This was a good B-PPV. It didn’t feel super consequential, even with Nakamura debuting and Jinder freakin’ Mahal becoming WWE Champion, but in-ring almost everything completely delivered. Lots of good wrestling here.
Shinsuke Nakamura is known as The Artist, so the video package for him and Dolph Ziggler had him painting on an easel. Just thought I’d document that for future laughs.
Kickoff had the usual banter. Nothing makes WWE writing feel worse than poor Renee Young and Friends having to stretch discussion of the stories out for 10 minutes.
Liked Erick Rowan causing such eerie silence on the panel that you could hear someone cough in the audience. Booker was hilarious here: “You’re lookin’ real jacked, baby. You’re lookin’ real jacked.” They should’ve had Rowan break Peter Rosenberg’s hand or something – tell a story.
0. Tye Dillinger vs. Aiden English
This was an ideal opener and really fun, just classic over-the-top heel vs. babyface stuff – Aiden’s aggressive, Tye outdoes him, Aiden takes over, Tye wins. Aiden with the Lennon glasses looks like a star and the singing got HEAT. Liked the start with Aiden bowing to BOOOOO’s and Tye ten-ing to YAAAAY’s, as well as Aiden’s head shake as Tye fought out of a mid-match chinlock. SmackDown has a couple of great undercard characters and that’s great – art will be to keep them interesting so other fellas can get over on them. ***
1. Shinsuke Nakamura (debut) vs. Dolph Ziggler
The absolute HYPE for the Nakamura debut! That CROWD! This was good… Nakamura in WWE has gone from epic match (Zayn) to fun squashes (Blake, Murphy) to slow garbage (Joe, Roode). This was just a reliably good wrestling match. A lot of it just felt credible, thanks to Nakamura’s strikes and fire and Ziggler’s wrestling. All the shots were SNUG! Liked Ziggler being all cautious early – how do I out-wrestle this guy? Then Nak teased a kick and pie-faced him, which ended the cautiousness and led to Nak briefly fucking Ziggler up. Solid if not slightly uninteresting control by Ziggler, and the finish got reaaallll hot. Ziggler’s superkick to the back of Nakamura’s head and loogie to the front of Nakamura’s face were both highlights. What a Kinshasa to cap it off too … really needed Graves calling, but Tom did alright. Did Shinskay ask production if they cut the camera afterwards? HA! ***1/2
2. SmackDown Tag Team Title: The Usos [c] vs. Breezango
And now for something completely different. Fandango working like he’s a member of The Fantastics, Breezy shtick with a mop and OLD LADY COSTUME, The Usos getting HUGE heat for breaking his mop and kicking his cain. And then they actually got a crazy hot finish out of the whole thing too – Breeze got an incredible near fall off an Unprettier, and Tyler getting LAUNCHED over the barricade and Fandango’s big dive were awesome. They worked a Southern tag around comedy spots… great variety for a wrestling card and a really good time. ***
3. Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin
Chanting for Baron Corbin is so contrarian. Like, who LIKES Baron Corbin!? This was a really well-worked match that hit all the right notes for each guys’ character. Classic big guy vs. small guy stuff early, with Zayn hitting his signatures to create some openings and Corbin going after his back. Zayn did a great sell job of said back (him holding it as he ran the ropes… MWAH), while Corbin kept his end of the deal by being all aggressive and nailing every spot. These two worked a compelling bearhug in 2017, for gods sake. ***1/2
The Jinder Mahal mid-match promo was solid stuff, and Samir Singh last-minute grabbing a piece of lint off the persian rug as they rolled it out was a nice touch.
Hanger-on sleazeball James Ellsworth is a good act.
4. Naomi, Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch vs. The Welcoming Committee (Natalya, Carmella & Tamina) w/ James Ellsworth
This was OK, a match that needed to happen to continue an angle, but also a match that relied on The Welcoming Committee who just isn’t very good. Tamina is just a shit wrestler, I’m sorry. Match was a couple pretty uninspired beatdowns. Natalya’s “NO NO NO” as Becky setup the Exploder was a highlight. Otherwise… eh. Also, Becky Lynch’s hair was really unsettling. **
5. WWE U.S. Title: Kevin Owens [c] vs. AJ Styles
How many different ways can I say, “how many different ways can I say AJ styles is spectacular?” Every match is a treat, and big bully KO complements his flying/bumping style well. He’s also such a megastar in Chicago. They did some crazy stuff here (KO taking a god damn suplex on the apron especially), but honestly it kind of felt to me like the match the modern day smark mark wants to see, which his fine and all but not exactly something that GETS me. There’s This is Awesome and Holy Shit but not all of it captivating. AJ showed off his hops, KO took over and slowed it down, AJ came back, KO picked up the pace and took over again with some LEG WORK! I liked how dangerous and at the same time safe Styles’ springboard bump was. It was good! Strong! Really fun! Finish was unique!!! But they’ve had a better match before (RAW 3/21/16) and I think they’ll have a better one in the future. ***1/2
BYRON SAXTON DID NOT KNOW WHO PETER ROSENBERG WAS.
6. Luke Harper vs. Erick Rowan
Fun little match with a bunch of good big guy stuff… hard shots, big bumps, a missed top rope splash, a tope, a rana. Just something about seeing these two big fellas dressed like union members going at it. Finish came together really well too. **3/4
7. WWE Title: Randy Orton [c] vs. Jinder Mahal w/ The Singh Brothers
There is something to Big Fight Feel WWE when the good guy and bad guy are both super over, but it’s so awesome when you get true heel vs. true face. Jinder got DUELING CHANTS at one point, but mostly got straight-up BOOOOOOOS. HEAT!!! Though, that one guy in the blue clapping for and posing with Jinder as he entered the ring was pretty great. Anyways, this had a great start, lost me a bit in the middle, and then a great finish. Randy going right at Jinder before the bell was pretty great – he was kicking ass like he was ever-so-briefly Stone Cold Steve Austin. Crowd was going buck with RANDY! RANDY! RANDY! chants, they did an RKO tease, Jinder escaped, and BOOOOOOO!!!! Then they slowed it down, because that’s what you do – though a table spot was peppered in, because that’s what WWE main eventers do. Middle wasn’t so interesting, but for a guy whose been working nothing but 5-minute Main Event nothing matches for most of his career, I was genuinely impressed with how much Jinder looked like he belonged here. The Singh interference and Randy just RAGDOLLING both on the announce tables was incredible. The crowd was buzzing, the Singhs were fun, start and finish were fire, and the post-match reactions were hysterical. Totally effective new heel vs. old favorite type of match.
***1/4
Peter fookin’ Rosenberg hosting Talking Smack? How much more can something de-volve? Liked how they had everyone comment on Jinder winning the title here. KO did some decent stuff – not allowing Rosenberg to speak to him, and this line on Tom and Byron: “I can’t tell which one is which when they talk … unless I’m looking at them” – NICE.
They did something really fucking crazy! Good for them! I don’t know if it’ll work, but the Indian folk deserve a hero and I’m sure glad they’re trying. This was a fun show. Nothing 100% must-see, but top-to-bottom really solid with a lot of good wrestling. 7/10
