WWE Extreme Rules (July 14, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Extreme Rules (2019) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands. It took place on July 14, 2019, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the eleventh event under the Extreme Rules chronology.

The card comprised thirteen matches, including two on the pre-show. In an impromptu main event, Brock Lesnar cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Seth Rollins to win the Universal Championship for a record third time, right after Rollins and Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch had retained their respective titles against Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans in a Last Chance Winners Take All Extreme Rules mixed tag team match. In other prominent matches, Kofi Kingston retained the WWE Championship against Samoa Joe, AJ Styles defeated Ricochet to win his third United States Championship, The New Day's Big E and Xavier Woodsdefeated Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker) and former champions Daniel Bryan and Rowan to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship for a record-tying fourth-time, and The Undertaker and Roman Reigns defeated Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre in a No Holds Barred tag team match in the opening bout.

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Note: I know some of these matches are out of order, but I'm writing this out from memory. So you have my apologies in that aspect. 

Kick-Off Show: WWE Intercontinental Championship Match

Shinsuke Nakamura def. Finn Bálor

Kick-Off Show: WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match

Drew Gulak (c) def. Tony Nese

Roman Reigns & The Undertaker def. Drew McIntyre & Shane McMahon

I was surprised at first that they would open the show with The Undertaker, but after I thought about it more, I guess he didn't want to have the anxiety and pressure of having a dud of match close the show again like he did on the last Saudi show with Goldberg. This match played out very well. They played it smart and to Taker's limitations as they cut him off while allowing Roman to do most of the heavy lifting until they needed Taker to do his trademark spots.

Outside of that spot towards the end where Taker struggled to get Shane up for the Tombstone, I thought this was an excellent performance for Taker. If they are going to do Taker versus Drew next, then I'm all for it if he wants to do the honors and get McIntyre over to the next level. The rumor mill AKA dirtsheets are saying that Taker wants to do that match for WrestleMania next year, but I can't see WWE waiting that long. From the teases in this match right here, I can easily see this being a marquee match on the upcoming Summerslam card.

RAW Tag Team Championship Match

The Revival (c) def. The Usos

I can't complain when it comes to these two teams squaring off. I would have been happy with either team going over here. I have to wonder if The Revival are actually going to renew their contracts or not when their deals are up. It seems like WWE are bending over backwards to try to make them happy in the meantime. As for the Usos, they seem to be "on lock" (no pun intended) for a very long time with WWE and I don't blame them.

2-on-1 Handicap Match for SmackDown! Women's Championship - Bayley (c) def. Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss

The majority of this match was fucking boring. This would have fared better on the preshow/kick-off or better yet, on Monday Night RAW tomorrow night. The biggest takeaway here is that Bliss wasn't pinned, so she could easily point the blame on her so-called best friend and have her own agenda in terms of a rematch. I really liked the double submission spot towards the end, with the callback to Sasha Banks' Banks Statement applied on Bliss with the leglock on Nikki.

Wrestling With Wregret brought up an excellent question on Twitter during the show that I didn't realize until now.

Even when Ronda Rousey was on the warpath last year, Bliss got beat but she never wasn't written off nor portrayed weak even while injured. That's something I didn't think much of until now. After some of the stuff that shed light upon about Bliss in her WWE 24 special, I can't help but suspect that there's a bit of favoritism for her over a lot of the other women in the company. This is looking like the AJ Lee situation all over again.

Aleister Black def. Cesaro

This was essentially a rematch from their days in the wXw promotion in the United Kingdom roughly ten years ago when they were still going by their Tommy End and Claudio Castagnoli names in their pre-WWE tenures. Call me biased, but I thought this was the best match on this entire show from bell to bell. The right man won clean, but it still brings up a glaring question. WHY THE FUCK ISN'T CESARO POSITIONED AS A MAIN EVENT TALENT IN THIS COMPANY???!!!

Don't give me that brass ring quote from Vince McMahon on the Stone Cold podcast either. This dude has grabbed every brass ring that this company has waved in front of him, making shitty gimmicks and partnerships into chicken salad on a regular basis. This guy busted his teeth out for this company and came back to work the next week without taking time off, looking for more. His wife works there and it's obvious that he's not going anywhere, but toss the man a bone. There's nothing to lose on taking a chance on this guy.

Braun Strowman def. Bobby Lashley

I'm usually not a fan of big man matches, but this was actually better than I thought it was going to be starting off. The brawling around the arena was a bit hit or miss, but I enjoyed this match for the most part. I couldn't help but laugh at the finish where Braun Strowman did his best impression of the Kool-Aid Man bursting out of that box that they both fell into. This seemed like something out of the same vein of Matanza Cueto and Mil Muertes' first collison, but I'm glad that Strowman emerged as the winner. WWE damaged that dude's street cred enough over the past year and it's long overdue that they remedied that. He's not as far gone as someone like Ziggler, so there's hope to redeem him in the eyes of the fans. Lashley can easily shake off this loss too, but I honestly can see him leaving WWE again once his contract expires if he doesn't get that match with Lesnar that he essentially came back for.

WWE Championship Match

Kofi Kingston (c) def. Samoa Joe

If I was Samoa Joe, I would be just like Dean Ambrose/Jon Moxley, counting down the days when my contract expires. It's painfully obvious that this company has remotely no idea how to use this guy. This loss makes a whooping record of EIGHT WWE Universal and WWE Championship challenges that he's failed to capitalize on in losing efforts. It's the same song and dance - Joe talks a strong game but ultimately drops the ball when it matters most. Not to mention that WWE has made his submission hold pretty much laughable at this point. The only Samoan named Joe that they are firmly behind making a main eventer is Roman Reigns and you can easily BELIEVE THAT.

As for Kofi's WWE title reign, I'm not going to knock WWE's booking of Kofi as a legitimate threat. They've done an excellent job since WrestleMania giving him a lot of convincing wins against everyone lined up in his way. My major issue with him is he's just damn fucking boring in this role. Everyone was firmly behind him in support when he was in the chase going into WrestleMania as no one didn't think that WWE was going to actually put the title on him in the first place or consider him at all. It was a happy accident from Mustafa Ali's unfortunate injury that led to that turn of events. I'm happy to see one of my own kind win it big in WWE, but let's all be real here - the honeymoon is over. People aren't clamouring to see Kofi Kingston as champion nor are they filling up the arenas as a result. That could be said for all three of the top main eventers of the company right now, actually, but Kofi is the eye sore that sticks out more than the rest.

United States Championship Match

AJ Styles (w/ Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson) def. Ricochet (c)

Great match and excellent use of the Club at ringside here. They didn't come off as the crutch that Styles needed to win, but gave Styles the sprinkle of heel heat he needed to make this turn convincing. Besides, Ricochet didn't need the belt at this point. It's better to have him in the chase.

Triple Threat Match for SmackDown! Tag Team Championships

The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) def. Heavy Machinery and Daniel Bryan & Erick Rowen (c)

When commentary pointed out that New Day could be walking out of this PPV with all of the gold, I should have foreseen that they would have won this match. Nonetheless, it still pissed me off. WWE has so many great tag teams signed, especially some called up from NXT that they have been doing absolutely jackshit with outside of comedy segments, but they flock to the tired-and-true New Day gimmick as the ones who need to carry the gold. I'm not knocking the New Day's ability in the ring as all three of them are gifted athletes, but c'mon. Give someone else a chance to establish themselves in this tag division. At this point, New Day should be putting over other teams like the Usos have been doing on occasion. Heavy Machinery shouldn't get the gold right off the bat either, but I wouldn't have minded seeing Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowen hold the belts for a bit longer. You would think that Bryan would want to stick in a tag team a bit longer to work easier on his body.

Kevin Owens def. Dolph Ziggler in a squash

I thought I was going to be able to get a bathroom break at this point, but as soon as I stood up this match was over. After laughing hysterically about it, I came to the conclusion that this is exactly how Ziggler should be used at this stage of the game. He's too stupid to realize that his worth has been squandered in this company, yet renewed his contract, so let him lay in the bed of nails that he made for himself. I'm fed up with feeling sorry for him at this point. If WWE wants to continue the course with this rebel-type direction for Kevin Owens then I'm all for it. It worked for Becky Lynch last year, so I don't see the problem with it here. Just pick up the breadcrumbs where CM Punk left off about challenging the Authority at every turn and pointing out their bullshit and he'll EASILY keep people eating out of his hands with this babyface/tweener turn.

Winner Takes All - No Holds Barred Tag Team Match

WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins (c) and RAW Women's Champion Becky Lynch (c) def. Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans to retain

Before I proceed to shit on this match, I want to applaud the production values in that video package to highlight the feud that led into this match. That was some of WWE's best work there on display. Say what you will about the company as a whole, but when they want to sell you these big matches like a big deal, there's no one else who does it better - outside of maybe UFC or New Japan...

I thought the vast majority of this match was a waste of time as we've seen all four of these individuals butt heads in matches for what seemed like an eternity in the months and weeks following WrestleMania. This was just more of the same with the Extreme Rules stipulation attached. It got to a point where I just drowned the commentary team out of my mind in terms of listening to them ATTEMPT to explain the rules of this match when there's no rules in an Extreme Rules match.

Even though they tried to sell the narrative that men couldn't attack the women and vice versa, I applaud Becky Lynch for selling the shit out of that End of Days towards the end of the match. She took that better than most of the guys do. Of course that set off Rollins quicker than Krillin's death at the hands of Frieza in Dragon Ball Z and he hit a whooping THREE Curb Stomps on Corbin to pick up the victory for his team.

Brock Lesnar cashes in Money in the Bank and defeats Seth Rollins to become the NEW WWE Universal Champion for the third time

(Laughs) I'm not even mad to be quite honest. At this point, it was obvious that it was beneath Brock to go after Kofi's championship, especially after how WWE made a big deal about this was the first time that the New Day would all have championship gold. We all knew that would've went down just like Beast in the East if Brock came fishing for the New Day's titles. On top of that, WWE dodged the bullet on the least likely scenario of having the fans turn on them in that situation anyway.

At the same time, I absolutely LOVE Bryan Alvarez's proposed idea that he pitched for how Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch could have fought off Brock's cash-in together while simultaneously getting both of them over as megastars. Such a missed opportunity in that regard.

At the end of the day, Brock caught Rollins with his pants down and capitalized on his shortcomings. It's as simple as that. I'm just curious to see where they go with this from here.

WWE Elimination Chamber (Feb. 17, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Elimination Chamber (2019) (also known as No Escape (2019) in Germany) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands. It took place on February 17, 2019, at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. It was the ninth event promoted under the Elimination Chamber chronology.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the pre-show. In the main event, Daniel Bryan defeated AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Kofi Kingston, Randy Orton, and Jeff Hardy in an Elimination Chamber match to retain the WWE Championship. On the undercard, The Boss 'N' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) won a women's tag team Elimination Chamber match to become the inaugural holders of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, Finn Bálor defeated Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush in a 2-on-1 handicap match to win the Intercontinental Championship, and Ronda Rousey defeated Ruby Riott to retain the Raw Women's Championship.

Cruiserweight Championship -- Buddy Murphy (c) def. Akira Tozawa via pinfall to retain the title (Kickoff Show)

For once, I actually had the kick-off running on my TV, but I admittedly was half paying attention as I was preparing dinner. From what I did watch, I enjoyed, but I feel sorry for the 205 Live guys wrestling in front of a half-empty crowd while the arena was still piling up. I still feel like Tozawa was only in this position to show Hideo Itami what he missed out on after departing from the company last month. Don't forget WWE is petty enough to do shit like that.

Women's Tag Team Championship (Elimination Chamber) -- Boss 'N Hug Connection vs. Riott Squad vs. Nia Jax & Tamina vs. The IIconics vs. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville vs. Naomi & Carmella

ORDER OF ENTRY	ORDER OF ELIMINATION
Boss 'N Hug Connection	Naomi & Carmella (IIconics)
Fire & Desire (Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville)	IIconics (Jax & Tamina)
Riott Squad	Riott Squad (Jax & Tamina 2)
The IIconics	Jax & Tamina (Boss 'N Hug)
Naomi & Carmella	Rose & Deville (Boss 'N Hug 2)
Nia Jax & Tamina	Winners: Boss 'N Hug Connection

If I'm perfectly honest, I didn't care for this match at all for the bulk of the first half of it.

(Whistles) Boy that was an UGLY execution there on that Tower of Doom spot. 

Fire & Desire definitely held their own in this match to say that they started the match with the Boss 'N Hug Connection, but I'll admit that I was impressed with the Riott Squad's performance over any other team in this match. Someone must have told Naomi and Carmella that they were going to be the first ones out of this match right before their entrances because damn they looked pissed throughout this match, especially while standing in their pods together. I can't blame WWE for that decision as that team made little to no sense anyway. If anything I thought they would have teamed up Naomi with the SmackDown! Women's Champion Asuka that WWE keeps forgetting about in relation to all of this Charlotte, Becky, Ronda stuff going on. It's not like they had R-Truth on television the last few weeks since winning the United States Championshp, so it wouldn't have been a massive loss for Carmella to not been in this match when they were going to shoehorn her in as an afterthought anyway.

Looked like Liv tried to do a MaTrish evasion and gave up halfway into that thought process.

When they went through majority of the entrants into this match and there weren't any eliminations when the countdown started for Nia and Tamina to enter, I figured they were saving all of the eliminations for when they came in here to clean house. WWE does the same thing in Royal Rumble matches where the powerhouses come in and clear out the ring once there's a ton of bodies in there for they can toss around like lawn furniture. It wasn't much different here. I'll be lying if I didn't admit that I enjoyed the IIconics' antics in this match, especially once Nia and Tamina got involved. Regardless of that, I don't see much novelty about keeping them around. I suppose WWE had to keep up their international signees quota up so that's the only reason the Australian chicks have a spot on the main roster over some of the MUCH more talented women still in NXT. Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan couldn't promo if their lives depended on it, but they impressed me a little with their tag team offense here. Liv is still botch-tastic as ever, but both of the IIconics are worse than her in my eyes. I hear podcasters talk about how bad they are all the time, but this is my first exposure of how bad they've gotten since being on the main roster because y'know, I don't watch RAW and SmackDown! weekly anymore. A part of me feels like a bulk of these women wouldn't even be employed if WWE weren't just stockpiling talent just for no one else can hire them.

SmackDown Tag Team Championship -- The Usos def. The Miz & Shane McMahon (c) via pinfall to win the titles

First off, congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Mizanin for It Baby #2 on the way. I would do the same thing if I was in Miz's shoes and married to Maryse.

Following that lukewarm crowning of the Women's Tag Team Championships, this was mediocre follow-up. I thought it was pretty embarrassing that Shane McMahon was showing up The Miz here for the bulk of the match, holding up his team together against the Usos. The Usos had a great showing here and actually got me into the match by the time it was over. Color me shocked to see the Usos recapture the gold after Jey Uso was arrested over the past weekend. Then again, the Usos contracts are up in April and this just might be WWE's way of keeping them happy for they won't jump ship to AEW afterwards.

Shane always has to hit that elbow on someone in these matches and I'm always asking myself how much longer can he keep doing this to himself when it's not a full-time member of the roster, especially when it looks like he's gassed within the first 5-10 minutes of action?

As for Miz and Shane, I think a WrestleMania match between them is in the cards. Congratulations are in order for Mr. and Mrs. Mizanin too with It Baby #2 on the way. Miz ain't playing around about keeping Maryse's baby-making oven cooking - not that I blame the guy...

Intercontinental Championship -- Finn Balor def. Bobby Lashley (c) & Lio Rush via pinfall to win the title

Goddamn this was a complete waste of time to watch. It's matches like this is why I don't watch Monday Night RAW. This is the definition of a bathroom break on the middle of this card.

Finn with this tired looking flip out of the ring that somehow kept Lashley down long enough for him to thrash Lio Rush some more before hitting his finish...

The only good thing to come out of this match is seeing Lashley beat the shit out of Lio Rush afterwards. Sadly, they already put the two back together on Monday Night RAW the next night as they faced the team of Finn Balor and the debuting Ricochet.

Raw Women's Championship -- Ronda Rousey (c) def. Ruby Riott via submission to retain the title

Complete squash here. That's all she wrote really. Ronda came out here cosplaying as Sonya Blade (Ronda's voicing her in the upcoming Mortal Kombat 11 video game FYI...) and promptly beat Ruby Riott in dominating fashion, despite a lot of bullshitting around at ringside during the opening moments of the match.

The biggest story of this match is what transpired afterwards with Becky Lynch limping through the crowd on crutches and hopping over the ringside barricade to confront both Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair (who was watching at ringside). Over the past weekend, WWE filmed an incident where Charlotte Flair re-injured Becky Lynch's ailing knee (the same one that Nia Jax targeted during the finish of the 2019 Women's Royal Rumble Match), so Becky was here to confront Charlotte about that while she was staring down with Ronda Rousey. Of course, things go south as Becky wails all over Charlotte with her crutches and invites Ronda Rousey to join in with her. Y'know as payback to what Charlotte did to her at Survivor Series. Instead, Becky attacks Ronda from behind and gives her an even more vicious assault than she gave Charlotte Flair. You can see that Ronda got hit all over her head here and I'm surprised she wasn't concussed from the blows Becky was landing here. By the end of it, Ronda was bleeding from the head and the arms. Holy crap they are going all in with this angle.

Becky nailed Ronda good there on the side of her head and she wasn't prepared to take that shot at all.

The only thing I can nit-pick here is that while Michael Cole is shouting on commentary about "Becky's not supposed to be here!!" that it took at least another five minutes before security came out to restrain her from assaulting Ronda and Charlotte further. It just came off really stupid in that aspect.

Baron Corbin def. Braun Strowman via pinfall (No Disqualification)

This was another complete waste of time here. I went into this match thinking it was going to be a squash but nope seems like WWE has given up all hope on Strowman. Corbin defeats him in dominating fashion as he's promptly driven through several tables with a Shield-style Triple Powerbomb, assisted by the unlikely of allies in Drew Galloway and Bobby Lashley. I don't like Lio Rush either, but how is working for Corbin in what seems like a rehash of that epic failure that was the League of Nations faction any sort of an upswing for Lashley's career?

Whether that was a stack of tables or an open dumpster, they aren't doing Strowman any favors here. IMO it should have been all of those guys ganging up on Corbin and dumping him into a dumpster fire where he belongs.

Outside of Kurt Angle putting over Galloway clean, it seems like WWE Creative doesn't know jackshit on what to do with Drew and Lashley. Lashley should be presented here like a monster and being groomed to be the guy to face Brock at some point - with or without the title. If they aren't going to do that at WrestleMania then when are they going to put some steam back on Lashley before people don't even care anymore? It saddens me to see so many of WWE's top tier talent on the main roster being reduced into mere afterthoughts. There's no excuse to have this many people on their roster(s) and not knowing what to do with them.

Lacey Evans catwalks

Yep, that's ALL she did too before the cameras faded out into another video package to promote the main event. I'm guessing Lacey Evans is going to be the new Emmalina since Mandy Rose has that Eva Marie gimmick down.

WWE Championship (Elimination Chamber) -- Daniel Bryan (c) vs. AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton vs. Samoa Joe vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Mustafa Ali Kofi Kingston

ORDER OF ENTRY	ORDER OF ELIMINATION
Daniel Bryan	Joe (Styles)
Samoa Joe	Hardy (Bryan)
Kofi Kingston	Styles (Orton)
AJ Styles	Orton (Kingston)
Jeff Hardy	Kingston (Bryan)
Randy Orton	Winner: Daniel Bryan

Bryana and Samoa Joe started things off, but things really didn't pick up until Kofi Kingston entered shortly thereafter. Following his massive upset over Bryan on the go-home edition of SmackDown!, Kofi has garnered a lot of steam - convincing a lot of people that he may do the impossible on this night and become the WWE Champion. If this was any other PPV before WrestleMania season, I would buy into that hype too, but no, I can't believe that here. Look, I get people want to see Kofi win the big one after roughly a decade or more within the 'E Machine. He was added into this match as an impromptu replacement for Mustafa Ali getting injured the week prior. Everything that they have been doing here and in this match was meant for him. Now if they gave Kofi his own program and actually built towards a match between him and Daniel Bryan with a good narrative behind it, then yeah I can buy into it. Otherwise, I'm not getting my hopes up. You don't just stop being a traveling goof overnight and become WWE Champion... well, unless you're Jinder Mahal, but that's a totally different story altogether there. 

I'm starting to feel like Samoa Joe coming to WWE was a waste of his talents - at least on the main roster. Joe would spit hot fire in his promos then come out to a massive dud of a match when it comes to putting his money where his mouth is. It's getting tiresome to hear him always talk a big game but never live up to his promises/claims. It's definitely not doing him any favors with those fans who aren't familiar with his work prior to coming to WWE or even NXT for that matter. 

Goddamn that RKO counter there to the Phenomenal Forearm was pretty sweet. If they don't have any big plans for Styles at WrestleMania then I wouldn't mind seeing him versus Randy Orton one on one. Doesn't even have to be for the title either. 

Seeing Jeff Hardy doing shit like this just makes me mad, knowing how his body is already in rough shape from the years of abuse in crazy matches and taking insane bumps. I don't know what possessed him to do that. I wonder what WWE is going to do with the Hardyz' contracts expiring within the next few days and they haven't renewed them yet? 

Speaking of stupid bumps, look at that shit by Kofi. He could have EASILY concussed Daniel Bryan and put him back on the shelf for good. On top of that, that landing could have been a lot worse as Joe narrowly helped him avoid landing on the ropes behind him. A 10+ year veteran being that careless blows my mind to do something like that without any qualms about his own safety or better yet, his own fellow competitors here. 

I remember that sounding like a gunshot live during the broadcast. Can't imagine how that sounded and looked like in the arena.

The shining moment/highlight of this match was the finale between Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston one-on-one. It's 2019 and by luck of the draw (namely Mustafa Ali's untimely injury) that we're getting a Kofi Kingston main event push. 

When Kofi splatted into the canvas here, that's when I KNEW he wasn't winning shit. I was with everyone else being fooled by that near-fall earlier though.

Sadly, it ultimately fell flat - just like like Kofi's diving splash attempt there - and Daniel Bryan hit the Knee Plus (or whatever they are calling that move nowadays) to retain. 

Closing Thoughts

Take a bow, Kofi. This night was your shining moment. 

By this posting, WWE already made the rematch between Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston for Fastlane next month, so we might see Kofi capture the WWE Championship either there or at WrestleMania. With the exception of this match, the tail end of the Women's Tag Team Championship Chamber Match, and the bit between Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, and Charlotte Flair, the majority of this show was a massive dud and complete waste of time. So much for gaining traction for the road to WrestleMania. If Fastlane is going to be another 2-3 match show, then I'm actually dreading that coming up next month. 

What happened to the years in days of old when we actually looked forward to the annual hype train and storylines that were built up to WrestleMania? Not this crap where it seems like they are throwing shit at the wall, week-in, week-out, every single week on a whim without a rhyme or reason. 

OPINION -- WWE Backlash (2018) Highlights An Ongoing Issue With WWE Programming

Originally, I was going to do a write-up on WWE Backlash, but I just couldn't... That show - except for that stellar opener between The Miz and current Intercontinenal Champion Seth Rollins - was a complete waste of time. I'm not going to waste my time reminding you all of how bad it was. Instead, I'm going to point out a few glaring issues that this show highlights with WWE's current product here in 2018.

The WWE Championship is still treated like a secondary/glorified mid-card title.

I wanted to kick myself in the nuts after wasting my Sunday sitting through this entire show...

I have a horrible feeling that we're less than a year away from the WWE Championship title matches opening RAW/SmackDown! shows and PPVs as the opening match or kick-off/pre-show matches like how the World Heavyweight Championship was regulated to before the end of the original brand split. Remember when Edge and Alberto Del Rio were fighting for that title on the opening match of RAW and/or WrestleMania back then? 

I kid you not - I fear those dark days for that title are going to be sooner more than later. It was bad enough when Jinder Mahal held that damn thing for the better part of last year. It's a damn shame too when AJ Styles (arguably the best worker in the company along with Rollins) is busting his ass to keep it relevant, despite being in a lackluster feud with Shinsuke Nakamura. That mess though? That feud is it's own pile of crap all on it's own, not to mention the icing on this shit sundae being the double nutshot/low blow to end a damn No DQ match of all things by double count out. This whole thing would be over if both guys would actually wear a damn athletic cup for protection. 

Nakamura's all smiles going along with this whole "No speaky English" bit when I'm sure Vince McMahon is foaming at the mouth to make him Kung Fu Naki 2018.

The Roman Reigns experiment has failed - on MULTIPLE levels. It's time to pack up and move on.

I wanted to choke Roman AND everyone on WWE Creative for this match running over 11PM on a Sunday night when it's not even anywhere close being a WrestleMania-caliber show.

It's been what, FOUR YEARS, since Vince McMahon tried this experiment and we're still here in 2018 with Vince McMahon forcing this narrative down our throats. Say what you will about John Cena but even his rise to fame wasn't this forced back in the day. 

Roman Reigns is a solid in-ring worker, but he's definitely not the guy to be carrying the company into the future, no matter how hard Vince McMahon wants that to happen. It would be best to just regulate Reigns to some midcard feuds and out of the main event picture for a long while to get that taste of failure out of everyone's mouths - then maybe they can pull that heel turn and salvage the guy for people to give a damn but as it stands currently, it's hard to be a fan of that guy. He's definitely NOT the guy that needs to beat Lesnar. To be honest, they missed the boat to let Strowman do it a few months ago when he was at the height of his popularity and the lackluster feuds and directionless narrative for his character is only going to drag him down into the comedy route and there's little escape from that. Just ask all of those guys in The New Day or Heath Slater. When Vince has it in his head that you're going to be traveling goof then it's going to be hard to get that stink off of you unless you leave the company and comeback like Gallows (previously Festus) and Drew Galloway/McIntyre after reinventing yourself on the indies. Then again, if I were a betting man, I would bank on Bobby Lashley being the one who ends up dethroning Lesnar at Summerslam as that's the only remaining marquee match that neither of them have done that would be worth their while. It's not like WWE are at a loss of options to go with for who should be in Roman Reigns' spot as "the guy" for the company, it's just that WWE are pretty damn ignorant to crowd responses to him and definitely have blinders on when it comes to the rest of the tons of talent they have signed to contracts.

I can't speak for anyone else but it frustrates me on days end that this company has so many indie greats on payroll, yet refuses to utilize that talent properly. Everyone else can see that Roman Reigns isn't the guy so why can't WWE Creative or more importantly, Vince McMahon?

There's not a single compelling narrative for neither of the Women's Championships on either RAW or SmackDown!

Don't look at me like that Bliss. I didn't book this shit. 

After her stellar debut at WrestleMania against the team of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, Ronda Rousey was nowhere to be found in action on this card. So much for that whole bit about she's "full-time" like everyone else on the roster. I would bet the farm on this that in a few months, Ronda Rousey will end up having the female equivalent of Brock Lesnar's deal in terms of limited appearances and what not.

Despite their strong debut, the IIconics have been nothing more but jobber fodder on the main roster. It was strange too - they were on the kick-off show panel briefly, but didn't interfere in Carmella's title defense against Charlotte Flair. I suppose WWE said that was too obvious to see coming that even Ray Charles saw it, so didn't opt for that finish. Regardless, anything was better than that entire match of Carmella shrieking like a banshee and holding Charlotte in rest holds for what felt like twenty minutes for the bulk of that match. I'm a fan of Carmella's gimmick/character, but much like Alexa Bliss (we're about to get to her in a minute too...), her ring work leaves a lot to be desired. I understand the argument of "Oh but heels aren't supposed to do much and just garner heat!", but heels aren't supposed to bore me to sleep either. Baron Corbin's already king of that profession if that's the case...

Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax's title match wasn't any better, following another lackluster build with Bliss continuing her "Moment of Bliss" vignettes where she cites examples of Nia's bullying while shading in a few body shaming jabs in there. Be A Star my ass... We're at this level of childish storylines even though WWE wants to continue to shove this whole "women's evolution" thing down our throats when we're still booking Attitude Era/Diva Search Era-level storylines. Stuff like this doesn't do the girls any favors and it definitely doesn't do the company any favors with promos like Nia's that were clearly forced and scripted there. If WWE keeps this up, people will start to reject this whole movement for the women and this whole thing will blow up in their faces before they could cash in on that inevitable Four Horsewomen of NXT vs. Four Horsewomen of MMA match.

There's a lot of great matches between the women on both the main roster and down on NXT, but the story behind them are either facepalm-worthy or non-existent. 

The talent that should be carrying the company are littered throughout the infamous "mid-card hell" or held down underneath a glass ceiling instead of being given the ball and allowed to run with it

The reigning Intercontinental Champion, Seth Rollins, had a taste of a main event push prior to his injury, but ever since he came back he's been firing off at all cylinders. His opponent on this show - The Miz - hasn't held the WWE Championship for well over seven years. These are two Superstars who could easily carry both brands if given the opportunity. They can definitely deliver in the ring, with their match on this show being a perfect example of that. 

At some point, WWE needs to just get the Universal Championship off Brock Lesnar and kick him to the curb if he's not willing to commit to semi-full schedule. Alas, we probably won't see Lesnar drop the title until after he breaks CM Punk's record as the longest reigning WWE title holder of the modern era at 434 days - which he's guaranteed to do since (as of this posting) he's not scheduled to defend the title at Money in the Bank.

I will never understand what is WWE's fixation on these "temporary band-aids" garner a boost in ratings either from part-timers coming back, a random NXT call-up or roster split trade/move, or a return from injury, then either don't do anything of value from these individuals outside of a single noteworthy match or two while their regular workhorses get the shaft. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the workhorses at the forefront and have those band-aids to complement what you already have instead of hitting the "oh shit" button whenever someone gets injured and having to play damage control on your spoiled goods - i.e. workhorses and regular full-time talent that have been damaged from poor booking and horrible gimmicks. 

WWE Fastlane (March 5, 2017) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Fastlane (2017) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for the Raw brand. It took place on March 5, 2017 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This was the third event in the Fastlane chronology, and the first to be brand exclusive.

Ten matches were contested at the event with one match on the pre-show. In the main event, Goldberg defeated Kevin Owens to win the WWE Universal Championship, becoming the only person to win the WWE Universal Championship, WWE's World Heavyweight Championship and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. On the undercard, Roman Reigns defeated Braun Strowman, ending Strowman's undefeated streak, Bayley retained the Raw Women's Championship against Charlotte Flair, thus ending Flair's pay-per-view singles match undefeated streak, Neville retained the WWE Cruiserweight Championship against Gentleman Jack Gallagher and Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson retained the Raw Tag Team Championship against Enzo Amore and Big Cass.

Akira Tozawa and Rich Swann def. Noam Dar and The Brian Kendrick

Don't ask me about the preshow as I didn't bother to watch.

Samoa Joe def. Sami Zayn

I don't want to shit on Samoa Joe but it's hard for me to care about him on the main roster for the same reasons I wasn't too crazy about him on NXT - he's just coasting on what worked for him over the last decade in TNA/Impact Wrestling. The average WWE fan is either too jaded or aren't aware of that fact so this stuff is new territory for them. For me after following Joe's career for a long time, it's more of been-there, done that.

RAW Tag Team Chammpionship Match - Gallows & Anderson (c) def. Enzo & Cass

While I was a little surprised that they didn't hand Enzo and Cass the win here, I can't be mad at the result. Gallows and Anderson have finally started to pick up a bit of steam since winning the tag team gold and I would like to see them hold the titles for a good while before losing them to Enzo and Cass. They have to be careful with this as Enzo and Cass have lost so many of these tag team title opportunities that it's hard to get behind these guys. It's starting to look like they are the tag team equivalent of Dolph Ziggler where they can never win when it matters the most.

As for this match, it wasn't nothing to write home about if you seen any other Enzo and Cass match. Enzo gets beaten up and bullied by the heels for 90% of the match until the hot tag to Cass, who cleans house upon arrival, and it ends with some crazy clusterfuck finish after Enzo and Cass' double team spot.

Sasha Banks def. Nia Jax

Goddamn, this was a sloppy match. Like I said on Twitter during the show live, I'll give them both credit for some creative spots here as they were definitely trying to make this special but the execution was off far too much for me to really get into it. I could tell Nia has finally been studying some of Awesome Kong's matches as that Accordion Stretch on Sasha was definitely a nod from her playbook. That move to the front guillotine choke was a nice touch too, but you can tell Nia botched the Samoa Drop counter and that's why Sasha called an audible to go into the Sleeper Hold from her back.

Can someone please tell Nia to stop the whining/shouting during her matches? It sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Ugh, I'm totally not looking forward to her being led around by the other 3 Horsewomen at WrestleMania in that what is looking like a potential Fatal Four Way match.

Cesaro def. Jinder Mahal

I think Solomonster said it best on his post-Fastlane podcast: "Mahal is a walking, talking neon sign Wellness Policy violation." I'm guessing WWE is just keeping him around on payroll until they do the post-WM call-ups and firings. Cesaro was selling his back throughout this match, so that contributed to him not doing his more flashier offense. As a result, this match was pretty boring. It was pretty cool to see him bust out that 619 again and even use the Swiss Uppercut as his finish, that's all I could really give them props for in this match as it was clearly filler.

The Big Show def. Rusev (w/ Lana)

If you thought the match before this was boring, then this one was just as bad and felt like it was even longer as filler. From the look on Big Show's face, I thought they were going to have him come out and job out Rusev immediately but nope. I have to admit that I hate how Rusev (along with Lana too) have fallen off the radar (or rather the ladder) so quickly over the past year. One would think that Rusev would be groomed into being a potential main eventer by this point, but nope. He's still reduced to doing stupid midcard shit like this. No offense to Big Show, but there's plenty of other useless fodder on the RAW talent pool that they could feed to him if they need to job out on a throwaway PPV like this.

Now that it looks like that Shaq match isn't happening, you would think that WWE would want to give Show a credible opponent on the roster to have him bow out against on what could be possibly his last WrestleMania to improvise, but nope, they don't establish nothing here - even more so with that lackluster finish to this match.

Cruiserweight Championship Match - Neville (c) def. Jack Gallagher

I have to say that it was hilarious that the cruiserweights had to save this show at this point. Neville and Gallagher killed it here as I would have been happy with either man walking away with the win here. Austin Aries had the funniest comment on commentary for the entire evening when referring to that he has the best "package" in the WWE in reference to his comeback package promoting this upcoming in-ring return. I'm guessing that they will be lining him up to square off against Neville at WrestleMania. Now that definitely won't be a piss break match. I'm sure Aries and Neville will knock that one out of the park if they are given enough time to shine.

Roman Reigns def. Braun Strowman

I think the match itself was the best thing on this entire show if I'm perfectly honest, BUT the finish was fucking stupid. At the same time, this match shouldn't have happened in the first damn place. All of these months of building up Braun Strowman and they couldn't give him a clean win over the Golden Boy to legitimize his status as major player. No matter how many ways you look at possible finishes/outcomes for this match, it just irons the fact out harder that WWE shouldn't have booked this match to begin with as there was no way to make both of these guys (who both need to look strong going into WM) look strong for WrestleMania right around the corner.

RAW Women's Championship Match - Bayley (c) def. Charlotte

Despite the fact that most people will be making fun of Bayley's botch out of the corner for a while (FYI ALL of the Horsewomen have been botching spots since NXT, so don't try to act like that's something new...), this was a pretty solid match between Bayley and Charlotte. Previously, I thought that these two women didn't mesh well since their days on NXT now that they've had a chance to gel together better on the main roster, this match wasn't a clusterfuck in the least.

Much like the Reigns/Strowman match, I was fine with this match until the finish. Sasha Banks' interference made it look like Bayley and Sasha were the heels that needed to cheat for Bayley to retain and it made Charlotte's "streak" ending look insignificant. Sure, WWE were the ones that made a bigger deal out of her undefeated PPV streak than fans did, but it was weird to see it end without any impact or significance made of it. I thought they would have ended it at WrestleMania instead of on one of these throwaway brand exclusive PPVs. It would have been easy to just have Bayley retain via disqualification with Charlotte's streak intact, but much like the rest of this show, I have absolutely no idea what the hell WWE Creative were thinking here tonight.

WWE Universal Championship Match - Goldberg def. Kevin Owens (c)

21 seconds... That's the total time for this entire match. Owens milked it by walking around the ring until finally stepping back in, only to get distracted by Chris Jericho's music. This allowed Goldberg to hit him with one of the weakest looking spears I've seen him hit outside of that one on The Undertaker at Royal Rumble. I honestly can't say that I'm surprised at the result but there were a lot of people thinking that WWE would actually let Goldberg lose to Owens here. Nah, the main event for WrestleMania means a lot more if it's actually for the title instead of two part-timers fighting over nothing. On top of that, let's be honest here. Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens wouldn't be closing out that card anyway no matter how many ways you slice it with Goldberg and Brock Lesnar on that card anyway.

Closing Thoughts

Simply put, this show was horrible. There were a lot of glimmers of hope for something great (Nia v. Sasha, Roman vs. Braun, Neville v. Gallagher, Bayley v. Charlotte) but blundered by creative in terms of finishes ruined this show from top to bottom. With WrestleMania right around the corner, WWE are going to have to be really creative if they hope to salvage this mess before April 2nd rolls around. After this show, I honestly don't see much of a reason to care about WrestleMania at this point.

Plus with RAW in Chicago tonight, I can't see myself sitting through three hours of CM Punk chants, knowing he's not going to come out.

NXT Takeover: Toronto (November 19, 2016) -- Results and Afterthoughts

NXT TakeOver: Toronto was a professional wrestling show in the NXT TakeOver series that took place on November 19, 2016, at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The event is produced by WWE for its NXT brand, and streamed live on the WWE Network.

Bobby Roode def. Tye Dillinger

This was a solid opener for this event, but if I'm perfectly honest, I'm not really blown away from anything Bobby Roode has done since his arrival in NXT. I'm not knocking the guy - it's just that I have been bored with him since his last run in Impact Wrestling and Global Force Wrestling. That goes double for Austin Aries too. It just seems like those guys are riding off the same old shit that they were doing in TNA for the last decade or more and the WWE marks who haven't bothered to watch anything outside of Vince's kingdom don't know any better, even though NXT is supposed to be the smarky audience.

To say that Roode dominated the majority of this match to a minor comeback by Dillinger, only for Roode to ultimately win at the end (with a fucking Impaler DDT no less) just seems like another blow to Dillinger as NXT continues to chop that guy's legs out from underneath him. Despite how stupid he looked in his entrance and he had to follow behind Roode's fucking mass choir singing along with his GLORIOUS entrance theme, Dillinger didn't allow that to shake him and the crowd was really behind the guy - even carrying on his memory throughout the weekend. I just wish WWE would give him a chance to shine instead of allowing him to fizzle out like most of their homegrown talent in NXT in favor of the established "indie darlings".

Dusty Tag Team Classic 2016 Finals - Authors of Pain def. TM61 with Paul Ellering confined within a shark tank hanging above the ring

Speaking of indie darlings, this is one case where the established indie guys should have gone over. The Authors of Pain have been lame since their debut and having Paul Ellering in their corner has done them absolutely no favors. They pulled that shark tank stipulation right out of their asses too as who saw that one coming. I guess they wanted to hype up that new playset for the kids with the holidays right around the corner.

Outside of that crazy dive spot off the structure at ringside, I couldn't have cared less about this match. Both teams tried but this year's Dusty Classic has been a complete waste just to feature the former CWC talent in pointless tag team matches as filler while taking away the focus from deserving new and established teams in NXT. Goddamn, this tournament has been such a wasted opportunity this year.

I'm guessing that they gave Paul Ellering's team the win since they are trying to brown nose him into sticking around even though his daughter recently signed with Ring of Honor for their women's division.

By the way, Paul Ellering would be one hell of a Hall of Fame induction sooner more than later. He's MORE than qualified at this point.

NXT Tag Team Championship Match - DIY def. The Revival (c) in a Best of 3 Falls Match

After the first fall, I stood up and applauded as I thought that was the finish. I had NO fucking idea that this was a Best of 3 Falls Match like Revival's last encounter against American Alpha. That Shatter Machine counter to Gargano's Slingshot Spear was fucking beautiful. That being said, Revival and DIY put on a tag team clinic in this match. It was as great as their last Takeover match, despite a few miscues and botches but it came together by the end. This was the ONLY match the entire weekend that had me emotionally invested from bell to bell.

I predicted that DIY would win the gold here, but at the same time, I was a little heartbroken to see Revival lose the titles. I hope they are getting a call up to the main roster sooner more than later as both brands could benefit from a tag team of their caliber on their rosters. If it is time for Revival to move up, then the division is in good hands with DIY on top.

NXT Women's Championship Match - Asuka (c) def. Mickie James

I don't get why the Canadian crowds were chanting that Mickie "still got it" when she honestly never quit wrestling much other than during her pregnancy. Just because you leave WWE for roughly the last few years doesn't mean that you haven't been wrestling period. Geez, folks. Give TNA some credit for keeping her memory alive after all of WWE's work lately to drag the post-Lita and Trish era of WWE Divas in the mud until the Bella Twins came around.

This match just seemed off. It wasn't as bad as Gail Kim and Mickie James' lack of chemistry from throughout the years, but to me, it felt like that Asuka and Mickie James were struggling to click with each other on this one. At the same time, I couldn't help but think in the back of my mind that Trish Stratus turned down this match because there wasn't no way in hell she would have come back just to get stiffed by Asuka and job out in her homeland. Yeah, I'd get knocked up too if that meant I would have an excuse not to fight her. Mickie did enough to keep this one interesting but not at one moment I felt that Mickie was going to win here.

Sadly, this match had a rushed/sloppy finish that just came off awkward in the middle of their reversal exchange. That alone left a bad taste in my mouth as we didn't get a true "decisive" win here. Instead, it just looked like a botch and the girls went with it. On top of that, this seemed like a missed opportunity to not have Asuka's next challenger make herself known after this match but I guess they didn't want to take the spotlight away from Mickie's "glorious" return.

As for Mickie James, I doubt she'll come back to a full-time WWE schedule when she's got a kid at home and her husband is still working the indies as well.

NXT Championship Match - Samoa Joe def. Shinsuke Nakamura (c) to become the first ever 2-time NXT Champion

Outside of not dislocating Samoa Joe's jaw again, I felt that this was about the same as their first match. Not saying that was a bad thing, but if you enjoyed their first encounter then it was a lot of the same here. I was really surprised to see Joe bust out the Chimera Plex in this match, but I guess that was to cater to the New Japan fans. I was even more surprised to see Nakamura lose here. I thought they would have given the two-time NXT Champion spot to Balor before he left but I was definitely wrong on that one. Samoa Joe seems like he's going to be one of Triple H's pet projects for a long time. If handled well, Joe could be a more dominating and unstoppable force than Owens and Lesnar combined. That would definitely make up for how TNA handled that guy's main event push.

I have to wonder if Nakamura is getting the call up sooner than we are expecting. I mean c'mon the guy is FAR too big of a star too keep him down in NXT for two WrestleManias in a row. Then imagine the crowd reaction for his entrance at WrestleMania, let alone for the Rumble next month if they debut him like they did AJ Styles last year. Just imagine that crowd reaction for Nakamura if he showed up in the Rumble match. It would be crazy if Nakamura and Styles have their Wrestle Kingdom rematch at WrestleMania next year.

After seeing people mention this online, I have to agree with the predictions that Nakamura will more likely get the belt back when NXT tours in Japan next month. That makes perfect sense for Samoa Joe's last hurrah and for Nakamura to regain the gold back in his homeland. I'm fine with that as long as they don't start tossing the belt back and forth like a hot potato like how Sasha Banks and Charlotte were doing on the main roster for the last few months.

Closing Thoughts

If I were to give this show a grade, I would give it an average B. That's it. It was your average run of the mill NXT episode stretched into two and half hours. The best match was easily the best match of the night and I'm sure people will be buzzing about the entrances for months to come, but there's nothing much else to write home about this event. Sad to say, but this was EASILY the best thing that WWE offered during Survivor Series weekend. If forced to pick between the two to watch, I HIGHLY recommend watching this show over wasting 3.5+ hours of your life watching that mess that was Survivor Series.