Not a great day at the office for the red brand. Started hot, lost me in the middle, closed well enough. Less a bad show than a boring one.
Kickoff Show was a bunch of bullshit and a trash Nia Jax promo. You are the biggest wrestling company in the world why are David Otunga and Sam Roberts 2/3 of your hour-long pre-show broadcast team?
Booker T upon hearing David Otunga’s name = nice.
Baltimore was HOT! Added a lot to an otherwise cold show.
0. Kalisto vs. Apollo Crews w/ Titus O’Neil
This was both a very fun wrestling match and an all-time great managerial performance. Titus O’Neil – jumping around, shouting shit, all sweaty and engaged – was incredible. He was channeling his inner Paul Heyman with Brock Lesnar at Hell in a Cell. I want to see him as Don King to Dave Batista’s Mike Tyson. Meanwhile, Kalisto and Apollo Crews CRUSHED IT. I like both of these guys, I just wish they mattered. Giving them 10 minutes to kill it might just help them matter. Kalisto’s second rope springboard plancha and tilt-a-whirl DDT, Crews’ Samoan drop and moonsault catch. Crazy fun match that wildly exceeded expectations. Apollo’s best outing in WWE yet. And Titus! ***1/2
1. If Ambrose is DQ’d, He Loses The Title – WWE Intercontinental Title: Dean Ambrose [c] vs. The Miz w/ Maryse
This was a good match, it was also a long match. Had a way about getting a little boring early but they had some STUFF planned for the end. A quality way of handling 20 minutes, to be honest. Dean is wrestling like a man in pain right now and that adds both good and bad things to his matches. Outside of the last 5 minutes I was most impressed by John Cone – that man was on TOP OF HIS SHIT. Ready to call DQ’s, right there for subs, just no-selling getting wrecked by Ambrose because he had A MATCH TO CALL. Finish was GREAT… all the DQ teases were awesome and played with the stip well, and the crowd was rolling with everything. Not sure why it took Maryse so long to slap Miz, but still, this got DRAMATIC. Miz’ sell on the figure-four and delivery of the Knee+ were great too. ***1/2
2. Rich Swann & Sasha Banks vs. Noam Dar & Alicia Fox
Swann did some wild shit here and there – reverse flying headscissors, that nutty spin kick. Sasha and Alicia can brawl. Crowd was hot for Swann. Eh. Decent as a match to pad out an undercard, but on a show where the big stuff didn’t fully deliver it stood out as extra weak. **
The Drifter song was very good. Spotlight, delivery, that long pause for boos. Very good.
3. Kendo Stick on a Pole Match – RAW Women’s Title: Alexa Bliss [c] vs. Bayley
Oh my god this was a SQUASH. Alexa out-smarted Bayley a bunch, Bayley couldn’t capitalize on hitting her finish, and Alexa beat her with a stick and hit the DDT. Just a weird match; felt like they were going to follow-this up by putting Bayley in a dumpster marked NXT. Love Bayley, she hasn’t been the best with all her mic spots since the call-up but MAN has the treatment of her been extra depressing. There’s building somebody as an underdog and then there is just making them look like complete shit. **
I was laughing at Adam Jones getting mugged by the wrestler dress-up group, then realized he was part of it dressed as Virgil. AMAZING!!
4. Steel Cage Match – RAW Tag Team Title: The Hardy Boyz [c] vs. Cesaro & Sheamus
Good action, dumb delivery. The ‘escapes only’ stip really forced them into a box (or perhaps, a CAGE). Dummy moves like Jeff leaving his brother alone with Cesaro and Sheamus, Matt trying to climb the cage vs. escaping through the door when he had the opening post-Jeff exit, Matt trying to keep Sheamus inside the cage when he could’ve just had Cesaro to himself. Also had some cool shit, like Jeff’s Whisper in the Wind off the cage, and Cesaro and Sheamus pulling Matt back in the cage like they were a couple of zombies. Fun but stupid WWE cage match. ***
5. Submission Match – WWE Cruiserweight Title: Neville [c] vs. Austin Aries
Not great. Like most 205 stuff, I like watching the participants but it didn’t connect. Quiet crowd more concerned with the beach ball banter. Started fantasy booking a wrestler who threw beach balls to the crowd during the match, a hundred balls just flying through the air until I realized it’d be a fire hazard. Aries’ tope into nothing was nuts, as was the SWEET finish with Neville dropping the Red Arrow on Aries’ back and tapping him with the Rings of Saturn. Tough spot and some decent submission teases, but definitely the worst of these guys’ 3 matches. **3/4
6. Fatal 5-Way Extreme Rules Universal Title #1 Contender Match: Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Samoa Joe
This was like a lot of big WWE multi-man matches, really fun and wild in parts (especially the finish), but also some dead spots and a little empty for the first half. Everybody in this match has such DARK attire, it’s really drab. The Joe/Bray pairing might have potential. Roman had a couple awesome runs here on everybody… towards the end he had an amazing sequence with like each guy in the match. He sold a Balor baseball slide like he was Mitsuharu Misawa, rubbing his temples and making sure all was well. Spear through Finn and Joe and the barricade! Rollins’ frog splash through the table! ACTION!! FUN!! ***1/2
The Miz crushed it on RAW Talk, Samoa Joe crushed it on RAW Talk. It was also freakin’ RAW Talk.
A solid enough show, but the stuff that needed to deliver didn’t quite deliver, while the stuff I had no expectations for somehow under-delivered. The Tag Titles and Cruiserweight Title matches were especially weak given the potential, while Bayley/Alexa was just weird. Kalisto/Crews rocked, Dean/Miz and main event had their moments. A fun enough night at the matches, but not a lot to it. Low-end WWE PPV. 3/10
