Working Man’s Recap
This Week’s Highlights:
- Last Man Standing Money in the Bank Qualifier: Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn (SmackDown 7/2/21)
- Triple Threat NXT Women’s Tag Team Title #1 Contender Match: Io Shirai & Zoey Stark vs. Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart vs. Raquel Gonzalez & Dakota Kai (NXT 6/29/21)
- Emilia McKenzie vs. Isla Dawn (NXT UK 7/1/21)
- Last Chance Triple Threat Match: Drew McIntyre vs. Riddle vs. AJ Styles w/ Omos (RAW 6/28/21)
Stuff Happening: Drew McIntyre Keeps Chugging Along, Money in the Bank Build, Hit Row Wins Gold, Blair Davenport Reveals Herself, Zelina Vega Returns, Edge is Edge
Good Work: Riddle, Kofi Kingston, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Isla Dawn, Emilia McKenzie, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Desmond Troy
RAW (6/28/21)
Money in the Bank build continued in the form of people qualifying for Money in the Bank matches, including one person already qualified trying to qualify for Money in the Bank on behalf of another.
- The Battle Royal was objectively better than whatever else RAW was going to open with. Damian Priest made his return as a participant, though it’s probably bad I didn’t recognize him until the end.
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Hate to report Riddle (who won) made me laugh more than once this week. Not good.
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Superhero Nikki Cross beat Shayna Baszler and is approaching adorable, but she’s also named Nikki A.S.H now.
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Kofi Kingston is carrying the Bobby Lashley feud by being the most likable guy in WWE – he’s very clearly not winning, but it’s also hard to hate on this.
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Piper Niven is still called Doudrop.
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Ricochet hassled John Morrison into an OK match that featured a springboard dive from the ring onto Morrison who was seated on the barricade. It was crazy.
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Elias. Jaxson Ryker. Strap Match.
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Drew McIntyre vs. AJ Styles vs. Riddle (as a Randy Orton surrogate) closed the show with a pretty standard but fun non-stop triple threat match that saw McIntyre advance to the ladder show. The journey of Drew.. it continues.
NXT (6/29/21)
With the Great American Bash next week this was a sort of quiet show, the exceptions being the awesome opener and big deal main event.
- That opener was a triple threat tag to see who challenges for the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles and the triple threat tag usually stinks but this absolutely ruled, all over the place action with incredible timing that kept the big spots coming, spots all delivered with an extra kick. A serious live crowd kind of match.
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“Kill all that jibber jabber,” said Top Dolla.
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Karrion Kross is feuding with Johnny Gargano, which means Gargano jumped him from behind early in the show then got choked out later on.
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Hit Row and The Diamond Mine give this show such a base moving forward.
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Asher Hale went down to Roderick Strong, Ari Sterling to Cameron Grimes… not a good week for the 205 New Class.
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Kyle O’Reilly is the coolest wrestler and worst promo. I hate him.
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Xia Li legitimately knocked Mercedes Martinez out with a kick, a sucky end to a decent mixed tag match.
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There’s probably an automated system at this point, but MSK having a promo battle with Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher was not the best choice.
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Bronson Reed dropped the North American Title to Isaiah “Swerve” Scott in the main event, a sudden move likely made due to Reed being put on the main roster but a welcome move due to Hit Row being the most exciting act in NXT. Momentum can’t hurt excitement, you know?
MAIN EVENT (6/30/21)
- Accompanied by Shanky and Jinder Mahal, Veer (of Million Dollar Arm semi-fame) worked some reps with Drew Gulak.
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Lucha House Party vs. T-BAR & MACE – the rematch! – was another ultra-basic tag more about the Luchas than anything.
NXT UK (7/1/21)
So much remains grating about NXT UK, but here were three pretty good matches.
- Isla Dawn vs. Emilia McKenzie ruled, a match where Isla Dawn absolutely did cast a spell but also one that kept moving with quality grappling and badass strikes. McKenzie has always been good and Dawn is a revitalized wrestler.
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Tyler Bate vs. Jack Starz for the Heritage Cup was basically a Heritage Cup as TV Title defense, one with a round of grappling then a round of strikes before Bate got the first fall. Starz hit a nice comeback and tied it up before Bate went 2-1 to retain.
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Amale challenged Meiko Satomura to a match we should all be excited about.
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Blair Davenport is Bea Priestley, so she’s here now.
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Eddie Dennis stirred shit with Trent Seven, Jinny stared down Aoife Valkyrie, and Kenny Williams cut a promo on Nathan Frazer starring cockroaches.
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The A-Kid vs. Jordan Devlin main event was good, but either could have been better or held back for a future match. Devlin solved for Kid’s springboard armdrag by just pushing him to the floor, then basically broke his leg to win.
SMACKDOWN (7/2/21)
With both Roman Reigns and Jey Uso out of town this was a pretty quiet/boring episode of SmackDown, though Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn did a random epic Last Man Standing match in the middle. And Zelina Vega’s back. And Nakamura’s the King now.
- Pat McAfee jumping on Michael Cole’s shoulders for King Nakamura’s entrance was incredible.
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Five o’clock shadow (both face and scalp) Baron Corbin is momentarily incredible too – they re-named the poor guy during his ring entrance.
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Loved Nakamura’s fresh new black-and-white tights, though Apollo Crews has the same color scheme and as they worked against each other it just felt like they should be a tag team.
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Love Bayley and Bianca Belair too but the promo to setup I Quit at Money in the Bank was pretty generic. “Girl…” can be a catchphrase though.
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Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are both absolute legends, delivering a random Last Man Standing match in the middle of SmackDown so good it practically felt petty. It certainly blew their recent PPV matches out of the water.
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They took the gimmick to its natural psychotic conclusion and if he didn’t win I’d think Owens was trying to injure himself into time off: dragon suplex on the apron, swanton off the barricade to the floor, Flair bump off the barricade onto commentary, somersault off the top rope through a table on the floor. It sounds crazy but the most impressive thing about this was the escalation.
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Zayn appeared to have the win with two nasty Helluva kicks, but Owens countered the turnbuckle tope with a superkick then wrecked Zayn with two powerbombs through tables and one on the apron to end it. “Jesus Christ this Last Man Standing Match,” I texted my friends in all caps. Jesus Christ, indeed.
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Zelina Vega is back and Liv Morgan is doing something, which I think are both positive developments.
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Otis squashed Angelo Dawkins and is being built up for something, but I’m not sure what.
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As somebody who has seen a lot of work from Edge over the last (oh no) 20 years, I am not sure I’m a fair judge of this current returning main eventer Edge who cuts passionate promos. I do know it’s the least interesting feud heel Roman Reigns has had so far, so hopefully it ticks up soon.
205 LIVE (7/2/21)
205 Live always feels like it could use a fresh coat of paint, though this was new: two qualifiers for the NXT Breakout Tournament and four 205 Live debuts.
- Guru Raaj is pudgy and does a bulldog, so I’m into it. He was decent against Finn Balor at the Superstar Spectacle earlier this year and decent here against Andre Chase (the former Harlem Bravado), who sometimes appeared hesitant but ticks the boxes as a WWE fella I guess.
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The Unruly Joe Gacy downed Desmond Troy in the next match, though Troy was the real Breakout Star: the former Denzel Dejournette lost a few squashes over the last year in impressive fashion, and here he bursted out with a great entrance energy that carried over into the match. He can do sweet takedowns and a gorgeous northern lights, but also has this fun pop in between everything. Get this guy in the Alpha Academy!
