Raw
Raw Results
- Becky Lynch © def Bianca Belair (Raw Women’s Championship) – ****¼
- Austin Theory def Rey Mysterio w/ Dominik Mysterio via DQ – ***
- Carmella & Queen Zelina def Nikki A.S.H. & Rhea Ripley – **½
- Finn Balor def Chad Gable w/ Otis – ***
- The Dirty Dawgz def The Street Profits – **¾
- Damian Priest def T-Bar (No DQ Match) – ***¼
- Big E def Kevin Owens – ***½
The show opens with a really nice video package highlighting the history between “The Man” Becky Lynch and “The EST” Bianca Belair and then we get interviews with both women in the Gorilla position as their match for the Raw Women’s Championship is going to kick off the show tonight. We all knew when this match was announced last week that these two were going to tear the house down and that is exactly what we got as these two ladies put on a classic. Becky tried her best to lock in the Dis-Arm-Her but Bianca would either block it completely or power out of the move, and eventually, Becky has to resort to cheap tactics as she removes the turnbuckle and sends Bianca into it and then rolls her up in a schoolgirl where she grabs the tights to pick up the win and retain her Raw Women’s Championship. I really enjoyed this match and although there were some shady shenanigans at the end it was nice to see that there was no outright DQ or count out involved but yet Bianca still has a credible reason for wanting yet another rematch.
Later in the night, Becky Lynch is interviewed (dressed as Elvis) and she sees no problem with how she won the match as she was just using the tools given to her and then she goes on to call the fans fickle because the same ones who were cheering her during her rise are now booing her since she is at the top. Becky says the fans can’t relate because they don’t know what it’s like to be a success. Becky says that tonight she proved that Bianca is way over her head and it’s time that she goes to the back of the line and let someone new step up and as Becky looks over Liv Morgan walks up and looks Becky right in the eyes, but Becky just shrugs her shoulders and walks off leaving Liv with a smirk on her face.
Ahhhhh! Is this finally going to be Liv’s turn to be in the title picture? I really hope this is finally Liv’s big break and she is moved into the main women’s feud as she is absolutely deserving of the spot (her recent 50/50 booking against Carmella would say different) as she has improved greatly in the ring and on the mic over the past few years and it’s past time that she got the opportunity to show just how much she has improved as she can now hang with the main event caliber women. On top of her recent improvement in front of the camera, it has been reported by multiple sources over the past six months to a year that she is very well-liked by the talent backstage and I wouldn’t doubt if Becky pushed to work with her to give her that opportunity to show what she has got.
I just hope they treat the Liv challenge as a credible threat to Becky’s challenge and not a complete throwaway feud where it’s 100% predictable that Becky is winning. At this point, I have no idea what the plans could be for WrestleMania with the women’s title on Raw, but I wouldn’t complain if they threw Liv a bone and had her win the Royal Rumble to either face Becky in a singles match or a triple threat also involving Bianca Belair. You see, this is what happens when you only have one of the Horsewomen on a brand, it opens up opportunities for others as we don’t have two Horsewomen hogging the top of the card, unfortunately for the other women on SmackDown that opportunity isn’t going to open up to them anytime soon with both Sasha and Charlotte on the show which sadly means Toni will continue to be a non-factor on TV.
Moving on from the Raw Women’s Championship picture we have The Mysterios being interviewed in Gorilla and just as Rey is telling Dominik how proud of him he is we see Theory walk up and he plans to beat Rey this week like he beat Dominik last week. Rey tells Theory that people have been trying to make a name for themselves off the Mysterio name for years but all of the others have faded away but the Mysterio name is still strong as ever. We get a good match between Rey and Theory until Rey has Theory in position for the 619, but as he runs to the ropes Dominik gets in a cheap shot on Theory which the referee sees and he calls for the bell giving Theory the win by DQ.
I was beginning to think that the tension between the Mysterios was going to be completely dropped but it looks like they are indeed continuing the story with Dominik using underhanded tactics which backfire on him costing Rey a match. I wish they would shit or get off the pot with this story as people could see the turn coming 3-4 months ago when this whole thing started, but they have yet to officially break apart and at this point, I would expect it to last until WrestleMania. I expect Dominik to eliminate Rey from the Royal Rumble which will kick this feud into the next gear but until then we are left with subtle teases of a split between the father and son. Even though it was by DQ the Austin Theory winning streak continues and I think we will see Theory being the one to eventually dethrone Priest as the United States Champion.
It’s time for annoying Seth Rollins promo time where he gloats about how he beat three top-tier talents who were all former world champions Rollins talks about how he is the face of Raw and then calls it Monday Night Rollins and says the only thing missing is a title around his waist but that will come soon. Big E comes out and congratulates Rollins on his win, but he doesn’t appreciate how offered a handshake after the match last week but Rollins refused and walked off, Big E then said he talked to his aunt and she told him not to worry about it because there is something wrong with Rollins’ mind. Rollins retorts that he doesn’t remember last week going the way Big E claims as he remembers coming out to challenge Big E but Big E told him to earn it and once he did just that Big E was the one who rejected his handshake and when that happened he lost some of the respect he had for Big E.
Rollins says that Big E has had some solid wins against Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre, but Big E is not on his level and he will find that out when they face each other as he is going to take the WWE Championship off him and Big E can go back to being a joke with King Xavier Woods and Sir Kofi Kingston because that is all they are, complete jokes. Big E doesn’t like Rollins talking crap about his New Day brothers and tells Rollins to respect King Xavier and don’t downplay one of the greatest moments in WWE history with Kofi Mania. Big E then says he is going to offer Rollins a title shot tonight, but Rollins rejects his offer saying he is not 100% after the Hell in a Cell at Crown Jewel and the ladder match last week on Raw and if he is going to challenge Big E it will be on his terms when he is 100%.
Kevin Owens comes out and says he heard them talking about who the face of Raw should be and he agrees that Big E has a legit claim to that title as he is the WWE Champion and he understands why Rollins thinks that as he is a delusional dumbass and that suit he is wearing proves it. KO says they aren’t the only two who can lay claim to being the face of Raw as Bianca and Becky just showed why they have right to that claim as well, but there is also someone that everyone is forgetting and that is him as he should be the face of Raw. KO says that while Rollins may have won last week’s match everyone was talking about his performance in the match. KO says that he is going to continue to fight every week until he gives the WWE fans something to remember and furthermore if Rollins doesn’t want to face Big E tonight then he gladly will for the first time ever. Big E accepts the challenge and the main event for this episode of Raw is made.
This was quite a lengthy promo segment but at least it resulted in a fresh match for the main event and we got KO on the mic which is always a highlight to any show as he is one of the best talkers in the business and his promos always outshine everyone else.
We get footage from earlier in the day where Carmella and Queen Zelina have a confrontation with the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley which was used to set up the next match. One thing I liked about this video was as Carmella and Queen Zelina walk off they make fun of Nikki’s mask and instead of acting like they can’t hear someone talking a foot away which is what we usually see, but this time Nikki and Rhea actually catch up with them to confront them.
So, I wasn’t expecting much from this match but I have to say they exceeded my expectations and I was impressed by the teamwork shown by Carmella and Queen Zelina. Carmella and Queen Zelina end up picking up the win when Queen Zelina goes for an O’Connor roll but Nikki grabs the ropes to block it and then Carmella holds Nikki in place so that Queen Zelina can hit the code red for the win. I hope this is the start of WWE starting to care about the women’s tag division once again as Carmella and Queen Zelina are a good heel team for the champs to feud with over the next couple of months.
The announcers try to get people to vote for The Miz on Dancing with the Stars so that they don’t have to put up with him on Raw, but unfortunately, it looks like The Miz will be making his return to Raw pretty soon as he was eliminated from the show on Monday. For John Morrison, the return of The Miz can’t come soon enough as he has been relegated to finding his inner peace in backstage segments, but hopefully, his feud with The Miz can start back up after being on hiatus for the past month as Morrison is too damn talented to be doing nothing every week.
Big E runs into Alpha Academy backstage and Gable wants to help Big E become the face of Raw but Big E says if that means he wants to turn him into a walking thumb like he did Otis then no thanks. Gable gloats about graduating valedictorian from Full Sail with a 4.0 GPA and getting a master’s degree. Gable then says he has turned Otis into a focused competitor and not just an entertainer and he could’ve done the same for Big E. Gable tells Big E to keep doing what he is doing, but don’t come crying to him when Rollins takes the WWE Championship from him and the show becomes Monday Night Rollins once again. Gable says that tonight he will turn Balor from a prince into a peasant. We then get a staredown between Big E and Otis.
We get a vignette for Veer who will now be going by Veer Mahaan which is a rare case of WWE making a name longer rather than being shortened.
The next match is Finn Balor vs Chad Gable and the common theme of really good matches on tonight’s show continues on as Balor and Gable have a banger of a match and they made the most of the time they were given. If they can have a match as good as this in a little over 5 minutes I would love to see what they could do in 12-15 minutes and hopefully, we will as I want to see these two against each other more often, hell give them a best of seven series. I also liked how the finish came out of nowhere with Gable hitting a superplex only for Balor to catch him in a small package when they landed. I believe I read somewhere that Gable was one of the guys Balor wanted to work with, so he probably asked for this match, and thank God he did as these two are a match made in heaven inside the ring.
Riddle runs into The Dirty Dawgz backstage and starts talking about nonsense until he is cut off by Ziggler who tells them they don’t have time for this as they have a match with The Street Profits, but he does want Riddle to pay attention while RK-Bro is on commentary as their win last week was a fluke. We get another good match to continue the steak of the show and we see The Dirty Dawgz pick up the win when The Street Profits are distracted by the entrance of Omos. After the match, Omos lays out both The Street Profits and The Dirty Dawgz Riddle tries to attack him from behind with kicks, but Omos press slams him on the apron. The segment ends with Orton being pissed at himself for not running over to help Riddle.
After a recap video of the Damian Priest vs T-Bar match last week we get an interview with Priest where he talks about what happened last week with him snapping on T-Bar after having a chair thrown at him, Priest says that is a side of him that he tries to keep inside because when he lets it out people get hurt. Priest says that he had no issues with T-Bar going into last week, but when he threw the chair at him he felt disrespected, and when he feels that way he goes to a dark place. Priest says that last week was just a little taste but tonight with their match being No DQ T-Bar will get a first-hand experience with the Damian within him. As T-Bar makes his entrance he gets an inset promo where he says that he knew exactly what he was doing last week when he threw that chair as he was exposing Priest as a fraud and this week he will show that Priest is just pretty to be feasted on.
Priest and T-Bar beat the living crap out of each other for 13 minutes with every weapon available to them, but in the end, it was Priest hitting South of Heaven on T-Bar off the apron and through a table followed by the Reckoning back in the ring that scores him the win. There was a point in the match where Priest gets tied up in the ropes and T-Bar goes to town on him with a kendo stick to the point where Priest’s stomach was all cut up after the match. After the match, Apollo Crews comes out alongside Commander Azeez and he introduces himself and Azeez to Priest and says they will be acquainted very soon as he wants a shot at the United States Championship. Apollo Crews vs Damian Priest could be a fun feud but I don’t see any chance that Crews walks away as the US Champion because as I said earlier Theory is the one I believe will take the title of Priest.
It’s finally time for the main event of Kevin Owens vs Big E and they finish the night on a high note as they too have a really good match. The finish comes when Big E and KO crack heads in the corner and as the referee checks on KO we see Rollins hit Big E with the contract and even though he is confused at what happened KO pins Big E only for Big E to reverse into a crucifix pin of his own to get the win. After the match, KO gets on the mic and apologizes for what happened as he knows it seems like he took advantage of the Rollins cheap shot, but he had no clue what was going on as he was still knocked loopy from when they cracked heads. KO then calls Rollins a stupid SOB and he wants a match against him next week. KO tries to apologize to Big E yet again but Big E isn’t buying it as he hits KO with the Big Ending. The show ends with Big E on the apron telling Rollins to come get the title if he wants it.
This was one of the best episodes of Raw we have seen in quite a while as every match was good to great and we also got some new and fresh feuds. I’m happy to say that finally, the outlook for Raw is a lot more promising than it has looked in over a year and I just hope they hold onto the momentum that started last week.
NXT 2.0
NXT 2.0 Results
- Dakota Kai def Cora Jade – **¼
- Xyon Quinn def Robert Stone – ½*
- Legado del Fantasma w/ Elektra Lopez def Kyle O’Reilly & Von Wagner – **¾
- Bron Breakker def Andre Chase – *¾
- Solo Sikoa def Jeet Rama – ¾*
- Boa def Grayson Waller – **
- Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams def Johnny Gargano & Dexter Lumis – ***½
The show opens with the new NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose gloating about how she beat the dominant Raquel Gonzalez to become the new champion and then she talks about just how damn hot she is as she says the title looks better on her than anyone else that has ever held it. Mandy congratulates her fellow Toxic Attraction members for winning the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship and then answers the question of where Gigi and Jacy are, we see on the video screen that they are beating down Zoey Stark and it seems like they targeted the already injured knee. Mandy says that Toxic Attraction runs NXT and there is nobody that is going to stop them.
Io Shirai comes out and says that she saw what Toxic Attraction did and while she doesn’t like Zoey she likes Mandy even less and she wants the leader of Toxic Attraction. Mandy says that everyone used to be scared of Io but this is her world now and she isn’t scared of Io and if she wants to fight they can and then she cheap shots Io as she turns her head. Mandy attacks Io around ringside and then throws her back in the ring where she tells Io this isn’t the old NXT, this is NXT 2.0 and Io will never look like her. Io takes Mandy down with a double leg and moments later she hits a German suplex and running knee attack in the corner, but when Io looks for the moonsault Gigi and Jacy run down and despite Io fighting them off at first the numbers game gets to be too much for her, that is until we see the return of Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter (my favorite tag team) and they even the odds which leads to the babyfaces clearing the ring. It would later be announced that a six-woman tag match will be taking place next week between these two trios.
Damn it’s amazing just how much Mandy has improved since coming back down to NXT as this promo she cut was great and she doesn’t feel out of place at all being the NXT Women’s Champion. I am glad to see Kacy and Kayden make their return as I thought they had been forgotten since the rebranding of NXT, but thankfully they are back and I look forward to them feuding with Toxic Attraction.
We follow Toxic Attraction to the back where they run into Dakota Kai and she tells them that what she did last week wasn’t to help Mandy it was to finally end Raquel. Dakota makes her way to the ring as she will be in our first match of the night against “Cute” Cora Jade. It should be noted that Dakota now has eye makeup and every now and then she does this little head twitch thing showing that something isn’t right upstairs.
Dakota attacks right away taking Cora down with a clothesline and then she takes her over to the corner where she looks to hit Cora with forearms, but Cora fires back with some of her own as she fights out of the corner only for Dakota to shove Cora into the ropes sending her falling to the floor. Cora runs right back into the ring where she is met with a kick to the face and is then put in a one-armed straightjacket choke, Cora fights out of the hold and takes Dakota down with a clothesline and a running hurricanrana and that is followed by a running knee in the corner and an Oklahoma Roll for a 2 count. Cora goes for a double underhook but Dakota reverses with a backdrop. Dakota goes for another move but Cora counters it into a pin but Dakota’s shoulders aren’t touching the mat. Cora is hit with a scorpion kick and as she stumbles over to the corner Dakota nails her with the running corner kick and that is enough to pick up the win.
After the match, Dakota drags Cora around the ring and then pulls out a table placing it on top of Cora’s upper body, and then she goes up to the apron as it seems like she might go for a double stomp onto the table, but she changes her mind and gets back down. Dakota walks over to the steps and grabs Cora’s skateboard and just when it looks like she is going to do something with it she just drops it on top of Cora.
I like that we didn’t get the obvious post-match beatdown as that alone instantly makes Dakota a lot more interesting because had she just beat her up she would just be like any other heel, but now the question is why didn’t she do further damage to Cora after seeming like she wanted to. I hate that the winning streak of my beloved Cora Jade has come to an end just as quickly as it began, but I’m sure she will recover from this and be back to winning in no time.
We get a vignette where they are sitting at the bus stop and they start talking about the mysterious man behind MSK and Wes Lee wants Nash Carter to tell the story of the man, but we don’t get to hear it as a bus drives by and it turns out that was their bus and they just missed it.
After what happened last week with Xyon Quinn putting Robert Stone through a table it looks like we are getting a match between the two, but first Robert Stone gets on the mic claiming that Quinn is jealous of him because everyone is jealous of him as he can do anything and he can do it wearing a romper. Stone then starts dancing around and singing to Franky Monet’s theme music and once he is done he challenges Quinn to show what he can do and after some hesitation, Quinn finally says what the hell and starts singing and dancing to the Shawn Michaels theme and as he is getting cheered Stone decides to take that time to punch Quinn in the face. The match officially starts and less than a minute later, Quinn hits Stone with a Jackhammer for the win.
I did not care for this segment at all as the pre-match stuff felt like it went on longer than it should have and I don’t need to see someone who is supposed to be a killer dancing around the ring.
We get a promo from Joe Gacy which at this point I have started to tune out as nothing he says interests me nor does his gimmick.
We see Quinn run into Legado del Fantasma (sans Santos Escobar) and Elektra is impressed by what she sees. I don’t know if these are new or if I just haven’t noticed but Legado del Fantasma has a really cool shirt out that is basically the old LWO shirt but with LDF instead of LWO. Legado del Fantasma are in action next against Kyle O’Reilly and Von Wagner and apparently, this match came about after a few Twitter exchanges between the two teams.
O’Reilly and Wilde start out the match with each trying to gain control until Wilde takes O’Reilly down to the mat with a headlock takeover only for O’Reilly to escape and get back to his feet. O’Reilly takes Wilde down with a double leg and then grabs a headlock of his own but he backs him up too far which allows Wilde to make the tag to Mendoza. O’Reilly counters a sunset flip attempt into an attempted armbar only for Mendoza to get his foot on the rope. O’Reilly makes the tag to Wagner who takes Mendoza to the mat with a big waistlock takedown and then he looks to send Mendoza into the corner but Mendoza slips through the ropes out to the apron where he tries for a springboard but has to jump over Wagner and then he goes for a running crossbody only to be caught and hit with a fallaway slam. Wagner tags in O’Reilly and they hit Mendoza with a double team move and then O’Reilly grounds Mendoza with a hammerlock and then he connects with a sliding knee to the ribs of Mendoza.
Wagner is tagged back in and the babyfaces work over Mendoza in the corner with repeated strikes and then Wagner goes for a slam, but Mendoza escapes and hits him with a dropkick sending him colliding into O’Reilly in the corner. Mendoza brings Wagner over to the corner where he tags in Wilde and they send Wagner into the ropes only for both of them to be taken down with a double shoulder block and then he hits them with a double suplex. Wagner is on fire as she show goes on a picture-in-picture break.
Wagner and O’Reilly continue to stay in control during the break as O’Reilly grounds Wilde with a cobra twist which he rolls into a pinfall for a 2 count. O’Reilly and Wagner hit Wilde with a double back elbow and then Wagner tosses him across the ring with a gutwrench suplex. Wilde rolls out to the apron where he drops Wagner throat-first across the top rope and then low bridges sending Wagner out to the floor where he drives him into the apron before rolling him back into the ring where he tags in Mendoza. Mendoza snapmares Wagner to the mat and then catches him with a running dropkick before tagging Wilde back into the match. Legado del Fantasma hit Wagner with a double spinebuster, a wishbone, and a pair of dropkicks to a seated Wagner.
Wilde tries to ground Wagner with a chinlock but he fights back to his feet and as the commercial comes to an end we see Wilde jump on the back of Wagner but is thrown down to the mat with ease and then we get a tag on both sides as O’Reilly and Mendoza come in and immediately O’Reilly boots Wilde off the apron and then nails Mendoza with a flurry of strikes before kicking his leg out from under him. O’Reilly looks to run to the ropes, but Elektra has gotten up on the apron and while O’Reilly argues with her it allows Mendoza time to get back to his feet and nail O’Reilly with a knee to the back. Legado del Fantasma hit O’Reilly with their repeated corner clotheslines and then Mendoza hits a suplex and tags in Wilde who hits a springboard senton to a standing O’Reilly which gets a 2 count.
O’Reilly dodges a couple of attacks from Legado del Fantasma and then makes the tag to Wagner who sends Mendoza out to the floor and then he nails Wilde with a jumping knee followed by an elevated flatliner for a 2 count. Wagner goes for an Olympic slam but Wilde counters it with an arm drag only for Wagner to hit the move moments later and then he tags in O’Reilly who blasts Wilde with a penalty kick for a 2 count when Mendoza breaks up the pin. O’Reilly tosses Mendoza out to the floor and tags in Wagner, they look to hit a high and low move, but Mendoza runs back in and takes out O’Reilly with a dropkick, and then Wilde sidesteps a running boot and rolls Wagner up for the 3 count.
This was a fine match but I thought it could’ve been better given three out of the four involved. I still haven’t found the appeal of Von Wagner other than he is tall as he just comes off like a generic big man with nothing special about him. The story with Kyle O’Reilly has brought down O’Reilly’s stock as he was one of the hottest names on NXT a few months ago having great matches but now he feels like a complete afterthought that is so far removed from being a contender from the NXT Championship, hopefully, they have Wagner and O’Reilly split ways soon because someone as talented as O’Reilly should never feel like an afterthought.
Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams are interviewed in the back and they talk about how they are back to business as they are done with the spooky haunted house stuff as tonight they are back on their court and when they shoot in their court they don’t miss. Andre Chase walks up and both Hayes and Williams are surprised to see him alive after last week and he tells them he has their back tonight just like they had his last week. Andre Chase is then asked his thoughts on people on social media calling him a coward and needless to say Chase is not happy to hear this and because of those remarks online someone is getting an Andre Chase University-sized ass kicking. Can I just say that I can’t wait until we get a Cameron Grimes vs Andre Chase feud because that has the potential to be a really fun and comedic feud.
Speaking of Cameron Grimes, throughout the night we got several segments with Cameron Grimes inside Duke’s Poker Room playing poker with several guys and a couple of pretty ladies. At first, Hudson takes him lightly thinking he knows nothing but as the night goes on he finds out that Grimes isn’t as dumb as he seems and the more Grimes keeps winning the angrier Hudson gets and by the end of the night Hudson is perplexed at what happened as Grimes took all of the money leaving Hudson to flip the table over in a fit of rage.
Andre Chase is in the ring with a mic and he says that usually, he doesn’t respond to rumors but he just got called a coward for his actions during last week’s haunted house, but the only thing to fear is Andre Chase and then he issues an open challenge for anyone wanting a Ph.D. in getting their ass kicked. Chase’s challenge is accepted by Bron Breakker.
Chase goes to throw the first punch but Breakker catches his arm and hits him with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex and then he clotheslines Chase out to the floor where he gives chase and finally takes Chase down with a Steiner-line. Breakker throws Chase back in the ring and Chase attempts a comeback with kicks and punches and then he nails Breakker with a few knees to the chest while he has him locked in a cravate. The comeback by Chase quickly comes to an end as Breakker reverses a whip into the ropes and he drops Chase with a flying shoulder block which is followed by a side belly-to-belly suplex and then Breakker finishes things off with the military press powerslam for the win.
After the match, Breakker gets on the mic and admits he failed in the biggest match of his career last week and then talks about how Ciampa took advantage of his inexperience by setting traps and Breakker fell for every single one of them, and then he says that Ciampa is the man in NXT. Breakker says nothing pisses him off more than losing and then he directs his words to Ciampa saying they aren’t done and he will get another shot at the NXT Championship and next time he is winning the NXT Championship or he is going to die trying.
I thought this was a good way of keeping Breakker relevant after his loss while not immediately going into his next feud. I must say that so far on the mic he is more cohesive than both his father and uncle were, but I do look forward to when he gets to do his own version of Steiner math.
Imperium is interviewed backstage and they talk about winning the tag titles and Aichner says that they are built differently than everyone else and they don’t compromise American ideals. We then see Gigi and Jacy walk up and they congratulate Imperium on their win saying they look good as champions just like they do and then they tell them they should watch them next week during their six-woman tag match. Gigi and Jacy walk off and Barthel says that the mat is sacred, but America has its benefits.
It’s time for Lashing Out with Lash Legend where she talks about last week’s costumes and makes sure everyone knows there is only one host in NXT and it isn’t Grayson Waller. Lash then brings out Tony D’Angelo as her guest and she is not happy about the fact that her producer Mark just magically disappeared after telling D’Angelo he couldn’t be on the show. Lash surprises, everyone, by bringing out Mark the producer and D’Angelo is thrilled to see him and he talks about Mark’s life and how good he has it and wants Mark to say hi to his wife and kids, and when Mark hesitates D’Angelo raises his voice to intimidate him and he eventually does as D’Angelo wants. D’Angelo demands Mark to tell Lash everything is fine and he does just that before D’Angelo tells him to get lost. D’Angelo says his goal in NXT is to make money and hurt people in the process and then he runs down some of the names in NXT that he wants to slap around and says his niece is tougher than Tommaso Ciampa. D’Angelo is ready to wrap up the show but Lash reminds him this is her show but before she can say anymore D’Angelo slips her some money and tells her to buy herself something nice and then walks off and that is the end of this episode of Lashing Out with Lash Legend.
It’s time for the next match as Solo Sikoa will have his first match in NXT 2.0 against Jeet Rama.
Sikoa goes right at Rama with knees to the chest and then he hits him with a couple of forearms and a headbutt. Sikoa sends Rama back into the corner with a push kick and as he walks back out Sikoa drops him with a right hand. Rama tries to make a comeback but Sikoa reverses a whip into the corner and then follows up with the running hip attack. Sikoa nails Rama with a kick to the back of the head and then he hits the Uso splash off the top for the win.
We footage of Tian Sha where Boa starts to walk off to come to the ring for his match but he stops as he notices that Mei Ying isn’t following him and as he looks back Mei Ying shakes her head no and points for him to go ahead. Boa is set to face Grayson Waller and during the match, we will have LA Knight on commentary.
Waller sidesteps a kick from Boa right at the bell and then tries for some punches which are blocked by Boa who lands a kick to the leg of Waller, but Waller ducks a roundhouse and rolls Boa up in a schoolboy for a 2 count. Waller catches Boa in a backslide for a near fall and then takes him to the mat where he goes for a crucifix pin which also ends up unsuccessful. Waller is feeling cocky as he dodges some strikes from Boa and then lands a shot to the body, but Boa catches the leg of Waller and backs him into the corner, and spins him around in the ropes so he can deliver a kick to the back followed by a stomp to the chest.
Boa takes Waller to the mat and lands a kick to the back and once he pulls Waller back to his feet he nails him with a knee to the gut and then he grounds Waller with a straightjacket hold which Waller eventually fights out of as he slings Boa off. Waller catches Boa coming in with a back elbow and then he nails him with a jab and a clothesline and that is followed by the jumping side kick. Waller connects with a couple of knees to the face while he has Boa in a cravate and then drops him with a clothesline. Waller goes up to the middle rope but gets distracted by LA Knight and that allows Boa to kick the rope causing Waller to fall to the mat and then he hits Waller with a big roundhouse kick to pick up the win. We would later see Boa go back into the Tian Sha locker room where there is no Mei Ying and he kneels down and once he stands back up he turns to the camera and he is wearing face paint and blows mist into the camera.
This may have been Boa’s best showing and I guess they are writing Mei Ying off as Boa has taken over her gimmick with the paint and mist. I don’t think anyone needed to see this LA Knight vs Grayson Waller feud continue past Halloween Havoc, I’m not sure who is supposed to be the babyface in the feud as they both act very dickish.
We get a vignette of Briggs and Jensen talking about their upbringing while grilling out, but despite being friends it looks like they are at separate houses. Briggs tells a story about beating a guy senseless with a football helmet and how his dad didn’t care about him getting kicked off the football team he was just glad he didn’t look weak, I guess his dad comes from the Bill Watts school of toughness. I also noticed that Briggs had his hand near his crotch for the majority of this video which was very strange. I have to say that when it comes to this team I just want to see them in the ring beating the shit out of people and these vignettes are not needed for them as their gimmick is pretty simple to understand.
We get another video for Kay Lee Ray where she is still breaking stuff and then she tells us she will make her return next week and she will start to rage.
The NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa comes to the ring for a promo and he talks about how Halloween Havoc was a changing of the guard in NXT as there were all new champions crowned, but he was the only man to retain his title against Bron Breakker. Ciampa says that Breakker earned his respect last week but one thing remains the same and that is that he is the God of NXT. Ciampa says being NXT Champion comes with great responsibility and with a target on his back. Ciampa says this is usually the time someone comes out and sure enough Trick Williams and the NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes make their way out to the ring.
Hayes says that he feels like he needs to be the one to come out and put Ciampa in check and then says that NXT is no longer about guys like Ciampa as there is a new school and he is the leader of that new school. Hayes says that as long as he is in NXT and is the North American Champion Ciampa will take a backseat to him because he is the A champion in NXT. Ciampa says that he almost believed what Hayes was saying, but once he took his sunglasses off Ciampa looked him in the eyes and realized that Hayes doesn’t believe one word he is saying. Ciampa says that if Hayes wants to prove himself then go ahead and try but instead Williams speaks up and dismisses what Ciampa said and for that, he gets popped in the mouth. Ciampa and Hayes stare each other down but Hayes doesn’t even attempt to take a shot at Ciampa.
Ciampa makes his way up the aisle when the music of Johnny Gargano hits and this causes Ciampa to clutch his NXT Championship close to him as he knows if Gargano were to challenge him for that title he would be the biggest threat to him losing the title. Ciampa and Gargano stare each other down as the show goes to a commercial and when it comes back Gargano and Dexter Lumis are doing the no-look high five as it’s time for the main event where Gargano and Lumis will take on Hayes and Williams.
It looks like Williams and Lumis are going to start but after seeing that his showing off doesn’t phase Lumis we see Williams make a tag to Hayes. Hayes and Williams are strategizing in the corner when Lumis starts to crawl towards them which freaks them out and as Lumis crawls towards Hayes it allows Williams to attack Lumis from behind, but Lumis reverses a whip to the ropes and hits a Thesz press on Williams. Lumis grabs a wristlock and makes the tag to Gargano who comes off the middle rope with an ax handle to the arm of Williams and then Gargano tags Lumis back in expecting him to come off with an ax handle of his own, but instead, Lumis just hops down and hits Williams with an uppercut. Williams is able to get a desperate blow to the gut and then he leaps to make the tag to Hayes who comes in looking to hit a bicycle kick but Lumis catches the foot and walks back into the corner where he tags Gargano back into the match.
Hayes and Gargano talk some trash and after a couple of shoves by both men we get a rapid-fire succession of moves that are to quick to call, Hayes ducks the rolling kick by Gargano and tries for a kick from a kip-up only for Gargano to block it. Hayes walks over to the corner and backdrops a charging Gargano to the apron where Gargano hits the slingshot spear. Gargano tags in Lumis and they send Hayes into the ropes looking for a double hip toss, but think twice when they see Williams coming in as they flip Hayes back to his feet and then they hit both of their opponents with simultaneous hip tosses and that is followed by a dropkick which sends Hayes and Williams bailing out to the floor. Gargano and Lumis crawl around the ring freaking out Hayes and Williams at ringside and with that we go to a picture-in-picture commercial break.
Lumis goes out to the floor and stalks Hayes and Williams for a moment before hitting Hayes and throwing him back in the ring while Gargano takes care of Williams on the other side of the ring. Lumis is in full control as he slams Hayes and hits him with a grounded ax handle and then he sends Hayes into the boots of Gargano before tagging him into the match. Hayes reverses a whip into the ropes and Williams catches Gargano with a knee to the back which distracts him long enough for Hayes to run to the ropes and when Gargano turns around he is hit with the springboard clothesline. Hayes tags in Williams in the first of a series of quick tags as Hayes and Williams work over Gargano on their side of the ring for the rest of the commercial break.
As the commercial comes to an end Gargano backdrops a charging Hayes to the floor and then he sidesteps a charging Williams sending him into the corner and then he looks to make the tag to Lumis, but at the last second Hayes pulls Lumis off the apron. Gargano turns around and is met with a punching combination and a jumping clothesline from Williams. Williams tags in Hayes and they hit Gargano with a double shoulder block and then Williams assists Hayes in hitting the springboard leg drop for a 2 count. Hayes and Williams work over Gargano in the corner until he is able to break free and make the hot tag to Lumis who lights Hayes up with strikes and then hits the corner clothesline and bulldog into the center of the ring. Lumis hits Hayes with a back suplex and a leg drop and he follows that up with a slingshot suplex for a 2 count. Lumis tries for another back suplex but Hayes flips out of it and falls back into a tag to Williams who catches Lumis with a bicycle kick knocking him back into the corner where Gargano tags himself in.
Gargano ducks a couple of kicks from Williams and drops him with a superkick which leads to Williams tagging Hayes back in the match, Gargano catches a kick from Hayes and spins him around causing him to kick Williams in the gut and then Gargano makes the tag to Lumis. Gargano puts on the single black glove like Lumis has and they nail Hayes and Williams with uppercuts and superkicks. Lumis hits the top rope elbow drop but the pin is broken up by Hayes and then we get a tag on both sides as Gargano and Hayes are now the legal men in the match. Hayes and Gargano trade strikes until Hayes hits Gargano with a shot to the throat, but this only pisses Gargano off as he fires away with rapid-fire forearm shots and then he shoves Hayes into the ropes but Gargano ducks his head allowing Hayes to flip over him and then they both try landing kicks but they keep getting blocked until Hayes lands a kick to the gut. Gargano bounces off the ropes and turns Hayes inside out with a discus clothesline, Gargano tags Lumis back into the match and he hits Hayes with a side effect which he transitions into The Silencer but while the referee is dealing with Gargano we see Williams grab his shoe and smack Lumis in the back of the head. Gargano takes Williams out with a tope suicida and then Hayes goes up top and hits the diving leg drop which is enough to finally pick up the win.
I thought this was a good match and given the exchanges we saw between Gargano and Hayes I look forward to their one-on-one match against each other as it has instant classic written all over it. I find it funny how over the past few weeks we have seen Dexter Lumis with his father-in-law Johnny Gargano more than his wife Indi Hartwell who seems to be more preoccupied with Persia Pirotta.
I thought the stuff involving the women on this show was very well done as was the main event, but everything else on this show felt like a whole lotta meh and the segment with Xyon Quinn and Robert Stone was just terrible.
NXT UK
NXT UK Results
- Rampage Brown def Flash Morgan Webster – **¾
- Angel Hayze def Isla Dawn via DQ – DUD
- Meiko Satomura w/ Emilia McKenzie © def Jinny w/ Joseph Conners (NXT UK Women’s Championship) – ***½
We open the show with a video hyping up the Meiko Satomura vs Jinny match for the NXT UK Women’s Championship which will be the main event of this week’s show.
We kick off the action for this week with Rampage Brown taking on Flash Morgan Webster who tried to slap Brown last week in order to get a match with him, but Brown was able to stop him before the slap happened and threw Webster up against a wall and told him all he had to do was ask.
Brown shows his power early on as he throws Webster around the ring until Webster decides to bail out to the floor to regroup. Webster gets back in the ring and piefaces Brown which wasn’t smart as Brown grabs him by the throat and throws him into the corner, but Webster ducks a charging Brown and fires away with strikes in the corner. Webster looks to whip Brown into the corner, but Brown blocks and sends Webster back into the corner only to be hit with a kick to the head and then he catches Brown with an enziguri that sends him stumbling out to the floor. Brown gets back in the ring where Webster tries for a headlock, Brown attempts a back suplex only for Webster to land on his feet and try for an O’Connor roll but Brown grabs the ropes to block it and moments later Brown catches Webster with a powerslam while Webster was in mid-air during a leapfrog. Brown then charges at Webster and hits him with a hellacious shoulder block sending him flying back into the corner.
Brown throws Webster across the ring with a suplex toss and that is followed by a press slam. Webster tries to roll out to the apron but Brown drags him back into the center of the ring and hits a nasty looking Saito suplex and at this point, it doesn’t seem like Webster has a chance, but as Brown goes for the Doctor Bomb Webster counters into a guillotine choke. Brown drives Webster into the corner to break the hold and then charges at Webster but ends up colliding into the corner when Webster flips over him. Webster hits a tilt-a-whirl facebuster, a headbutt, and a running dropkick in the corner. Webster tries for a double underhook but gets backdropped to the apron where he catches Brown with a kick to the head and then Webster comes off the top with a diving hurricanrana sending Brown rolling out to the floor.
Webster goes for a tope through the bottom rope but gets caught and Brown looks to drive Webster into the ring post, but he slides out the back and shoves Brown into the ring post and then Webster hits a tope into a tornado DDT on the floor. Webster gets back in the ring and looks for a count-out but Brown gets back in the ring in time. Webster goes up top and hits Shadows Over Malice for a 2 count and then he connects with a bicycle knee strike which takes Brown down to his knees. Webster lands some elbows to the back of the neck and then delivers a slap to the face but when he runs to the ropes he is met with a big clothesline from Brown. Brown hits a Doctor Bomb to pick up the win.
This was a fun match as Rampage Brown beating the crap out of people is always fun to watch and it’s even more fun when the person he beats up deserves it as that punk Flash Morgan Webster did.
We get a recap of Noam Dar winning the NXT UK Heritage Cup Championship thanks to Pretty Deadly causing Trent Seven to accidentally throw the towel in. We go to an interview with Tyler Bate from earlier in the day but before Bate can say anything Trent Seven runs up and continues to tell Bate how sorry he is for what happened. Bate forgives Seven and they hug and then Seven tells Bate he talked to Johnny Saint and Saint has added them to the NXT UK Tag Team Championship #1 Contender match for next week making it a four-way match. Bate tells Seven he is cool with this but it’s obvious that he still hasn’t mentally recovered from his loss last week. I like this slow story they are telling with Moustache Mountain where Seven makes sure to always have them involved in the tag division as that is the only way he has a chance at gold in NXT UK.
We go into the office of Sid Scala where Xia Brookside shows up and she wants to face the winner of Meiko vs Jinny, but Scala tells her that her recent record of matches isn’t good enough to be a challenger for the title and that there are many women ahead of her in line. Xia starts whining and then she calls her father Robbie Brookside complaining about not getting her way. Oh boy, a nepotism story this should be a lot of fun to watch.
Our next match of the night sees newcomer Angel Hayze taking on the awkwardly spooky Isla Dawn.
Isla backs Angel into the ropes until she is shoved away and then Isla passes Angel into the ropes and hits her with a kick to the chest. Isla sends Angel into the ropes and ducks her head which allows Angel to go for a sunset flip, but when Isla tries to punch Angel she moves out of the way causing Isla to punch the mat. Isla reverses a whip into the corner and charges in but Angel dodges and then rolls Isla up with a schoolgirl for a 2 count. Angel goes for a running crossbody but Isla catches her and hits a front slam followed by a fallaway slam. Isla works over Angel in the corner and then hits a snap Saito suplex. Isla gets Angel down and puts her knee in Angel’s back and starts pulling her hair which she doesn’t release before the count of five and that is enough for the referee to call for the bell giving Angel the win by DQ.
After the match, Isla hits Angel with a swinging side slam which Angel no-sells as she immediately crawls over to the ropes.
This was not good at all as the match was not great, the finish came out of nowhere and makes me wonder if that was the planned finish, and then Angel can’t even sell the post-match attack. I haven’t been a fan of Isla Dawn or what they are trying to do with her and needless to say this match did nothing to change my opinion of her.
We get a video of all the media appearances A-Kid has made in Spain and then we see Sam Gradwell watching the video and he isn’t happy about A-Kid getting all of this attention and he wants all the attention put on him.
We see Subculture backstage and both Mark Andrews and Dani Luna are worried that Webster is getting in over his head but he liked what happened during the match and he is going to go to the next level. Stevie Turner walks up and talks about the only person that is next level is her because she is four-dimensional which means she is always two levels above and two steps ahead and of course Dani Luna takes exception to this and with that, we likely have our women’s match for next week.
The NXT UK Champion Ilja Dragunov comes out to the ring and talks about how happy he is to be the NXT UK Champion and how he can’t find the words to describe how it felt to be knocked down to the level he was after getting beat by Walter and to then come back and beat him when everyone thought it was impossible. Dragunov is happy to be the champion of the people and the face of NXT UK and he wants to take the brand to the next level and in order to do that he needs next level competition and that is exactly what A-Kid was and that leads to him putting A-Kid over before finishing things up by saying long live the Czar.
Rampage Brown comes out and says that he and Dragunov have unfinished business and Dragunov says that Brown isn’t the first giant to try and take him down and won’t be the last, but he respects Brown and a match against them sounds like a great idea. Dragunov extends his hand for a handshake and Brown shakes it but then he pulls Dragunov in for a clothesline. Brown says he doesn’t need Dragunov’s respect he just needs his title and then he raises the NXT UK Championship high in the air.
I thought this was a good segment to set up Dragunov’s next title match and I look forward to this collision as he and Brown are going to put on a banger of a match.
Meiko and Emilia are walking toward the curtain when they run into Jinny and Joseph Conners chatting and as they pass by Jinny tells Meiko to enjoy her last night as the final boss. Blair Davenport walks up and wishes them both good luck but she doesn’t care who wins because she is back and is putting them both on notice and then tells them to have fun before walking off. I am definitely down for a Meiko vs Blair match.
It’s dinner time once again at the Teoman household as he and Rohan Raja talk about their feud with Gallus, Rohan Raja says people are calling it family vs family, but I doubt anyone cares about this feud enough to call it anything. Raja is worried about Joe Coffey but Teoman calms him down saying there is nothing to worry about because the eye sees everything.
We go to the catering area of the NXT UK PC and he is watching Mark Andrews matches and then Subculture walks in and Frazer is a bit starstruck and then he tells Andrews he is scouting because he wants to test himself against Andrews. Andrews says whenever Frazer is ready he is up for it and it looks like that match is going to happen soon, as Frazer runs off to find Johnny Saint as soon as Subculture walks away.
In a matter of minutes, NXT UK has set up three future matches (Dragunov vs Brown, Blair vs Meiko, & Andrews vs Frazer) that have the potential to be all-time great matches and they definitely have piqued my interest.
It’s time for the main event as “The Final Boss” Meiko Satomura defends her NXT UK Women’s Championship against “The Fashionista” Jinny with Emilia McKenzie and Joseph Conners in their respective corners.
We get a couple of lockups with both women trying to gain control but in the end, Meiko lands some kicks to the leg and then grabs the arm to ground Jinny with a hammerlock. Jinny gets back to her feet and reverses the hold into a wristlock and starts trying to hyperextend the arm but Meiko makes a comeback with a wristlock and then she hits a flipping arm wringer driving Jinny’s arm into the mat. Meiko looks to continue the work on Jinny’s arm but thanks to a handful of hair Jinny gets back in control as she grounds Meiko with a kneeling armbar and then she follows up with an armbreaker and then Jinny pays her back from earlier with an arm wringer of her own. Jinny grabs a front facelock until Meiko drives her into the corner forcing a break and then Meiko nails another kick to the leg before taking Jinny back to the mat with a headlock takeover which Jinny escapes from with a headscissors, but Meiko escapes that and pins Jinny’s legs to the mat. Meiko and Jinny exchange strikes until Jinny is able to roll Meiko off of her and go for a pin which doesn’t even come close to ending the match.
Jinny wraps Meiko’s arm up in the ropes and hits her with a couple of knees to the gut and then she makes the dumb move of slapping Meiko as that only fired Meiko up as she came back with forearms and kicks until Jinny catches one of the kicks and hits Meiko with a dragon screw. Jinny makes the mistake of pulling Meiko back up as she gets dropped with a forearm by Meiko, but Jinny uses her brain and kicks Meiko in the leg while she is still on her back and as she gets to her feet Jinny hits Meiko with a short-arm clothesline for a 2 count. Jinny tries to lock in a half crab but Meiko blocks and kicks Jinny away and then she grabs a wristlock which allows Meiko to hit a kick to the chest and then she sweeps the leg of Jinny taking her back down to the mat and then she hits her with a double knee drop for a 2 count.
Meiko goes back to the headlock but Jinny ducks down and pushes Meiko into the turnbuckle in order to break the hold and then she sends Meiko into the corner but when she charges in Meiko connects with a boot to the face and then looks for a springboard, but Jinny catches with a forearm out of mid-air for a 2 count. Jinny goes back to the leg she had worked over earlier and this time she is able to lock in the half crab only for Meiko to turn her body and kick Jinny in the face in order to escape the hold. Jinny gives Meiko a taste of her own medicine as she hits her with several kicks to the leg, but once again she makes the mistake of slapping Meiko in the face which fires Meiko up as he comes back with a flurry of strikes and when Jinny sends her into the ropes she comes back with a spinning wheel kick. Meiko limps around the ring before giving Jinny a series of kicks to the chest followed by the cartwheel knee drop for a very close 2 count.
Meiko looks to go up top but Jinny kicks her in the leg trapping her in the ropes so that she can hit the Facelift out of the corner for a 2 count. Jinny drags Meiko back into the center of the ring where she once again locks in the half crab and this time Meiko has to crawl to the ropes in order to break the hold. Jinny picks up Meiko and looks to hit the Touch of Couture but Meiko dodges the kick and hits Jinny with a kick to the back and to the chest. Meiko goes up top and hits the frog splash for a very close 2 count and then Meiko locks in an STF only for Jinny to crawl to the ropes moments later. Meiko looks to set up the Scorpion Kick, but Joseph Conners gets on the apron but he is quickly dealt with as Emilia hits him with a damn Stunner on the apron like the badass she is.
Jinny hits Meiko with a kick to the leg and then she successfully connects with the Touch of Couture, but that still isn’t enough to keep “The Final Boss” down as she kicks out once again. Jinny looks for another Touch of Couture, but Meiko elbows out of it and hits Jinny with an overhead kick followed by a DVD for a 2 count. Meiko hits the Scorpion Kick and after a second DVD, she finally puts Jinny down for the 3 count to retain her NXT UK Women’s Championship.
This was a really good match but once they did the interaction with Blair Davenport the outcome of the match became pretty predictable, they probably should’ve had Blair come out after the match and attack Emilia as that would’ve been a better way to set up the match and would’ve made the match itself feel more unpredictable. I will say that even though the finish was predictable they did a good job of keeping Jinny strong as it took a frog splash, a scorpion kick, and two DVDs to put her away, so she still looks credible even with losing the match.
I thought this was a pretty good episode of NXT UK as both the opener and the main event matches were really good and although the Isla Dawn vs Angel Hayze match was a complete disaster it wasn’t long enough to really affect the overall show. I also think they did a good job of building up the upcoming weeks of NXT UK as they have three big matches that they set up during this episode with Brown vs Dragunov, Blair vs Meiko, and Andrews vs Frazer so the future of NXT UK is looking pretty bright right now.
SmackDown
SmackDown Results
- Shayna Baszler def Naomi – **¼
- Los Lotharios def Cesaro & Mansoor – **¾
- Drew McIntyre def Ricochet – **¾
- The Viking Raiders def Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss via Count Out – **
- King Xavier Woods w/ Sir Kofi Kingston – **¾
We open the show with The Bloodline making their way to the ring and then Reigns gets on the mic where he talks about how he missed last week’s show because he was taking a vacation to celebrate his win over Brock Lesnar and then he talks about how he was running around an island naked. Reigns says that while he had a great week the same can’t be said for Lesnar as he got fined and suspended indefinitely. Reigns moves on to talking about how he was gone one week and the show sucked to the point where it was almost as bad as Raw, Reigns then turns his attention towards Paul Heyman as he wants Heyman to tell him what went wrong last week and after some hesitation, Heyman admits that The Usos lost to The New Day, Reigns gives New Day their props but says that they are not better than The Bloodline. Reigns is confused about how the greatest tag team of their generation lost to The New Day and then wants to know who took the pin in the match and they point at each other at first but eventually, Jimmy admits it was him and Reigns wants to know how Jimmy is going to fix this and then he passes him the mic. Jimmy says he is going to knock the crown off King Xavier’s head and make him acknowledge who the Tribal Chief is.
The New Day comes out and after having some fun at the expense of Reigns we get King Woods laying down a challenge where if Jimmy Uso beats him he will kneel to Reigns but if he wins then Jimmy Uso will have to kneel to him. The Usos don’t like this proposition as they say The Bloodline bows to nobody but Reigns tells King Woods he accepts the challenge which promptly shuts up The Usos.
I really liked this opening segment as I thought it was fun and I had a smile on my face once New Day come out and was busting the balls of The Bloodline. It is refreshing to have a babyface King of the Ring after all of these years as King Woods makes the role of king fun. I thought Heyman was hilarious in this segment when he freaked out after Reigns reached out his hand and Jimmy didn’t immediately hand him the mic and he is screaming at Jimmy to hand Reigns the mic. While I get that the ultimate disrespect is to have someone kneel to you I would’ve much rather had it where if King Woods won he would get a title shot against Roman Reigns as becoming Universal Champion should be the ultimate goal for everyone on the roster, so when you have the chance to put yourself in position to challenge for the title you do it.
We get a recap of the Naomi vs Shayna Baszler match from last week when Sonya Deville was the special referee and that leads to a rematch between Naomi and Shayna tonight. Before the match, Sonya is interviewed in the Gorilla position and she is still denying that she has a problem with Naomi. Sonya goes even further as she credits herself for lighting a fire under Naomi as we have never seen before and if Naomi can beat Shayna then maybe one day she’ll face her in the ring, Sonya emphasizes maybe and then gives a wink.
Sonya and Shayna have a pretty good match and it looked like Naomi had picked up the win at one point, but Sonya Deville comes out and comes up with some crazy reason to restart the match as she said that when Shayna had Naomi in the Kirifuda Clutch Naomi got to the ropes and thus the hold should’ve been broken, but because that didn’t happen everything that happened after that doesn’t count. Sonya restarts the match and immediately Shayna locks the Kirifuda Clutch back in and picks up the win. I have to wonder how long we are going to see stuff like this before we actually get our Sonya vs Naomi match because this kind of stuff is going to get old real quick as we don’t want to see Naomi continue to lose week after week due to shenanigans, especially when she never gets a chance to fight back as she is laid out by Shayna every week.
We go to the back where Reigns is still upset about how last week’s SmackDown went down without him there and then says that last week’s show was almost as bad as Raw and this gets some snickers from The Usos, but Reigns gets in their face as he wasn’t trying to be funny and he then reminds them that their job is to win.
We get a vignette for Xia Li as she will be debuting on SmackDown soon.
Ridge Holland is interviewed in the back and he talks about how he is excited to be on the same show as Sheamus as he looks to him as a hero and him and his friends used to watch Sheamus at the pub they went to and went crazy when he beat John Cena for the WWE Championship. Holland says he has learned a thing or two from watching Sheamus all of these years and that is terrible news for the rest of the locker room. Yes! Yes! Yes! I will happily open my mouth and be fed anything having to do with Ridge Holland and Sheamus whether it is as a team or even better as opponents as those matches would be sure-fire slobber knockers.
We then got to an interview with Shotzi who has had enough as she has lost title opportunities, a tag partner, and the support of the WWE Universe, and when Sasha cost her the biggest match of her career she realized that its time to stop smiling and pretending everything is okay and she lets it be known that Sasha is now her target. Shotzi says she is going to run over anyone who gets in her way and she doesn’t need a tank to do it. While this promo was good I am going to have to get used to heel Shotzi as she is just so loveable and charismatic that I don’t want to boo her (the same way I feel about Becky Lynch) and if this means the end of the tank that will be a bummer as well as that was one of many things that made her stand out from the rest of the women on the roster.
We get a tag match that sees Los Lotharios (Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo) beat the makeshift team of Mansoor and Cesaro and it looks like WWE is high on this new team of Garza and Carrillo which is nice as its always nice to have new teams in the tag division that don’t feel like complete jobbers which is exactly what these two were before they started teaming together.
Jeff Hardy is backstage finishing up a chat with Aliyah when he is set to be interviewed and he immediately declines the interview as he sees that Aliyah has run into Sami Zayn and he wants to make sure Zayn doesn’t fill her head with nonsense which is exactly what he is doing. Zayn talks about how appearance is everything as you want to show people you mean business and that is why she should try wearing a pants suit and then he walks off. Aliyah asks if he is always like that and Hardy tells her that is he is and then welcomes her to SmackDown.
It’s time for the Drew McIntyre open challenge and this week it is answered by Ricochet who actually gets to cut a promo as he tells McIntyre that he is playing with fire making these open challenges every week because one day someone will beat him. Ricochet says nothing will stop him from slapping McIntyre in the mouth and he does just that, which was not a smart idea.
The match starts and Ricochet turns into McIntyre’s rag doll as he throws him all over the ring and Ricochet takes a couple of crazy bumps off those throws including a back suplex onto the apron where Ricochet almost lands on his head. Ricochet eventually makes a comeback and gets in some offense, but in the end, Ricochet goes for a moonsault and is blasted out of mid-air with a Claymore to give McIntyre the win. This match didn’t last that long but it was a lot of fun while it lasted and I would love to see them face each other again with more time.
Later on, we see Ricochet in the locker room and he is approached by Mustafa Ali who wants to team with him as he says they are a lot alike, but Ricochet turns him down which pisses off Ali and this gives Ricochet the chance to call Ali on his shit. Ricochet says that Ali is too quick to point fingers at everyone else instead of looking in the mirror and says that he treated Mansoor like dirt and Ali is just an overall jerk.
King Woods and Sir Kingston are interviewed backstage and after making jokes about Reigns once again King Woods says that he hopes Jimmy is stretching because he would hate to see him pull a muscle when he bends the knee.
It’s time for Happy Talk with Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss and their guests for this week is The Viking Raiders who they mock for not looking happy, but Erik assures them they did not come out there to be a guest on Happy Talk or to be happy as Corbin and Moss make them miserable. Ivar says they came to raid which leads to terrible jokes by Moss and eventually The Viking Raiders get enough of their crap and start throwing around the furniture which leads to Corbin and Moss bailing from the ring.
We get a match between The Viking Raiders and the team of Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss where Viking Raiders get the best of the happy duo to the point where it gets too much for them and they walk out of the match giving The Viking Raiders the win by count-out. It was nice to see The Viking Raiders back on TV as it feels like we haven’t seen them in forever
We go to the back where Sami Zayn runs into Hit Row which doesn’t feel the same without B-Fab, Zayn tells them that sometimes as the leader of the locker room he has to tell people things they don’t want to hear and he then tells Hit Row their entrance sucks. Zayn says they could be huge stars but they need to work on their entrance first. Top Dolla wants Zayn to show them what a good entrance is and he agrees to do it. Zayn comes out and does a lot of terrible dancing and then falls to the floor where he says that is how you make an entrance and then says it all has to do with having presence and being in the moment and with the right leadership Hit Row can possess those same qualities.
Hit Row comes out and humors Zayn for a minute before they finally start giving him shit as Swerve tells Zayn he wouldn’t even let him run his bathwater. Top Dolla then says Zayn sucks which gets a chant from the crowd. Zayn looks to leave but Hit Row starts to corner him but they eventually let him pass by as they were just trying to scare him. Hit Row pose as the segment comes to an end. This was a fun little segment to get Hit Row on the show and to make Zayn look like the overconfident fool that he is.
We go to the locker room of The Bloodline one last time before the main event and Jimmy Uso wants to know if Reigns is coming out to the ring with them and Reigns asks him how many of their problems does he need to fix and Uso leaves the locker room bummed out that Reigns is upset with him.
It’s time for the main event where King Xavier Woods takes on Jimmy Uso where if Jimmy wins King Woods will bend the knee to Roman Reigns, but if King Woods wins then Jimmy Uso will bend the knee to him. King Woods and Jimmy Uso have a good match as expected as New Day and The Usos always create greatness when they are in the ring together whether it be in a tag match or in this case one-on-one. The finish sees the referee catching The Usos trying to cheat and as they are being admonished by the referee, King Woods rolls Uso up in a schoolboy to pick up the win.
After the match, King Woods orders Jimmy Uso to kneel to him and after some hesitation, Uso looks like he is going to follow through with the stipulations of the match, but at the last second Roman Reigns hits a Superman Punch out of nowhere on King Woods and then The Bloodline put the boots to New Day. The Usos hit King Woods with a superkick and then Reigns lays Sir Kingston out with a Spear. Reigns holds King Woods and makes him watch as The Usos hit Sir Kingston with a Tequila Sunrise and top rope Splash combo to the injured knee of Sir Kingston. The show goes off the air with The Bloodline standing tall and Reigns holding the Univeral Championship high in the air.
I like how they are using Woods and Kingston to eventually set up the Big E vs Reigns match at Survivor Series by attacking his New Day brothers and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Big E show up next week to confront Reigns seeing as there will only be two episodes of SmackDown until Survivor Series and while there hasn’t been a heavy build to the show like in previous years I expect they want some hype for the main event match between the WWE Champion and the Universal Champion.
I thought this was another pretty strong night of main roster action as outside of the mess with Naomi vs Shayna all of the matches were pretty good especially the McIntyre vs Ricochet match as well as the main event between Jimmy Uso and King Woods. Although this was a good episode of SmackDown there is still one giant complaint I have and that is that unfortunately, yet another week goes by without a Toni Storm sighting. Given that nobody is safe from these releases I wouldn’t be surprised to see her name come up because this fucking company fires people without even giving them a chance to get over with the fans and for some reason, they don’t want Toni’s star power to be showcased on their show which is a gigantic mistake, if they gave her the opportunity they would see that she could be just as reliable as the Horsewomen and Bianca Belair to have really good matches on a consistent basis but this company is so ass-backward that they can’t even realize they have a megastar in the making even when its standing right in front of them.
In the news
The biggest story of the week is the recent round of releases by WWE and just like in the months before quite a few big names were cut from the company. While “budget cuts” was the reason given for most of the releases a few of the releases were due to that person not warning to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Here is the list of releases:
Karrion Kross & Scarlett
Keith Lee & Mia Yim
Nia Jax
Ember Moon
Eva Marie
Franky Monet
Oney Lorcan
Jessi Kamea
Lince Dorado
Gran Metalik
Trey Baxter
Zayda Ramier
Katrina Cortez
Jeet Rama
Harry Smith
There are so many talented names on this list and it’s a shame that a company that is as big as WWE and makes the billions of dollars that they do are cutting talent left and right. What makes these cuts worse is a lot of these names were victims of terrible booking and creativity (Karrion Kross, Keith Lee, Mia Yim, Ember Moon, & Lucha House Party) while others were never even given a chance to succeed (Franky Monet, Trey Baxter, Zayda Ramier, Katrina Cortez, & Jeet Rama) as they were only used a handful of times as jobbers who never got the chance to get over with the fans or in the case of Harry Smith had only had one dark match.
While I feel most of these talents will find success in the business outside of WWE there are a couple of names such as Nia Jax and Eva Marie who I don’t see continuing their careers in wrestling as Eva looks to be headed towards Hollywood (or if I’m lucky Onlyfans).
Nia has gained such a reputation as an unsafe worker that I have serious doubts that another company would want to take a chance on her, plus she is one of the people who are being highlighted as being an anti-vaxxer so that even furthers her situation whether it’s true or not.
It looks like the talent within WWE weren’t the only ones on the chopping block this week as WWE fired more of its staff including 15-year veteran Stan Stanski. A source told PW Insider that Stanski’s release proves once again that nobody is safe and this is not the same company it was a year ago. This departure is one of many exchanges of power within the corporate side of WWE as the corporate staff is apparently just as dispensable to Vince and Nick Khan as the talent is. Here is a list of the recent releases from the corporate side of WWE
On the same day as the releases, WWE had their Q3 earnings call which you can read the highlights of here.
WWE has several talents whose contracts are coming up very soon as both Johnny Gargano and Kyle O’Reilly have their contracts coming up in December and given the current state of WWE it will be interesting to see if they decide to resign or if WWE even gives them an offer to resign as it seems like they are intent on depleting the roster to as small as they possibly can. It should be noted that Gargano vs O’Reilly was the dark match for this week’s SmackDown as it is likely those in charge wanted to see how they connect with the main roster crowd before they decide if they want to resign them or give them the boot out the door as well.
The angle on this week’s NXT where Toxic Attraction beat down Zoey Stark was done as a way to write Zoey off TV for a while as she is currently dealing with a legit knee injury which she will be having surgery on fairly soon.
Fightful Select reports that talent down in NXT has been learning about the production side of the company because now that NXT is no longer at Full Sail the production has been brought in-house. It is also being reported that the NXT production crews have been getting tips from the production crews on Raw and SmackDown.
A big congratulations go out to WWE announcers Vic Joseph and McKenzie Mitchell who recently got engaged.
Coming up this Week
Raw:
- Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins
NXT 2.0:
- Toxic Attraction vs Io Shirai, Kacy Catanzaro, & Kayden Carter
- The Creed Brothers vs Jacket Time (Kushida & Ikeman Jiro)
- Kay Lee Ray in action
NXT UK
- Moustache Mountain vs Symbiosis vs Jack Starz & Dave Mastiff vs Ashton Smith & Oliver Carter (NXT UK Tag Team Championship #1 Contender Match)
SmackDown:
