion.

Reigns: “Just shut up Paul.” He wants Lesnar out here right now but Heyman says Lesnar will be out here if and when he feels like it. Lesnar will be at Summerslam but Reigns cuts him off, saying if Lesnar shows up he’ll be sent back to the UFC as Reigns’ b****. Cole says the show is in three weeks, annoying me as usual. It’s twenty days, not three weeks.

Brock is in the back reading Backwoodsman Magazine when Heyman comes in. He doesn’t watch the show so he didn’t hear what Reigns said. Heyman recorded Reigns’ statements but Lesnar throws the phone against the wall and continues reading. I hope Heyman bills him for that.

Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin

Yes this is still going. Corbin powers him into the corner to start and shoulders Balor down as it’s one sided to start. A middle rope dropkick gets Balor out of trouble as we’re firmly in power vs. speed here. Corbin clotheslines the heck out of him though and we take a break. Back with Corbin grabbing a chinlock and shaking the heck out of Balor.

That’s broken up but Corbin does his slide underneath the ropes for the clothesline back inside. The slow beating continues (makes sense as Corbin doesn’t see Balor as a threat) and it’s off to a chinlock. One heck of a right hand drops Balor again and a weak CORBIN SUCKS chant starts up. Balor sweeps the leg and hits a double stomp, followed by an enziguri to put Corbin on the floor. The big flip dive drops him again and we take a second break.

Back again with Balor holding a chinlock, just in case you didn’t get the point the first time. The chokeslam is countered into a rollup and the Sling Blade rocks Corbin. Balor’s shotgun dropkick gets caught in a chokebreaker and Corbin hammers away, showing his first anger and aggression over eighteen minutes in. A very spinny Deep Six gets two and Balor rolls to the floor where he hits the shotgun dropkick against the ropes. Back in and the Coup de Grace misses, setting up the End of Days to give Corbin the pin at 20:14(!).

Rating: C-. This match was a great example of a lot of the problems in WWE. This was a rematch from Extreme Rules where Corbin got overconfident and lost. Therefore, Corbin, whose entire issue in this feud has been that he doesn’t think anything of Balor, should have been taking this more seriously and being extra aggressive. That happened for about thirty seconds of the match with Corbin acting like everything was normal. They acted as if the Extreme Rules match, as in the PAY PER VIEW match (which went 8:20, or less than half the length of this), didn’t change anything. If it doesn’t matter, why should I watch?

Kurt Angle yells at Heyman about Lesnar not appearing in front of the live crowd. If Angle wants to fix things, he can go do it himself. That’s not cool with Angle, who threatens to fire Heyman if Lesnar doesn’t go to the ring at some point.

Long video on the Evolution announcement last week. My goodness please don’t let them do this for three months.

Alexa Bliss comes up to Alicia Fox in the back and wants her to take tonight’s match against Natalya seriously. Ronda Rousey’s suspension is done and she’s going to be in Natalya’s corner tonight. Fox needs to worry about Natalya and Natalya alone but Fox has this. Tonight, she’s going to make Natalya’s cat say meow.

Alicia Fox vs. Natalya

Bliss and Rousey are the seconds. Natalya goes aggressive to start and tries an early Sharpshooter but Fox gets to the floor and pulls Natalya into the ring skirt. After beating the heck out of a tied up Natalya, Fox grabs the chinlock inside. That goes as long as you might expect but an abdominal stretch lasts a lot longer. Fox even one ups it by jumping up and wrapping her legs around Natalya’s waist (that’s a new one). The bridging northern lights suplex gets two and Fox goes after Rousey, allowing Bliss to get in a cheap shot. Fox’s running big boot is good for the pin at 5:05.

Rating: D+. There’s something likable about Fox and it’s good to have her back. If nothing else another person on the roster lets you keep some matches fresh instead of burning through the same ones over and over again. The match was more storyline than wrestling but Fox looked better than she did in most of her pre-injury matches.

Post match Rousey goes after Fox and hits the spinning Samoan drop. The numbers get the better of her for a bit but the villains get chased off.

Heyman is trying to get Lesnar (now reading American Frontiersman) to go to the arena but the offer of a hero’s welcome doesn’t do much for Brock. Lesnar says Heyman is getting under his skin so go get him a steak (medium well), baked potato and steamed broccoli. Make that medium rare and you have a heck of a meal.

Rousey is furious and wants a match before Summerslam or she’ll get suspended again. Angle gives her Fox next week.

Here’s Elias for a song. After a little guitar, Elias puts over his album and says he could have gone even higher on the charts but he was interrupted by Bobby Lashley. The fans start to cheer but Elias doesn’t want to hear from people who worship musicians like Pitbull and actors like the Rock. That brings on a ROCKY chant and Elias isn’t happy.

Elias has a song about how much he can’t stand the Rock but here’s Lashley to interrupt. That’s fine with Elias, because Lashley must want to sing with him. Elias starts playing Rockin’ Robin and Lashley joins in. Shockingly enough he can’t sing and Elias beats him down. A belly to belly sends Elias flying in short order.

Kevin Owens approves of what Corbin did and says Corbin is his son’s new favorite wrestler. Owens is concerned about the Lesnar situation because Brock is insulting Stephanie McMahon’s authority. If Brock goes out there, Strowman could cash in the briefcase before Owens has a chance to win it in the match Stephanie made. Corbin says that’s not his problem and Braun can cash in anytime.

We look back at Braun Strowman destroying Jinder Mahal last week.

Braun Strowman vs. Jinder Mahal

Jinder’s shanti is cut off by a GET THESE HANDS chant and a shove into the corner. Cue Kevin Owens to grab the briefcase and the chase is on with Strowman getting the case back and chasing Owens up the ramp for the countout at 1:36.

Strowman comes back and chases Mahal off.

Corbin brings Angle the phone so he can talk to Stephanie. She has an idea, even though Angle thinks the fans will be disappointed. Stephanie doesn’t care because we need to protect the main event of Summerslam.

A bunch of midcarders are in the locker room when Mojo Rawley comes in. He calls all of them out for not believing in his, just like everyone else he’s run down. Bobby Roode comes in with a slow clap so Mojo asks if he’s about to be catchphrased into submission. The fight is on with agents and referees coming in to break it up while the wrestlers want more brawling.

Apollo Crews vs. Akam

Before the match, the Authors promise to destroy everyone. Akam powers him down and puts n a very early cobra clutch. Crews fight up with a series of kicks to the head and the standing moonsault for two. The toss powerbomb doesn’t work but Akam misses a charge into the corner and gets rolled up for the pin at 2:57.

Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre

Dolph Ziggler is in Drew’s corner. The announcers are pushing the nickname Scottish Terminator for McIntyre. An early suplex muscles Rollins up and McIntyre sends him outside. A catapult sends Rollins throat first into the metal ring structure and we take a break. Back with Rollins hitting back to back to back suicide dives to send McIntyre into the barricade. I know McIntyre is called the Terminator but Rollins seems to have a throat of steel.

McIntyre is fine enough to get two off a spinebuster but a powerbomb is countered into a hurricanrana. Rollins superkicks him and McIntyre wants another, so Seth grants the request. It’s not enough to keep McIntyre down for the frog splash and super White Noise gives McIntyre two. If you’re going to use a move like that, it should be a pin. Rollins gets out of the Alabama Slam and hits the Stomp, drawing in Ziggler for the DQ at 9:22.

Rating: B-. Well they got the ending right, and that’s what matters here. McIntyre is getting better and better and the fact that they’re protecting him means a lot. As usual though, these matches just make you wonder why it’s not McIntyre as champion with Ziggler as his lackey. That being said, the throat into the steel and the super White Noise should have been much bigger deals than they were, but here they’re just spots in a ten minute match on Raw.

We recap Brock won’t come out and play.

Angle comes in to tell Reigns that since Lesnar will be in the arena tonight, Reigns needs to leave the building on Stephanie’s orders. Reigns asks when this is going to end because Angle isn’t a yes man. Corbin brings in security to escort Reigns from the building so Reigns pops him in the jaw.

Here’s the B Team for a chat. Charly Caruso asks about their change over the summer and the success it has brought them. Dallas: “Well Charles, the B in B Team stands for dream!” They’ve gotten the support from the B Teamers (dang it I like that) but the Deleters of Worlds don’t think much of them.

Here they are behind the champs with Matt Hardy saying this success is a cosmic anomaly. Bray talks about how dreams are fleeting but nightmares are real. They will never stop haunting the B Team but here’s the Revival to interrupt. Dawson says they’re the top of the division and a brawl breaks out with the Revival being cleared out in short order.

Matt Hardy/Bray Wyatt vs. Revival

Joined in progress with the B Team on commentary and Bray doing the spider walk to Wilder. Matt comes in and gets pulled into a Boston crab with Dawson dropping a bunch of legs. The champs talk about not sleeping since winning the titles, what the B stands for, and not being scared of the Revival. Revival takes turns on the commentary as Dallas expresses his disdain for fists and flips.

A Side Effect gets Matt out of trouble and it’s off to Bray vs. Wilder again. Bray’s body block takes him down and we get what sounds like a CM PUNK chant. Dawson dropkicks Bray and everything breaks down with Matt and Dawson fighting to the floor. Now it’s a RUSEV DAY chant as Wilder slips out of Sister Abigail. The Shatter Machine ends Bray at 5:54.

Rating: D+. It’s great to see the Revival win, even though I fully expect it to be a triple threat at Summerslam because we just had to have the rematch last week with Matt and Bray losing again. The thing is we’ve established that winning and losing mean nothing around here so it’s not that big of a shock.

Rollins talks about tired of getting jumped 2-1 when he’s jumped 2-1.

Riott Squad vs. Bayley/Sasha Banks

Sasha and Bayley now have matching jackets and want to be called the Boss and Hug Connection. No. Logan starts with an armbar on Bayley, who easily spins her down for a break. Banks comes in for the running Meteora and we hit the armbar. The announcers manage to stop talking about Reigns and Lesnar to talk about Evolution as Bayley hits a running knee in the corner.

Banks adds a Meteora on the apron and we take a break. Back with Banks in a chinlock until Morgan comes in for a chinlock of her own. What a versatile team. Banks gets up and throws her down for the hot tag to Bayley. A running knee to Morgan’s head has her in trouble and there’s the running elbow in the corner. Bayley hurricanranas Morgan down for a top rope Meteora (third of the match) from Banks. Bayley comes in off a blind tag and a Backstabber into the Bayley to Belly finishes Morgan at 8:48.

Rating: C-. I’m sick of Meteoras and I’m not sure what they’re doing with this Bayley/Banks story. It seems that they’re already dropping the Banks loves Bayley thing, or at least they’re not mentioning it at the moment. In a way that’s a relief but in another way it’s annoying because that was actually interesting after months of the same “they’re friends/they hate each other” stuff. I hope we get somewhere by Summerslam, because as much as I like both of them, I don’t know how much longer I can take this story running on a treadmill.

Heyman begs Lesnar to go out there so they can go be at a private steakhouse in 25 minutes. Lesnar’s pay has been confirmed so he doesn’t seem interested. Heyman finally explains the situation and asks him to do it as a friend. Lesnar grabs him by the jacket and says they’re not friends but just business associates. Therefore, Heyman needs to go out there and do his job.

Here are Angle and Corbin to address Heyman and Lesnar. Heyman does come out with no energy, knowing what’s about to happen. The fans greet him with the Goodbye Song and Heyman says Lesnar isn’t coming out here tonight. That sends Angle over the edge into a rant about what a champion does, like doing charity work, reaching out to the community, and DEFENDING THE TITLE. Angle: “BROCK LESNAR MUST BE THE WORST UNIVERSAL CHAMPION OF ALL TIME!” Fans: “YES!!!”

Heyman actually agrees and says he tried to rehabilitate Lesnar because he’s one of the few people Lesnar tolerates. Kurt doesn’t buy it but Heyman says take this out on Lesnar because Brock doesn’t respect anyone. However, Heyman thinks the world of Angle and would like to have a better working relationship with him. Angle fires him anyway, sending Heyman diving to Angle’s leg.

Cue Lesnar to give Heyman the greatest relief of his life. Lesnar finally gets in and hands the belt to Heyman before grabbing a mic. That’s rarely a good idea. He asks if Angle and Corbin have a problem with him….and there’s an F5 to Angle before a word is said. Corbin immediately leaves and Heyman slaps Brock on the back. Brock grabs him by the face and makes Heyman look at Angle. The fans want Strowman (or maybe Roman) but get Brock leaving to end the show. So yeah, that’s it and no, this isn’t going to get the result that the company wants, especially in New York.

Overall Rating: D+. They tried, but this didn’t get where it needed to go. The Lesnar story dominated the night and really, it might have been better if he just didn’t show up until Summerslam. I understand the idea of Lesnar hating the fans and the company but that’s not exactly fresh information. Lesnar’s character hasn’t been the problem. As usual the problem is Reigns, and tonight didn’t do anything to make me want to see him conquer Lesnar. Until that changes, Summerslam is another version of what hasn’t worked before.

Other than that, Evolution continues to loom over the women’s division, Ziggler continues to make you wonder why he’s in the spot he’s occupying, Strowman continues to have nothing to do because we’re waiting on Roman and Money in the Bank has to exists and Balor loses to Corbin because….well you have to validate Corbin’s role somehow. It just seems like everything is on Reigns vs. Lesnar, which didn’t work the first time and isn’t likely to work here. With that dominating the show, there’s not much the rest of the people involved can do, especially when the stories aren’t great in the first place.

Results

Baron Corbin b. Finn Balor – End of Days

Alicia Fox b. Natalya – Big boot

Jinder Mahal b. Braun Strowman via countout

Apollo Crews b. Akam – Rollup

Seth Rollins b. Drew McIntyre via DQ when Dolph Ziggler interfered

Revival b. Matt Hardy/Bray Wyatt – Shatter Machine to Wyatt

Bayley/Sasha Banks b. Riott Squad – Bayley to Belly to Morgan

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Main Event
Date: July 19, 2018
Location: Keybank Center, Buffalo, New York
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Percy Watson, Vic Joseph

The road to Summerslam has begun and we’re getting a better idea of what’s coming on this year’s show. That means we can start the build towards the show, meaning a lot of things would be set up on this week’s TV. Hopefully Main Event reflects the upgrades so let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Opening sequence.

No Way Jose vs. Curt Hawkins

Hawkins throws him down to start and stops for a little dance, which is straight up gimmick infringement. A shoulder puts Hawkins down and now we get the real dancing. There’s an airplane spin and Hawkins does a funny stagger into the fall but pops up to knock Jose off the ropes. Back in and a suplex gets two on Jose, followed by the chinlock. Jose fights up with a flapjack and middle rope crossbody, followed by the pop up right hand for the pin at 5:30.

Rating: D+. This is about as good of a place as Jose is going to be in for the time being as he got to hype up the crowd to start the evening and then wins an easy match. I’m a little annoyed that they dropped the push for Hawkins to win a match on Raw as it’s back to the usual for what he’s doing. It does say something that he has something on Main Event, which doesn’t exactly have much continuity.

We get a very abbreviated version of Monday’s opening segment between Kurt Angle and Paul Heyman with Nigel narrating about everyone coming to the ring to set up the triple threats.

From Raw.

Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Finn Balor

McIntyre chops both of them to start but Balor knocks them both to the floor for a big flip dive. Back in and McIntyre takes over again, including a big boot to the corner on Reigns. Balor gets knocked to the floor and McIntyre hammers on Reigns as he’s been by far the most dominant so far.

We come back from a break with McIntyre still in control but Reigns makes the fired up (well the Raw version of Reigns being fired up) comeback. The apron dropkick hits McIntyre but Balor stomps him down. McIntyre follows it with a big flip dive over the top so Balor double stomps him as well. Back in and the Coup de Grace is loaded up but McIntyre chairs Balor off the top. Reigns gets sent into the post and we take another break.

Back again with Reigns’ Superman Punch being countered into a spinebuster for two. Balor is back in with the chair to McIntyre though and then unloads on Reigns with the chair. Instead of covering him though, Balor goes outside to dropkick McIntyre, who gets speared through the barricade. Back in, Reigns Superman Punches Balor for two but Balor dropkicks him into the corner.

The Coup de Grace gets two with McIntyre making a last second save. Reigns and McIntyre mistime a sequence where the Claymore was supposed to be Superman Punched, instead making it McIntyre stopping to get punched. The spear ends Balor to give Reigns the pin at 22:01.

Rating: B. I’m trying really hard to believe that Reigns won’t be getting the title shot and while I’m still not convinced that he will be, you never can put it past WWE. I do like the idea of McIntyre moving up to the main event scene, even if this is just a one off time. At least he didn’t take the pin and it’s not like anyone buys Balor as a top star anymore. Reigns winning was pretty obvious though and while it’s annoying, you have to know it’s coming.

Video on Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax from Extreme Rules.

From Raw.

Here are Bliss and Mickie James to brag about beating Jax again last night. Bliss says it wasn’t hard to outsmart Jax last night and she has now beaten everyone in that locker room. Ronda Rousey doesn’t count because she’s suspended and therefore not in the locker room. Cue Rousey through the crowd to cut them off before they can leave though, meaning it’s the spinning Samoan drop to James.

Bliss pulls her away from the armbar just in time but Rousey isn’t done and jumps onto the two of them and the referees. That means an armbar for Bliss but Angle comes out to calm things down. Angle tells her to go home and sit out her suspension so here’s Corbin to say make a decision. Kurt extends the suspension by a week but Corbin freaks, saying he’ll call Stephanie RIGHT NOW. Well he will once he finds his phone. Angle has the phone and says Rousey can have the match with Bliss at Summerslam for the Women’s Title, provided she doesn’t attack Bliss again before then.

Stills of Braun Strowman throwing Kevin Owens off the cage to give Owens the win. If you don’t want Strowman to lose, don’t book a match like this.

Video on the B Team winning the Tag Team Titles and their long celebration.

Chad Gable/Heath Slater/Rhyno vs. Revival/Mike Kanellis

Slater headlocks Kanellis down to start and it’s a quick six man staredown. Gable and Dawson come in to fight over a wristlock before Gable easily wins a mat sequence. Everything breaks down and the villains are cleared out as we take a break. Back with Gable fighting out of a chinlock and shrugging off Wilder for the hot tag to Rhyno. Slater and Gable are sent outside and the Shatter Machine finishes Rhyno at 7:37.

Rating: D+. This felt like it was missing a good bit, likely due to time constraints. It’s always nice to see the Revival get a win though and it’s not like Rhyno taking a fall is going to hurt him. Gable needs something to do though as he’s WAY too talented to be stuck doing nothing like this.

We see the very end of Jeff Hardy vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Randy Orton’s brutal post match beatdown on Hardy. That ear thing was sick.

From Raw.

Seth Rollins vs. Elias vs. Bobby Lashley

Elias jumps Rollins on the floor before the bell but Rollins says start it up anyway. Rollins sends him outside so Lashley headlocks Rollins down. That goes nowhere so Elias gets knocked off the apron again, leaving Lashley to send Rollins to the floor. The springboard is kicked out of the air, only to have Elias come back in with a jumping knee. Another knee gets two on Rollins and we take a break.

Back with Elias getting beaten up by both guys until Lashley snaps off a belly to belly. Rollins and Elias are sent to the floor with Lashley following, only to be sent into the post to slow him down for the first time. Elias gets two off a top rope elbow and Rollins follows with the frog splash.

Lashley rolls outside, leaving Elias to counter the superplex attempt. There’s no followup though as Lashley takes Rollins’ place on top, only to get buckle bombed by Rollins. Now the superplex into the falcon Arrow can get two on Elias so there’s the delayed vertical suplex on Rollins. The spear hits post so Rollins rolls him up for two. The Stomp is loaded up but Elias pulls Rollins to the floor. That delay allows Lashley to spear him down for the pin at 17:36.

Rating: C+. Much like in the first match, they got the ending right and Lashley vs. Reigns should be good again. I mean, assuming they don’t go with the triple threat, which wouldn’t be a surprise in the slightest. Rollins has been on enough of a roll that he deserves a chance, but I could see him facing Ziggler in a ladder match for the Intercontinental Title.

Overall Rating: C-. Why do they even pretend that Smackdown matters? This show was about 90% Raw, with the both original matches and most of the clips are from there as well. They’re just having a Raw recap show at this point, which isn’t really surprising given that Smackdown didn’t even make the Summerslam poster. The triple threats more than carry this one but my goodness it’s sad watching the Smackdown crew working so hard and getting no respect whatsoever.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6