WWE Hell in a Cell 2020 (Oct. 25, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Hell in a Cell (2020) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on October 25, 2020 (originally November 1) at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the twelfth event under the Hell in a Cell chronology and featured WWE's virtual fan viewing experience called ThunderDome.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Randy Orton defeated Drew McIntyre in a Hell in a Cell match to win the WWE Championship for a tenth time. Two other Hell in a Cell matches were also contested on the card: in the opening bout, Roman Reigns defeated Jey Uso to retain the Universal Championship, which was also the first time an "I Quit" match was contested inside the structure, while Sasha Banks defeated Bayley to win the SmackDown Women's Championship, ending Bayley's title reign at 380 days; this also made Banks WWE's fourth Women's Triple Crown Champion and third Women's Grand Slam Champion.

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Singles Match for the WWE 24/7 Championship

R-Truth (c) defeated Drew Gulak

Hell in a Cell "I Quit" match for the WWE Universal Championship

Roman Reigns (c) (with Paul Heyman) def. Jey Uso

Since Jey quit, he and his brother Jimmy Uso have to take orders and acknowledge Reigns as The Tribal Chief or The Usos and their immediate families will be exiled from the Anoa'i family.

As a WRESTLING match, I'm sure there's people out there who flat out hated this match as there wasn't much of that here. In reality, this match was a master class in STORYTELLING. That was entirely the point here. They were knocking the point home with their performance(s) as these characters - from Jey Uso's determination and personal resolve not to give up to Roman Reign's firm standing under his new idealogy as the Tribal Chief of the Anoa'i family. The trash talking and taunting throughout this match was pure excellence, but I could have done without the referee asking who is going to give up after every single move. I could have done without any commentary calling this match as well because Michael Cole does absolutely NOTHING to add to these matches. If this was a normal pinfall/submission match, Jey Uso would have been pushing up daisies within the first few minutes of this match after Roman hit the first of many Spears. Instead, he kept toughing it out and proving to the WWE Universe that he can hang with the Tribal Chief. The Usos are decorated multiple time WWE Tag Team Champions, but people tend to forget that they are two excellent individual workers in the ring and can hold a candle to any modern tag team in the world, whether it be The Revival/FTR, The North (Ethan "All Ego" Page & Josh Alexander), The Young Bucks, or even their cousins in New Japan Pro Wrestling, The Guerillas of Destiny. If Jey's going to continue doing singles matches then he needs to add something new to his arsenal that is a little more heavy-hitting. The vast majority of his offense is stuff that I can't buy any main eventer on WWE's roster NOT kicking out of. That being said, he put in enough of a convincing effort to show that he was going down swinging.

I wanted to hand Roman Reigns AND Jimmy Uso an Oscar for their performances towards the end. They really had me caught up in the story here and truly painted the picture plain as day for solidifying Roman's heel turn. Where the fuck was THIS Roman Reigns when Vince was shoving Reigns down our throats a few years ago? If he came out there every week with this heel demeanor instead of fighting the backlash to his babyface run, then people would have been eating out of his hands by the time it was all said and done. I loved the finish too, where Reigns held the already injured Jimmy Uso into the Body Scissors until Jey Uso was forced to say he quit to spare his own twin brother's health and physical well-being.  

Where the hell did they dig up the Wild Samoans from? Still made for a nice image post match for them to formally crown him the Tribal Chief of the Anoa'i family. 

Singles Match

Elias def. Jeff Hardy by disqualification

As SOON as I heard the strum of Elias' guitar I went to the bathroom because I didn't give a flying fuck about this match in any shape nor form. Explain to me why the hell is Elias feuding with Jeff Hardy when Sheamus is the one who ran him over in that feud that put Elias on the shelf? This is just so fucking goddamn stupid. 

Singles Match for the Money in the Bank contract

The Miz (with John Morrison) def. Otis (contract holder) (with Tucker)

I've liked Otis since his Heavy Machinery days back on NXT and even up to the Mandy Rose storyline that climaxed at WrestleMania, but even I think this whole debacle about the Money in the Bank briefcase was fucking stupid. This wasn't a bad match, it's just hard to care about this stupid storyline. 

Like I was telling a friend when I was watching the match live, I thought that they telegraphed Tucker's turn a little TOO obvious because the cameras gave it away when they kept focusing on the briefcase on the floor after Morrison dropped it. After that, you could notice that Tucker kept eyeing it on the floor and making sure he was in position for the moments that followed. So when he clobbered Otis with the briefcase, I wasn't surprised as I figured that's how they were going to explain why the hell did they split up Heavy Machinery during the WWE Draft earlier this month. 

What I did like though, was the post-match interview with Tucker backstage. The guy delivered a decent promo and Otis busted up the interview after Miz & Morrison joined like he was the Incredible Hulk on PCP. THAT was the reaction I was hoping he was going to after after Dolph Ziggler ruined his date with Mandy Rose instead of moping around like a fucking loser for weeks on end. If this means we get HULK SMASH Otis instead of the childish goof that he's settled into then I'm all for it. 

Hell in a Cell match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship

Sasha Banks def. Bayley (c) by submission

For as long as WWE has been milking this split and dragging this out, I thought that they should have headlined the show, especially with Roman and Jey getting their business out of the way first and foremost. 

Let me get this out of the way first: This match was easily the best thing on the entire show, BUT I don't think that it was anywhere as good as Sasha and Bayley's two iconic TakeOver matches, so let's just not even go there. 

With that out of the way, they lost me on the narrative here the moment Sasha kicked Bayley's beloved steel chair out of the ring and after less than 3-5 minutes they were pulling out more chairs from underneath the ring. Would it have killed them NOT to have more chairs underneath the ring to sell the narrative? Bayley using the chair to break Sasha's neck was the tale of the tape and played into the finish in a clever manner that I think that one decision here diminished the story that they were trying to tell with this match. 

My other problem with this match was all of the unnecessary bumps around the corners of the steel steps in the corner at ringside. You only have a VERY narrow margin for error and these women were toying around in that area for several minutes. You could have taken all of those spots out and this match would have STILL been a classic. It was completely unnecessary in my eyes. I'm sure Sasha Banks saw the opening match and was convinced that they weren't going to top that on a narrative level, so she was going to bump her ass off instead. I'm not going to leave Bayley out of that either as I'm sure she went along with all of this stuff too and was just as onboard with it as Sasha was when they were pitching ideas for this. One of the stupidest bumps of the entire match had to be that back bump where the base of Sasha's skull hit the steel chair wedged into the corner. Sasha oversold the momentum from that move just to hit it as hard as she could too. I could do nothing but shake my head at that one. If she's still wrestling in another 3-5 years, I'll be surprised. 

I couldn't help but laugh where this match stopped to a crawl as Bayley attempted to duct tape some kendo sticks together at ringside to put them together in some sort of makeshift bridge. She gave up halfway into this arts and crafts project after muttering to the official, "My hands are too sweaty, can you do it for me?" I was surprised that they couldn't edit that out, especially when I could hear that as plain as day over the fake crowd noise. That created an awkward as hell moment in the middle of this match where not even the commentary team could provide a sensible cover-up for that. 

I think this was the point in the show where I literally asked out loud, "What is up with this company and so many kendo sticks all of a sudden over the past year?" Between the assault to Dominik in the Mysterio family drama and Seth Rollins and so many "extreme rules" matches on their programming as of late, I don't understand what is with their fascination with that as a weapon. I wasn't even too crazy about it during the height of the ECW days and I definitely haven't been made into a fan of it in recent years. It just seems like WWE are using that as PG era substitute for chair shots from the Attitude Era, given what we know in hindsight about concussions today from blows to the head. 

20+ minutes later and things come down to a boil where Bayley kicks out of Belly to Bayley on the ladder followed by Sasha kicking out of normal Belly to Bayley served back to her in rebuttal. The finish came down to Sasha looking in the Banks Statement with the chair wrapped around Bayley's head while Sasha's stomping over the base of the chair to add more pressure - a VERY clever call back to their TakeOver match, where Sasha was stomping on Bayley's broken hand to force her to submit. That was some good shit there, pal, but it would have spoken volumes if they hadn't used any other chairs in this match up to that point. 

In the end, I was glad to see them FINALLY take that belt off of Bayley even though there's some people who were butthurt that they went with that decision. It was obvious that they weren't going to separate them in the Draft, so there wasn't any way that they were going to delay this to WrestleMania next year. Sasha was the only person that SHOULD have taken that title off of Bayley after the story that they have been telling for what feels like the last FIVE years when it's probably been two years at the most on the main roster. 

Now the only question that's left is whether or not can Sasha Banks keep it past the first title defense? Her title reigns have become infamous at this point for how comically short they have been on the main roster. 

Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship

Bobby Lashley (c) def. Slapjack by submission

This match was made during the show, where Retribution chose a member of the Hurt Business to face against a member of their factor that the Hurt Business selects. The former Shane Thorne tried as he might, but he was ultimately no match for "The Almighty" Bobby Lashley. The most hilarious thing about this match or rather the post-match attack was that Lashley fought off ALL of the members of Retribution on his own before the rest of the Hurt Business could even come out there. Boy, WWE doesn't give a flying fuck about this Retribution thing anymore, huh?

They have treated this idea poorly from the start and I can't say that I'm surprised to see them getting "jobbed out" when they never were really over to begin with. The best course of action would be to book the Hurt Business vs. Retribution at Survivor Series, with the losing faction being forced to disband. Scrap this whole Retribution thing, but maybe keep Dio Madden and Dijak aligned with Mustafa Ali. I think they could work something with those two. Send the others back down to NXT. 

Hell in a Cell match for the WWE Championship

Randy Orton def. Drew McIntyre (c)

Going into this main event, Orton and Drew already had a lot going against them with the two HIAC matches that proceeded this. What else could they do that could stand out that hasn't already be done in the previous two matches. 

They started things off early with Orton getting the jump on Drew during his entrance, disguised as one of the cameramen. I think wrestling Twitter lost their minds for a bit to see Orton wrestling in PANTS for the first few minutes of this match because of that. It wasn't long though because he discarded the pants and was down to the normal attire that we're used to seeing Orton wrestle in. 

As for this match as a whole, I didn't think it was bad, but it's just really THERE for the latter part of this show. Nothing overly exciting happened outside of the cock-tease that they were going to do something off the top of the cell, only to climb back down shortly afterwards. My suspension of disbelief was killed the moment that I saw the foot holes and stands jutting out from the side of the cell where Orton and Drew were going to brawl upon before one of them took that fall through the commentary table below. That honor ended up going to Drew McIntyre as he was a fan of Shawn Michaels' infamous HIAC bump through the commentary table and sought out to do the same tonight. Drew managed to be bleeding from the mouth as a result, but I could just go "Meh..." at this as after everything we've seen Sasha and Bayley throw at each other earlier tonight, these two guys couldn't even get a little color to play up the "brutality" that these cage matches are known for. 

That being said, I loved the finishing sequence of this match. When Orton clapped after evading the Claymore, I stood up and applauded that RKO counter. That was a thing of beauty. If Drew had kicked out of that, I would've been pissed. Orton won his 14th World title reign and I don't see any harm done to Drew McIntyre. You could easily start the slow build to have Drew chase towards the title again for WrestleMania season when (hopefully) events around the world are able to bring fans back in a safe capacity. Drew had a decent title reign for the last few months. The deciding factor is going to be whether he rises back up into challenging for said title or settles back into being forever mid-carder like Kofi Kingston following losing his World title last year. The guy eliminated Brock Lesnar in the Royal Rumble match AND beat him clean at WrestleMania. I doubt WWE are going to put that much of an investment into him to waste. 

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Afterthoughts:

The match that SHOULD have headlined tonight's show. On a side note, this was a pretty sweet poster for promoting the match.

I didn't notice this until several podcasters and other fans mentioned this on social media, but we are EXACTLY at the same place in WWE's booking a decade ago when Randy Orton had the WWE Championship going into Survivor Series, where The Miz had the Money in the Bank briefcase. It would be pure insanity to put the belt on Miz at this point after taking it off of Drew McIntyre, BUT it would be a pretty fun tease to have people guessing. Just have Miz cash it in that night and lose. It doesn't have to be anything more than that. 

As of this posting (11/4/20), it seems that they are setting Orton to defend against the threats of both Drew McIntyre and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt after he faces Roman Reigns for brand supremacy/bragging rights at Survivor Series. I wouldn't have a problem with that as long it doesn't have to have anything to do with that god-awful House of Horrors Match that Bray and Orton had at WrestleMania a few years ago. 

On the other end of the spectrum, Jey Uso has fallen in line over SmackDown and has turned heel to serve under the Tribal Chief while Sasha Banks is set to defend against Bayley for the SmackDown! Women's Championship, with the winner facing RAW Women's Champion Asuka at Survivor Series. Bayley already posed the same question that I did too, questioning the fact that Sasha has the ability to win titles, but does she have the ability to hang onto them. Nice little jab there. I should clarify that I don't flat out hate Bayley's heel turn, but it ultimately feels hit or miss to me. That promo from the HIAC fallout episode of SmackDown was great stuff from her. I still felt like Sasha Banks is at her best being heel, but whatever, WWE wants to push her as a babyface while advertising her upcoming appearance in season two of The Mandalorian on Disney+, so I'll put up with it. The match for WrestleMania on the SmackDown! women's end of things needs to be a heel Sasha Banks defending against Bianca Belair though. Nothing else in that division currently would interest me more since they blew their loads on the Sasha/Bayley match. 

Without a shadow of a doubt, Sasha Banks and Bayley stole the show with the match of the night in terms of in-ring action, but I don't think that people should discredit Reigns vs. Jey Uso either, despite the fact that it was more of a narrative than an actual competitive match. The stuff that WWE is currently doing with Roman Reigns' heel turn is the best thing going in this company right now across all three brands. There's no arguing that fact. 

WWE Clash of Champions 2020 (Sept. 27, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Clash of Champions was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on September 27, 2020 (originally September 20) at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the fourth event in the Clash of Champions chronology and featured WWE's virtual fan viewing experience called the ThunderDome. As per the theme of the event, all championships across the Raw and SmackDown brands were defended with the exception of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, which was originally scheduled to be defended, however, the match was cancelled as the champions were not medically cleared to compete.

Eight matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Jey Uso by technical knockout to retain the Universal Championship. In other prominent matches, Drew McIntyre defeated Randy Orton in an ambulance match to retain the WWE Championship and Sami Zayn defeated AJ Styles and defending champion Jeff Hardy in a triple threat ladder match to become the undisputed Intercontinental Champion.

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Kick-Off Match: Tag team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship

Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura (c) def. Lucha House Party (Kalisto and Lince Dorado) (with Gran Metalik)

Did anyone doubt that Cesaro and Nakamura were going to retain against the Lucha House Party when those guys are collectively treated as jobbers on a regular basis? Get the fuck out of here with that noise. 

That being said, this is another reminder that they need to merge these two tag team divisions with an unification match - something that I was hoping that they would do when they showed up to face the Street Profits on Monday Night RAW a few weeks ago, only for nothing to come out of that encounter. Between the tag team divisions on all three brands - RAW, SmackDown!, and NXT - not a single one of them is making waves in terms of competition for the champions. I don't see why they can't have one set of tag team champions who float around from brand to brand. Of course, you could keep the NXT Tag Team division separate, but maybe once the COVID-19 situation calms down, they could entertain the thought of bringing over NXT UK talent to fill in the gaps to spice things up. 

Triple threat ladder match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship

Sami Zayn def. Jeff Hardy (c) and AJ Styles

These three guys started things off wild for this PPV with this ladder match with every car crash-looking stunt and insane bumps that we have all come to expect from this match type.

Zayn gets cool points for originality to pick up the win here by handicuff Jeff Hardy by his ear lobe to a ladder while handcuffing AJ Styles to the rungs of another ladder that allowed him to climb the ladder unobstructed to pick up the victory. This whole match is a highlight reel from bell to bell, but that ending is definitely going to stick with a lot of people from the sheer amount of creativity that went into it.

Singles match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship

Asuka (c) def. Zelina Vega by submission 

Zelina lasted FAR too long in this for my taste, but the right outcome played out by the time it was all said and done. Zelina Vega has come a long way from her days in IMPACT Wrestling as Rosita in their budding Knockouts division, where she was one half of the Knockouts Tag Team Champions with Sarita (Sarah Stock).

Zelina botched the finish upon execution, but Asuka was there to expertly apply the Asuka Lock so fast to win the match anyway so you wouldn't even notice that blunder on Zelina's behalf. I don't see how Zelina Vega of all people is getting an extended program with Asuka when Asuka can't be that depleted of opponents to face.  

Singles match for the WWE United States Championship
Bobby Lashley (c) (with MVP and Shelton Benjamin) def. Apollo Crews (with Ricochet) by submission

I don't understand why they are still entertaining the thought of more chances for Apollo Crews to fail at winning the US title back from Lashley. Move onto something else, dude. It's obvious that you're not getting that title back and even if he did, it wouldn't mean much anyway when he's had this many opportunities to regain that title. If I got that many cracks at it, then I know I would eventually sneak out a win too at some point. 

I have to mention that I like the new name for Lashley finisher, "The Hurt Lock", more than the Full Lashley that Michael Cole has been shouting for the last few months. 

The Beat Down Clan... err The Hurt Business stands strong.

Tag team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) (c) def. Andrade and Angel Garza

This match could have been on Monday Night RAW the following night, but I think the impromptu finish came about when Angel Garza suffered an untimely leg/hip injury. The referee threw up the X sign to signify that someone got hurt and after the match, you could see everyone racing to tend to Garza at ringside as he wouldn't lower his leg down as if something was wrong with the limb. As of this posting (10/2/20), I can't find any further updates on his injury. That sucks pretty bad for him to get hurt at the worst possible time, but maybe this will cause WWE to push Andrade again as a singles star with Zelina Vega as his mouthpiece. 

Singles match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship

Nikki Cross Asuka def. Bayley (c) by disqualification

As indicated by the match card banner above, Nikki Cross was originally set to challenge Bayley (again) for the SmackDown! Women's Championship but wasn't medically cleared to compete for tonight, so Asuka was brought to fill in as an audible when Bayley came out thinking that she was going to be handed the victory for essentially doing nothing. 

It was Asuka's birthday over the weekend and given the fact that Nikki Cross wasn't medically cleared to compete, I figured this was just a gimme to not put in much effort at all into Bayley's opponent for this title defense. It would have been interesting if Asuka actually won the title from Bayley and became a double champion thanks to Sasha Banks' interference, but it's obvious that the only person who is going to dethrone Bayley for that title is going to be Banks herself. 

Y'all couldn't even wait a month to bank on this feud, huh?

People have to be delusional to think that WWE are going to wait until WrestleMania next year to do that match too. We're more likely going to get that match in Hell in the Cell next month instead of keeping Banks off television to sell this kayfabe neck injury from Bayley's two vicious assaults. Between AEW and WWE, I don't know who is worse at blowing their loads on milking stuff like this, whether it be Sasha Banks or Cody Rhodes. 

Ambulance match for the WWE Championship

Drew McIntyre (c) def. Randy Orton

Can't say that I'm crazy over any ambulance match but this one held my attention for the most part, namely with all of the guest stars that kept popping up for revenge on Orton from his attacks throughout the summer. First with The Big Show (who doesn't even look right without his beard and all of his hair cleanly shaven like a newborn baby's bottom) with a Chokeslam through the commentary table, then Christian flinging Orton into the catering area backstage, followed by Shawn Michaels (who seems to be growing his hair back out instead of being bald like Triple H these days) knocking Orton off the top of the ambulance with a Sweet Chin Music, only for Ric Flair to be the one who drove the ambulance out of the arena. 

Drew not only won the match, but won with Orton's own patented Punt Kick. If that doesn't tell you that Orton was willing to put the guy over, I don't know what will. Jesus Christ that was a sick finish though. They definitely had me fooled as I thought for sure that Randy Orton was walking out of this show as the new WWE Champion from as much as the commentary team were talking up how many title wins that Orton has underneath his belt. 

Singles match for the WWE Universal Championship

Roman Reigns (c) (with Paul Heyman) def. Jey Uso by technical knockout

Between the ladder match opener and this main event, this is essentially the two best things to come out of this PPV. The narrative storytelling in this match was excellent from bell to bell with Roman systematically tearing down his cousin, who refused to give up the ghost, despite the relentless abuse from Roman Reigns. Roman had the match won at multiple occasions early on, but Roman continued on - like any great heel should - to continue inflicting more and more punishment until Jey Uso acknowledged him as the head of the table AKA the "tribal chief". The match wasn't over until Jimmy Uso (with his leg still in a cast as he's still out on that injury) came out and threw in the towel - despite his twin brother's wishes - to end the match after seeing take enough abuse from the Tribal Chief. 

Your newly appointed, "Tribal Chief" Roman Reigns.

You would think that this would be one and done, but nope. Apparently, WWE announced that they will have a rematch at Hell in the Cell next month. I just hope they don't run this into the ground like the Rey Mysterio and Seth Rollins stuff, despite the matches being great and delivering on the narrative beats. 

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Afterthoughts:

It should be mentioned that two matches were scrapped for this show - Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax defending the Women's Tag Team titles against the Riott Squad members of Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan and original SmackDown! Women's title match that was planned between Bayley and Nikki Cross. Shayna, Nia, and Nikki were all in contact with individuals who have come down with COVID-19 from the recent outbreak of cases flooding the WWE Performance Center, so they were taken off of this show as a precaution. In Nikki Cross' case, I think we got a better title defense for Bayley as we have seen her against Bayley far too many times for my taste. My only complaint in regard of going with Asuka was that they couldn't call in Naomi, Lacey Evans, or anyone else on that SmackDown! women's roster to fill in? It's not it was a zero hour last minute decision, they knew since SmackDown! Friday night that Nikki Cross wasn't going to be at the PPV on Sunday, so that made absolutely no sense to me in that regard. As for Shayna and Nia, I don't blame them on that one either as it's better to be safe than sorry later. Plus, if we're being honest, I seriously doubt that Shayna and Nia were going to lose the titles to the Riott Squad anyway unless they are going to do a falling out between both women (obviously due to some sort of a miscommunication during the match) and go into a singles feud after only a month or so of being in this haphazard pairing. 

I hate to say it, but this was a two match show. Clash of Champions 2020 opened strong with the ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship between AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, and Sami Zayn and finished strong with the WWE Championship match between defending champion Roman Reigns agaisnt Jey Uso. Everything in the middle was the run of the mill stuff that you see on Monday Night RAW and Friday Night SmackDown! every week for the most part. Go out of your way to check out those two matches, but everything else left a lot to be desired. To be fair though, the filler matches between the opener and the main event weren't flat out boring nor god-awful, it's just that I felt that they were too much more of the same. That being said though, this wasn't the worst PPV WWE has done at all for 2020. In all honesty, it was one of their better outings since it didn't drag along at a snail's pace.  

WWE Payback (Aug. 30, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Payback was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on August 30, 2020 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the sixth event in the Payback chronology and the first to be held since the 2017 event.

The card comprised eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman in a No Holds Barred Triple Threat match to win the Universal Championship. On the undercard, Dominik Mysterio and Rey Mysterio defeated Seth Rollins and Murphy, Keith Lee defeated Randy Orton, and Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax defeated Bayley and Sasha Banks by submission to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.

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Match Results:

Kickoff - Tag Team Match

The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan) def. The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce)

Didn't watch, but as of this posting (9/1/20), the IIconics were forced to disband due to losing to the Riott Squad the following night in a rematch on Monday Night RAW. I'm all for that since Peyton Royce deserved to go on her own for a while now. She's clearly the more talented of the two in-ring. Let Billie Kay serve as enhancement talent on one of the other brands post-draft.

Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship

Bobby Lashley (with MVP and Shelton Benjamin) def. Apollo Crews (c) by submission

The first thing I uttered after the finish was "WTF is the FULL Lashley?" Decent match, I guess, but they did the right thing here and put the title on Lashley, who should have been challenging Apollo in the first place. MVP should have been the mouthpiece from day one. I don't need to see him still wrestling in 2020. Isn't the whole point of the Hurt Business is to rehab Lashley and elevate him back to his former greatness with Shelton Benjamin?

Singles Match

Big E def. Sheamus

These two guys tried here, but they had already had a series of decent matches over on SmackDown! so this was pretty much rehashing familiar territory. I was the under the impression that Sheamus still had some nagging back issues so I found myself cringing that he took that bump down to the floor from the ring apron off that Spear out of the ring spot that Big E loves doing. I'm surprised that dude hasn't sprained his wrists or something from doing that so much all of these years. I can totally get behind this Big E that's all business when the bell rings.

I'm going to keep saying it though - he needs to leave the goofy shit at home if he really wants to take this singles push somewhere though.

Singles Match

Matt Riddle def. King Corbin

I couldn't give a flying fuck about this. Corbin lost and that's all what matters in terms of sensible booking.

Tonight, I prove that Matt Riddle is a failure in a WWE ring.
By the way…he’s already proven that he’s a failure at home. #WWEPayback

— THE KING (@BaronCorbinWWE) August 30, 2020

.@SuperKingofBros' reaction to King @BaronCorbinWWE's personal tweet ahead of their #WWEPayback match: pic.twitter.com/pUtrI9dlOw

— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) August 30, 2020

Corbin won the match though when his tweet was read on-air and the exact moment where Riddle's happy expression sank right down the drain was priceless.

I see people complaining about bringing up his real life infidelity allegations into a WWE storyline but I'm looking at it like WWE bringing up Jeff Hardy's alcohol and drug abuse into storylines recently. It's nothing different for them. This is their brand of being "edgy" and "real" in 2020. It's definitely in bad taste but they think are exposing "insider" stuff by airing dirty laundry on television.

Tag Team Match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship

Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax def. Bayley and Sasha Banks (c) by submission

I didn't think this actual match was very good at all. There were tons of botches, not just from Nia Jax, but from Sasha and Bayley attempting to move her around the ring. The best thing to come out of this match was the very creative submission finish from Shayna Baszler by using Sasha's own arms to choke out Bayley for the win.

Man, that was an awesome finish. Can't say the same about the rest of the match leading up to it though.

I busted out laughing that commentary wasted absolutely NO time in saying "NO BELTS BANKS" after the decision. I couldn't understand why Nia was overjoyed during the post-match interview when she contributed absolutely jackshit to the finish here. They should've handed both belts to Shayna and let her be a single woman wrecking crew - unless she has Marina Safir and Jessamyn Duke as her lackeys on the main roster (full-time) now.

Singles Match

Keith Lee def. Randy Orton

Can't say that anything here was memorable nor noteworthy, but in terms of the pattern is smart booking tonight, the right man won with Lee going over on Orton. I guess this confirms the rumors and predictions that Orton is going to take that title from Drew McIntyre, which would set Lee in a prime position to challenge for said title in the near-future.

Tag Team Match

Dominik Mysterio and Rey Mysterio def. Seth Rollins and Murphy

This wasn't anywhere close as their match at Summerslam the weekend prior, but it's to be expected that these guys can't hit two homeruns in two PPVs mere weekends apart. On top of that, Rey Mysterio suffered an injury in this match, so that probably played a factor in that as well. This wasn't a bad match, but I was a little underwhelmed, especially given the high stakes of their previous match. Dominik still shined here like before, but Rollins and Murphy's antics are getting old at this point. Murphy ate the pin here, so it's obvious that this feud isn't over when it should be at this point. They could have given the Mysterio family the win with the feel good moment to capitalize on the name of the PPV but they didn't with Rollins not being the one to eat the pinfall here. I don't see why they should milk this feud out for a few more months. It's not like WrestleMania is around the corner or anything.

No Holds Barred, Triple Threat match for the WWE Universal Championship

Roman Reigns (with Paul Heyman) def. "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt (c) and Braun Strowman

The tale of the tape to setup this match all night was the cliffhanger reveal at the end of Friday Night SmackDown! was that Paul Heyman was now managing Roman Reigns. If there's any doubt in anyone's minds, but the "Big Dog" is now officially a heel. He was refusing to sign the contract for this match until it was tailored to his specifications. The story had the commentary team acting like there was any doubt that he was going to sign it to be a part of this title match. Strowman and The Fiend came off even bigger dumbasses in all of this when they were fighting in this match like it was a one-on-one contest until Roman Reigns came out and wrecked shop like this was a Money In The Bank cash-in.

Going into this match, I was convinced that Roman and Heyman were going to be revealed to being the masterminds behind Retribution, but in retrospect, I'm glad they weren't. What the hell does Roman have to be mad about? That wouldn't have made a lick of damn sense. I rather this reveal for Retribution be something big for a lot of NXT call-ups or misused main roster talents anyway.

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Paul Heyman raising the hand of his new client in victory.

Afterthoughts:

This wasn't a flat out god-awful show, but it wasn't a particular exciting show either, especially to serve up as a follow-up last weekend's NXT TakeOver XXX and Summerslam events. Despite the wealth of smart booking decisions on this show, it ultimately felt completely unnecessary. They could have done most of what they have done here later this month at Clash of Champions or on the weekly RAW and SmackDown! shows to pop a rating. As a result, I was left feeling like a vast majority of this show was a complete waste of time, especially for the majority of the undercard.

WWE Summerslam: You'll Never See It Coming (Aug. 23, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

SummerSlam was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on August 23, 2020 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the thirty-third event under the SummerSlam chronology. It was also the first SummerSlam since 2011 to not feature Brock Lesnar, who competed in the main event match for the past six years and in 2012. Additionally, it was the first SummerSlam since 2009 to feature MVP.

The event was originally scheduled to take place at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston mayor Marty Walsh announced the suspension of all large-scale gatherings and that no permit would be issued for an event that could draw a large crowd before September 7. Since mid-March, WWE has presented the majority of their shows from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando with no fans in attendance due to the pandemic. With the move to the Amway Center, SummerSlam was the first major WWE event held outside of the Performance Center since March, although still without fans physically in attendance; fans instead were able to attend and be seen virtually on LED boards in the venue through a new experience called ThunderDome.

The card comprised eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt defeated Braun Strowman in a Falls Count Anywhere match to win the Universal Championship for a second time. After the match, Roman Reigns made his return following a five-month hiatus and attacked both men. On the undercard, Drew McIntyre defeated Randy Orton to retain the WWE Championship, Mandy Rose defeated Sonya Deville in a No Disqualification Loser Leaves WWE match, and Asuka defeated Sasha Banks to win the Raw Women's Championship for a second time after losing her match against Bayley for the SmackDown Women's Championship in the opening bout.

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Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship

Apollo Crews (c) def. MVP

Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin were banned from ringside.

Kick-off match, so I didn't watch, but I have a question. Why is MVP still wrestling matches when he's supposed to be the mouthpiece for the Hurt Business? Couldn't Lashley be wrestling these matches instead?

Singles Match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship

Bayley (c) (with Sasha Banks) def. Asuka

Out of the three women's matches on this PPV, I have to say that this was the weakest match out of the three. I don't mean that an insult either as there was some great women's wrestling on this show in all three bouts, but the finish here soured my taste on this match in the end.

Sasha Banks no sells three consecutive attacks from Asuka, only to jump up on the ring apron and take the bullet for Bayley during the final exchange off the ring apron, thus allowing Bayley to roll Asuka up to retain.

I thought it would have made more sense to have Asuka dethrone Bayley because that women's division on SmackDown! is on life support, despite the fact that Naomi beat Bayley clean on SmackDown! Friday night. Bayley has gone through that entire roster in terms of challengers for that title and no one has beaten her nor has shown any signs of a glimmer of hope of taking it from her anytime soon. The win over Asuka here just felt like a minor footnote in terms of giving Bayley bragging rights that she overcame her loss to the Empress of Tomorrow from their days back in NXT.

The fact of the matter is that Asuka had Bayley's number and she knew it.

Tag Team Match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) (c) def. Andrade and Angel Garza (with Zelina Vega)

There's nothing much to write home about this match as it was your typical Monday Night RAW run-of-the-mill, bland, boring tag team match that went on a little far too long for my taste.

I was expecting a run-in from Bianca Belair for the finish, but no dice. The finish occurred when Montez Ford accidentally bumped Zelina Vega off the ring apron and down to the floor, where Andrade was too pre-occupied with tending to her instead of helping Angel Garza fend off the Street Profits.

No Disqualification Loser Leaves WWE match

Mandy Rose def. Sonya Deville

The decision to change the stipulation of this match came at short notice following the trial on Friday with Sonya's real life stalker being charged in court. This match originally was going to be a hair vs. hair match, but it changed to the current stipulation. To be fair, the loser here was never really in doubt, especially with everything that Sonya Deville has gone through with this stalker incident. I don't blame her for wanting to get off television for a few months and just get away from all of this for a while. That way she can hit the reset button - mentally and physically - before coming back bigger and better for her next big WWE storyline. I'm still bummed out that Fire & Desire never won the WWE Women's Tag Team titles, but the fucking IIconics did? Fuck that noise, especially when they were desperately looking for teams to put those belts on at one point.

Loving Mandy's choice of new ring gear to go with her new hairstyle. 

I got a kick out of Mandy doing the Caterpillar/Worm to celebrate with Otis after the match. I almost died laughing at that. She needs to ask Nikki Bella for some pointers on that.

Street Fight

Seth Rollins (with Murphy) def. Dominik Mysterio (with Rey Mysterio)

This was a fucking master class in terms of storytelling for the evening.

This was arguably one hell of an in-ring debut for Dominik Mysterio. I'm sure his biological father, Eddie Guerrero, was smiling down him with pride (laughs). All jokes aside, Dominik, Rollins, and Rey Mysterio killed it with everything in this match from bell to bell. They even had me going with Mysterio's wife teasing to get involved.

I absolutely adored everything about the narrative in this match. This image alone is worth it's weight in gold. 

The match had the PERFECT ending too. Dominik got so close at victory that he could taste it, but Rollins got the knees up to shoot down those dreams. Rey wanted to help his son, but was helpless as he was handcuffed to the ropes across the ring and was forced to watch Rollins deliver the Curb Stomp that would secure his victory. If this doesn't lead into that father/son tag team match against Rollins and Murphy (The Disciple...LOL) that Rey Mysterio has been begging for, then these people need to be slapped for this booking.

On a sidebar note, cool throwbacks to Rey Mysterio's WCW Halloween Havoc '97 for Rollins' ring gear while I could have sworn that Dominik was rocking some TJP-inspired gear. I know that kid is thanking his mom's side of genetics to get her height instead of being his dad's height.

Singles Match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship

Asuka def. Sasha Banks (c) (with Bayley) by submission

Sasha Banks was on a mission to have the best women's match of the night and she sure as hell accomplished that feat. Her and Asuka were killing each other in this match from bell to bell. I couldn't give a flying fuck about Sasha's current gimmick and storyline right now, but she hasn't disappointed me in the least when it comes to her in-ring ability. I still think that she does a little TOO much in matches at times, but I can't hate on her ability to perform, even though she tends to go overboard in terms of unnecessary bumps and risks.

I was all for this match being the best thing on the show from the women, but the finish was absolutely stupid. They rehashed the EXACT same spot from Bayley's title defense, only for Bayley to get knocked off the ring apron and Sasha got rolled up instead. I get that they were saying that Asuka learned from her costly mistake in the previous match, but why the fuck is the commentary team going on about this Bayley's fault?

The announcers are telling me this was Bayley's fault even though with my own two eyes I saw Sasha try a move and it got countered and she tapped out clean. Why is this so hard?

— Bryan Alvarez (@bryanalvarez) August 24, 2020

Sasha went to the well too many times in terms of dirty tricks and got owned. Simple as that.

*Waits for the Sasha stans to get butthurt that she lost ANOTHER singles title in the first title defense*

To be fair, Sasha shouldn't have won it from Asuka in the first goddamn place IMHO. They just did it for this pairing. #SummerSlam

— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) August 24, 2020

I know the Sasha stans will be butt hurt that she lost yet ANOTHER singles title after her first title defense, but she shouldn't have won it in the first goddamn place. That entire storyline from the last month or so was absolutely stupid. It was only done for Sasha and Bayley can continue parading around together, bragging about having "dos straps" or "two belts". To be honest, I would have went with Asuka taking both of those belts from Sasha and Bayley, but that's just me.

WWE seems to be deadset on stalling and dragging out this split between Sasha and Bayley for over a year (which feels like 2-3 at this point) to the point where I don't see how anyone still cares at this point. Sasha goes back to being a boring babyface while Bayley is the heel this time around. Who cares? I don't doubt the match itself would be nothing short of amazing, but all of this stalling and waiting is killing this in the long-term scheme of things.

Singles Match for the WWE Championship

Drew McIntyre (c) def. Randy Orton

This wasn't a bad match at all. Randy Orton seems to be on a mission to prove that he can have great matches without a ton of dives since his feud with Edge earlier this year. They totally had me going that Orton was going to win the title when Drew whiffed the Claymore completely though. I totally bought into that spot, only for Drew to roll him up with a backslide to retain.

Another positive about that match. There weren't 1001 finisher kickouts and near-falls. #SummerSlam

— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) August 24, 2020

I'm fine with Drew retaining, but off a backslide? C'mon now. #SummerSlam

— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) August 24, 2020

I don't have an issue with a backslide being used, but my main issue was with it being used merely to give the commentary team the excuse to shout "YOU'LL NEVER SEE IT COMIN'!!" as the show's tagline. That had to be a Vince call to have the commentary team shout that right after the finish. Regardless of that call, I wouldn't mind seeing Drew and Randy have a rematch.

As of this posting (8/27/20), Keith Lee has debuted on Monday Night RAW - as advertised in the promo package that aired after this match and is set to face Randy Orton one-on-one at WWE Payback this Sunday (8/30/20). Seems like they are scrapping the rocket on the back of the Limitless One right off the bat.

Falls Count Anywhere Match for the WWE Universal Championship

"The Fiend" Bray Wyatt def. Braun Strowman (c)

I'm going to be honest. At this point of the show, I had mentally tuned this match out for the most part. For what I did pay attention to, I thought it was decent, but I can't say that I'm a fan of these slow-prodding big man matches in WWE. They never seem right on execution. Kross and Lee had a match in the same spot that left a lot to be desired and while this match wasn't as highly anticipated as that one was, there were some good spots to this match. It just felt like they completely shit the bed on the finish.

Boy that was dumb. An EXTREMELY stupid finish to a decent match. Braun setup his own downfall here like a complete dumbass.

And huge meh to Roman coming back. If he's not worried about his health then I'm not going to worry for him. #SummerSlam

— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) August 24, 2020

The talk of the town of this match was the big return of the "Big Dog" himself - ROMAN REIGNS. Now THAT I didn't see coming at all. I thought he was staying FAR, FAR away from this company as long as COVID-19 was a threat, especially with his previous battles with leukemia.

Roman Reigns returns.

I suppose since the Thunderdome is in an open air arena, it's safer for him to perform. WWE has that rented out for the next few months, so that's long enough to get the ratings back up before taking him off TV for a while. You don't want to overexpose him before WrestleMania season. If I was Charlotte Flair, that's what I would do. Stay far away until close to that magic hour of 2021 when they need her for the WrestleMania builds while establishing her some new opponents and new faces to face.

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Afterthoughts:

With the ratings for Monday Night RAW and Friday Night SmackDown! both reaching record lows, you knew Vince McMahon was going to hit the panic button and bring back someone from off of the bench at home. I wonder how long it's going to take before we see Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman show back up on TV? I would pay to see him bare knuckle brawling in that RAW Underground thing at least once. Either that or call him down for a NXT TakeOver special to have a Fight Pit match against Timothy Thatcher, but I know we won't see that anytime soon.

All in all, I think WWE delivered on both fronts with both NXT AND the main roster for once for Summerslam weekend. This show was far from perfect, but they had several matches that I was genuinely invested in. This was the first main roster PPV during the COVID-19 era that I have thoroughly enjoyed since the two-nights of WrestleMania back in April.