This Week In WWE Review (09/6/25 – 15/6/25)

DO I Have Everybody’s Attention now?

The show opens up with WWE champion John Cena. The fans teach him something every time they open their moves. At Money in the Bank, it was the Truth was a lie. He criticises them for their support for a comedy wrestler who’s greatest achievement is parodying him. John calls fans spineless, wheelchair warriors who have no real power to change anything. R-Truth is a gimmick we will spit out in a years time. Cena says Truth will never use him for a pity party ever again. John counts through the dates he has worked, only 19 appearances left of his retirement tour. He demands the fans call for some real competition, because he has beaten their best.

Here comes CM Punk. Holy shit it is happening.

Punk recites the beginning of the ‘pipebomb’ asking if he is comfortable enough to hear his words. Punk is not here to defend TKO or the establishment, but the people. They chose him to be the voice of the voiceless. Cena has taken shortcuts to survive as champion. Punk doesn’t kiss Final Boss ass like him, the people are his boss. Punk wants to take the title from him. He remembers Elimination Chamber when Cena screamed sorry for capitalising on Rollins’ attack to win. Cena knows what he is doing is wrong. Punk will take the title and Cena will apologise for who he has become. The title has corrupted John, Punk is afraid of the man he will become winning it but he will become a monster, to stop the monster.

Punk says it is up to him which date he wants to lose the title, if he is more Boston Red Sox than NY Yankee, it’ll be tonight. John Cena accepts…but not tonight. Cena makes it for Night of Champions at Saudi Arabia. Mr MITB Seth Rollins arrives to remind them he has the power of the cash-in.

Not even Cena could hide his enjoyment of this segment. Call me a mark, call me a smark, call me whatever you want. I see John Cena vs CM Punk, I get excited. Great opening segment, a hot promo and great references made by Punk. Cena making the title match for Saudi Arabia might be the biggest heel move of all time.

In Style

AJ Styles defeated Chad Gable in a solid little 7 minute match to open Raw. With a match featuring these two men, you know you’re in for a good time. They didn’t get a lot of time to do much, but what we saw was executed well. Gable had a slick counter out of the Styles Clash into a German Suplex.

The Creeds get involved to help Chad out of a Styles Clash attempt, allowing the Olympian to counter a Phenomenal Forearm into an Ankle lock. Styles fights out goes for the Calf Crusher, but transitions into a flash Styles Clash to win.

A solid matchup, AJ has been hitting these flashier Styles Clash recently and I am fan of it.

Queen of the Ring

We begin the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments tonight. Whilst I was critical of WWE’s lazy booking, setting up more multi-man qualifiers shortly after doing it for Money in the Bank, I cannot criticise the quality of the match. Roxanne Perez, Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley and Kairi Sane fighting for qualification in this stacked match.

A concurrent story in this match is Roxanne Perez trying to work with her fellow Judgement Day member Liv Morgan, who is hesitate to play ball with Roxy. Rhea Ripley of course is the larger, dominant woman against 3 smaller challengers so she is on the end of double and triple teams. Liv and Perez come together to control the match for a large portion.

We see some nice sequences between Kairi and Rhea, I wish the fans were able to get behind Kairi more but Rhea is too over. They erupt for her powering back into the match against the Judgement Day ladies. She blocks Oblivion and hits the Riptide but Raquel Rodriguez saves the match. Kairi wipes the out with a huge dive to the outside. She hits the Insane Elbow on Liv and goes for the pin, but Perez steals a pinfall over Sane to win the match.

Some great wrestling and even better storytelling in this one. Perez continues to have a great 2025 and she capitalises on her opponents. We’ll see how Liv Morgan handles the decision.

Heyyyy We Want Some…

Becky rarely has time to celebrate something new anymore after her brilliant career so far, but now she finally has a new accolade on her resume. The best opportunity this title has is being in the hands of The Man. Becky should be celebrating but the disrespect from the “ungrateful bird lady” ruined everything. She claims Lyra raised her hand too aggressively and injured her shoulder, so that is why she asked her to put the title around her waist. Lyra lost it and tried to kill her. Becky calls her out to apologise and to redo the show of respect that Becky deserves.

Lyra comes out full of rage but Becky is attacked from behind by Bayley! Lyra is as shocked as we are. Becky tries to escape, Lyra throws her back to Bayley but The Man does manage to evade again. Bayley is back, Becky has seen a ghost.

Glad to see Bayley back in WWE, the segment wasn’t much but it did what it needed to do.

The Truth Set Him Free

R-Truth appears in all black again and he says the fans do matter, unlike what people say. They heard, saw and listened to the noise and they got R-Truth. Truth is back in WWE for all of them, but he is also back for him. Not only did John bring Truth back, but we got me. He says he loves R-Truth but he can be too funny, nice and forgiving. Not him. He feels different. To anyone who thinks he is a sideshow act, a gimmick…Truth proceeds to cut his own dreads off!

The truth has set him free. He is Ron Killings, he is the Truth, nothing but the truth and put some respect on his name. Ron walks through the crowd.

Damn, we’re getting serious Ron Killings. I liked this a lot. Ron Killings is towards the end of his career and I like this as being one last hurrah for him in wrestling. We wanted Truth, and we got Ron Killings.

King of the Ring

Sami Zayn defeats Bron Breakker, Dominik Mysterio and Penta in a 17 minute banger in round 1 of the King of the Ring tournament. The match starts hot as Penta dives out on Dom who tried to roll out of harms way, whilst Sami traded blows with rival Bron. Breakker starts off the match dominant, destroying all 3 men with relative ease. They eventually team up to beat Bron down and send him to the outside. We see a series of cool spots by all 4 men. Sami takes out Bron with an Arabian moonsault to the outside. Penta takes out Sami with a crossbody from the ring post. Dominik takes out Penta with an impressive suicide DDT. Bron wipes out Dom with a brutal diving clothesline from the apron, over the announce desk.

Back from break, all 4 men are still taking it to each other. Some great near falls towards the end of this. Penta hits a Penta driver on Sami, Dom tries to copy Roxanne Perez and steal a pinfall on Penta but cannot get the shoulders down. We see a Mexican Destroyer but Breakker broke the pin (kinda, Dom kicked out too). Bron spears the shit out of Penta on the outside but he gets dropped with a BFT by LA Knight! Payback there. Sami hits the Helluva kick to Dominik and wins the match.

This was excellent. The action was hot throughout. LA Knight appearing was a welcome surprise since Seth & his boys have caused him some trouble. I imagine we might see them pay a visit this Smackdown.

No ONe is Ready

Video Package for Asuka!! She is back in the Queen of the Ring match next week. Glad to see her back, although I fear she is returning in losing fashion.

You Can Look but you can’t touch

Nikki Bella returns in her hometown, to quite a weak reaction considering it is her home. She says thanks to the WWE universe and the Bella army, she says thank you a million times.

Nikki is here to talk about the Women’s PLE event, Evolution. She main evented the first one and she is happy to see the state of women’s wrestling today. She hypes the upcoming stars such as “Stephanie Vaqway”. Someone should have informed her. She mentioned a few names and one of them wasn’t Liv Morgan.

Liv storms down full of rage and demands to be recognised. She shouts about her reign as champion, being first ever Crown Jewel champion. Liv is breaking records. She tells Nikki that she is lucky that Liv is was not from her era or she would never have been champion. Liv says Nikki is jealous because she has everything she wants. Respect, a championship and a man. Nikki asks if Dominik belongs to Liv or Roxanne. She asks Liv to congratulate Perez for her. Morgan tells Bella she will be nothing but a reality show diva.

Honestly, I thought this was going to suck, but it wasn’t bad at all. Nikki is a boring face and her promo was bland, but Liv Morgan brought a lot of fire that made this segment better.

Back ON Top

After only 51 days, Jey Uso’s world championship dreams come to an end as Gunther reclaims the World Heavyweight championship. These two men got over 20 minutes to work the main event and oh my was it a fantastic match, better than their Wrestlemania match.

Jey keeps gunning for the rear naked choke, the same way he beat Gunther the first time at Wrestlemania. It seems the champion is running on confidence throughout, finding answers for everything Gunther has to offer but it becomes clear that Jey is suffering injuries from a rough week of action and assault. The meat of this match sees Gunther dissect Jey in and out of the ring, but the Yeet Man clings on with all of his might.

Jey hits an impressive vertical suplex to get some momentum his way. Now we see Gunther start using the rear naked choke but Jey always finds an escape route. A spear and an Uso Splash only gets a 2. Some nail-biting counters and kick outs in the final stretch of the match. Gunther hit a spear of his own for a near fall, stealing a move from Jey. Uso misses a second splash attempt, Gunther with a smile on his face traps Jey Uso in the his choke hold. Jey struggles, he manages to eventually reverse into a choke of his own but Gunther regains control and traps Jey in the choke. Uso fights, but he passes out.

A great contest, I really liked the story of the choke hold being used by both men. Gunther gets his revenge and regains the world title. That closing submission duel was a great ending. Gunther was right, Jey overexerted himself and it cost him the title at the end of the day.

You Know What I am Going to complain about

Nothing new here. Raw’s World Tag Division sucks ass. I think the entire division got maybe 45 seconds of air time. The New Day talking backstage with Grayson Waller and then cutting a promo how they respect the titles more than anybody.

I thought it was hilarious when New Day said there are so many talented tag teams on Raw. Hahaha. Is there? I am not saying there isn’t talent, I doubt the quantity of the talent.

Lost Steam

In similar vain to the Tag Titles, it seems like the Women’s World championship has taken a backseat as of late. They had a great programme heading into Wrestlemania and Iyo came out of it looking great. They continued the momentum with Iyo wrestling rising stars Giulia, Roxanne Perez and Stephanie Vaquer. However, her last match was over a month ago. Now Iyo has been relegated to short backstage segments, not teasing anything and not building to anything.

I think they’re setting up Iyo vs Liv Morgan, but they’re also setting up Liv Morgan vs Nikki Bella, so I dunno. It’s just a shame. They did a great angle to make Iyo one of the most over stars in WWE, putting on weekly bangers and now she has nothing to do. These are 3 hour shows! Surely you can come up with something.

Ego over Legacy

Only 3 days removed from his Worlds Collide defence, Ethan Page retains yet again this time against rising star from WWE Evolve, Sean Legacy. He impressed me in a battle royal and he was solid in a tag match so this will be the first time I watch his skills in a 1v1 scenario.

The first part of this match sees Page pretty dominant, being able to outsmart and outwrestle his less experienced opponent. Sean shows a lot of fire and determination and hits some big moves to gain momentum. Unfortunately for him, Ethan Page counters a 450 splash and hits the Twisted Grin to retain. After the match, Ricky Saints returns and attacks his rival.

A solid match. There were some clear moments where Legacy was taking bumps too early or not getting his stuff in tight enough, so some of the action looked a bit phoney. He hits the big moves and standout moments in the match really well, but it is those little things that arguably matter more. His selling is solid if a little cartoony and over the top, I think he is trying to go for the hype Sami Zayn selling but it is not quite there yet. However, he clearly has potential and I look forward to seeing him grow into a star.

Evolution

We get Jacy Jayne defending against newcomer Lainey Reid in the middle of the card. Lainey gets some early pin attempts and a crossbody but Jacy is mostly dominant to start things off. I liked a unique piece of offence where Jacy jump on the bottom rope with Reid underneath it, guillotining her.

Reid fights back with a botchy blockbuster attempt. She gets a near fall with a big knee strike. Reid’s momentum is killed by an interference from Fallon Henley, Jayne hits the discus forearm to retain.

This was fine, the theme of tonight seems to be giving newer talent prominent spots on the card which I am not against. Lainey Reid needs fine tuning before she gets another opportunity like this.

The biggest reveal was afterwards when General Manager Ava revealed a series of contender matches that will lead up to an NXT Women’s Title match at Evolution.

I Smell a Transition

Jacy Jayne is backstage and trying to make demands to Ava as the women’s champion. This fucking nobody Lainey Reid walks in and slaps the shit out of her and Jacy just takes it. The champion says that Lainey is trying to take a page out of her playbook and it is not going to work. So Reid slaps her again, this second slap was pitiful to watch. Ava ushers her out whilst Fallon Henley tells her “ally” she has to fight her now. Jacy asks Ava for Lainey Reid later tonight.

What a lame way to make your champion look, she got slapped twice and didn’t even attempt to fight back. Then, after claiming she won’t give in to Lainey’s demands, she does. I can already sense this being a weak, transitional title reign.

Too Short to develop

After dropping Brooks Jensen, The Culling are in a new era with Izzi Dame stepping up into a leadership role alongside Shawn Spears. They get a quick 5 minute victory over Briggs & Inamura.

There isn’t much to say about this one. Too short to really analyse properly but they didn’t do a whole lot interesting with the time they got. Inamura is always fun to watch. Niko Vance won the match with a Dominator. It was fine

The next match sees Lash Legend defeat Wren Sinclair in less than 5 minutes. We saw a nice submission spot from Sinclair, she was impressive here but I think they gave her far too much offence in for what they were trying to accomplish. Lash got very little action in and her finishing move of the match looked a little awkward. They tease Legend vs Kelani Jordan again.

These matches gave these wrestlers a spot on the card, but little other than that.

Family Matters

The High Ryze defeat the fragile alliance that is the D’Angelo Family. The Don and Luca Crusifino have been at odds as D’Angelo is growing paranoid after Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo’s betrayal. Luca says he will prove he is loyal to the family tonight. The match cannot build momentum because we hear a jingle and commentary announce we will see Blake Monroe (FKA Mariah May) sign a contract next week. They couldn’t have done this any other time during the show?

Luca lets himself get distracted and fails to tag in The Don, which pisses him off. After D’Angelo gets a hot tag we see Stakcs make an appearance but his attack is intercepted. Luca picks up the crowbar and Tony accuses him of trying to betray him too. This distraction allows High Ryze to win. Luca is adamant he didn’t have evil intentions.

This was flat, nothing exciting or ground-breaking. but I cannot help but feel like this whole D’Angelo Family storyline could have been a lot better and exciting. It just feels like another midcard feud now.

Little Development

This was a wrestling heavy show, there was no substantial segments. A few short segments in-between matches but mostly just to set up matches for next week and the build for the rest of this show.

I don’t mind a match heavy show, if the matches are worthwhile and worth watching. A lot of the action this week was not all that. A lot of wrestling for the sake of wrestling, plus little storyline development made this week hard to be invested in.

Ethan Page (c) defeats Sean Legacy, North American Championship (B Grade)

The Culling defeats Yoshiki Inamura & Josh Briggs (C Grade)

Lash Legend defeats Wren Sinclair (C- Grade)

Jacy Jayne (c) defeats Lainey Reid, Women’s Championship (C+ Grade)

High Ryze defeat D’Angelo Family (D Grade)

Oba Femi (c) defeats Jasper Troy, NXT Championship (B- Grade)

The Masterplan

John Cena opens the show and says the wrestling’s Mount Rushmore is just 4 of him. No one in the past, present or future is comparable to him. He is smarter than us, we can’t see him and we all want to be him. Cena is a thousand steps ahead, preparing for this moment. He basically recaps the past 6 months and how he has strategized his way to become and remain champion. Now he has forced CM Punk to admit that he is a hypocrite if he wants to be WWE champion. Cena doesn’t have to worry about Seth Rollins because he wants Cena to leave with the belt. Once he leaves, Seth gets to cash in and be the only champion in WWE.

Cena wins matches before they even start, he has cracked every code throughout his career. No one is worthy to ever hold the WWE title ever again. That line brings out the former champion, Cody Rhodes. Huge pop for the Roller-Codester. Cody says John is clearly a genius, everything he said came to fruition. However, his 25 year masterplan ignores the fact Cody pinned him at Money in the Bank. “I’m not part of your plan, you’re part of mine.” Cold line by Cody. He calls him “John Rushmore” and asks where that leaves them going forward. Before we get an answer, here comes a returning Randy Orton!

Orton stares down Cena. He had Cena beaten, but now he realises that he will have to run through anybody to get to Cena and that includes Cody Rhodes. Now LA Knight walks out, Lemme talk to ya! He has heard the fans call out for him all week long. Knight is looking at the WWE establishment and he is the sore thumb sticking out. He says Cena’s plans didn’t include him so now this is how it goes down. If he has to drop a “genius, balding bitch named John Cena” then he will do exactly that. With that, John Cena takes his belt and leaves but he is ambushed by Ron Killings! Security drag him back as the segment ends.

Great opening segment. One of the better John Cena heel promos he has done in a while. Cody Rhodes got some good lines in there too. It is nice to see Orton back. LA Knight continues to be the most over guy in WWE and he is right. He was looking at the establishment. God I hope they give him the push soon.

Viper of the Ring

Randy Orton defeats LA Knight, Carmelo Hayes and Aleister Black to progress in the King of the Ring tournament. We have a bunch of personal beef crossing over. Knight has feuded with Black over the past couple of weeks. Black has feuded with Hayes recently too. Orton has had a mini feud with Hayes in the past also.

Some cool moments in this match. Melo got his time to shine with impressive springboard leg drops and clotheslines to take control. He hit a crazy frog splash on Knight too, getting incredibly distance on it RVD style. Aleister Black gets a little flurry of strikes in, his offence is always so cleanly executed and tight.

There was this annoying part of the match where they were insistent on using this close up camera angle as various wrestlers tried to set up a superplex. It was a poor camera shot to use.

Randy Orton gets to do his comeback. He sets up a double Apron DDT on Black and Melo, whilst Knight drops Orton with a neckbreaker. That was awesome. Every man is going for their big moves, plenty of cool counters that interweave with each other. Knight hits the BFT but the pin is broken, so he ain’t winning I guess. He sets up for the Superstar Elbow but he is pulled down by Bronson Reed, then speared by Bron Breakker. Hayes tries to take advantage with the frog splash, but Orton catches him midair with the RKO and he gets the win.

This was a really fun match. I liked that Carmelo got a lot of opportunity to get offence in, he came out of this looking the best. LA Knight looked great too, I didn’t think he would win but I am excited at a feud between him and Seth Rollins. Maybe he will prevent Seth’s cash in attempts?

Randy Orton winning makes sense. I do wish Aleister Black got a bit more of a feature in this one. I hope they don’t just make him feel like another guy in WWE.

All Gas

Jacob Fatu comes out to a huge pop. He is a good guy now after last week. Fatu says just because he and Solo are family, doesn’t mean he can take credit for his work and snake him. Solo claims Fatu would be nothing without him? Well he made a statement at Money in the Bank, it is Fatu vs The World. He hits his catchphrases, but he is interrupted by clapping.

Solo and Sikoa and JC Mateo are on the Tron. He asks if Fatu is done venting. Solo says a year ago Fatu was nothing until Solo brought him into the WWE and made him a superstar. He made Fatu a champion. Next week, Solo is willing to forgive Jacob and take him back into the family. Only if he hears 4 words “I love you Solo.” He brought Jacob into this world, he can take him out too.

A great segment, short and sweet with tension built towards a confrontation next week. Solo Sikoa has upped his game recently, leaning more into his great facial expressions to tell stories.

Ms MITB

Naomi comes out and doesn’t know why everyone was so surprised she won. She took what she deserved and now she is Ms MITB. It is funny that the person who stopped her from defeating Nia Jax last year, was Tiffany Stratton, the last holder of the briefcase. The old Naomi would let that slide, but its time for payback. She is going to drop Stratton with the briefcase and become women’s champion.

Tiffy interrupts Naomi, looking incredible as always. She says Naomi talks a big game so tells her to cash in right now. Stratton says Naomi hasn’t changed. All talk, no action and that is why she never beat Nia Jax. Naomi asks if she looks stupid? “Do I look like Boo Boo the Fool?!” Hilarious line. I’m gonna cash in when you least expect it. The fans try to do a “what?” chant and she cuts it off saying “bitch you heard me.” She is such a pro.

Naomi is going to enjoy making Tiffany’s life hell. “Tick Tock Tiffy, your time is almost up. Proceed with caution.”

Another great promo kept concise and to the point. I think Naomi can do some great things with the case. I hope she is maintained on screen because her character is one of the most entertaining things Smackdown has.

Nia Jax attacks Stratton after the match, we have a sloppy brawl and an Annihilator. Naomi teases a cash in but Nia demands she stays out of this.

We are still running Nia vs Tiffany? I thought this was settled!?! UGGHHHHHHHH.

He’s Back

John Cena returns to the ring and he is furious. He tells the fans to shut up and he cannot tolerate the disrespect. Cena says R-Truth crossed the lines and he calls Truth out to face him. He sounded like the old John Cena here. We don’t get Truth. We get my boy, CM Punk. Huge pop. Cena’s face expressions are great here, he is pissed.

CM Punk says the people are tired of being disrespected and they have not even begun the levels of disrespect they are capable of. For now, Punk is giving him the benefit of the doubt. He is Obi-Wan looking for Anakin inside of Darth Vader. Punk tells John to stop, let the fans celebrate the career he has had and have a happy ending.

Cena asks why should he bother? These people don’t matter, neither does basketball or horseracing. The WWE title is all that matters. Punk says he gave him the out, but now let’s do it his way. Punk says it is about to get real. He is pissed off that Cena of all people calls him a hypocrite. The truth is John can’t beat him, he never could and now it is up to him to save wrestling.

CM Punk says his confidence took him up to the top whilst people like Cena looked down on him. Punk says Cena looks like a toddler who struck out at Tee Ball. Then, he says he wants to strike that bad joke from the record because he sounded like PG John Cena. Punk says this “ruin wrestling, steal the title” John Cena sounds a lot like CM Punk. John is following his footsteps. Once again CM Punk is back to make John Cena interesting and palatable. “I will fly to Mars to beat your ass” what a hilarious line. He will follow Cena to Hell to prove he is better.

Punk says Cena is a goat, but so is he. Cena is the goat that Punk will roast and serve to the gods of wrestling who deserve to be on a Mount Rushmore. He names some legends. He calls Cena a joke for putting himself on the mountain once never mind 4 times. Punk has always seen through John Cena and that is the Truth.

John Cena is attacked from behind by Ron Killings again. He locks in the STFU as CM Punk tells him “the Truth hurts.”

This is another enjoyable interaction between these 2. I feel like CM Punk is really holding back though, so I hope that these two just go into business for themselves next week and tear into each other.

Rhodes To The Throne

Cody Rhodes defeats Andrade, Shinsuke Nakamura and Damian Priest to advance in the KOTR. Another match that struggled with a predictable finish, but the action was strong.

We got started in a strong way with an impressive moonsault from Andrade on the ring post to the outside. Shinsuke Nakamura is in control after the break, I struggle to enjoy anything he does now. Nakamura has like 10 moves he recycles and I haven’t been invested in him for a long time. Cody tries to do something when meeting Damien Priest on the top rope, but he just stands there with him until Nakamura knocks them both down.

Cody Rhodes is dropkicked through a table by Nakamura. Always fun to see a table spot. Andrade hits a cool double moonsaults on Priest. We see some big moves by everyone involved. Cody tries to hit a double Cody Cutter but I think he overshot it a little. Cody hits a Cross Rhodes on Nakamura to win the match.

It was good. That’s kind of all I have to say. This was all about bringing Cody back in winning ways as he aims to become a title challenger once again. Cody worked hard but I think Andrade was the most impressive in this match. He worked his ass off here to make everyone look good, including himself.

A Quiet Place

Lexington, Kentucky crowds are not great. The biggest stars like John Cena, CM Punk, Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes managed on promos because they are mega stars that they’re here to see.

However, the rest of the card really struggled to get anything out of this crowd. Whilst it is down to the performer to generate heat and build crowd excitement, I cannot help but feel that they had it double tough tonight. Even when the Motor City Machine Guns tried to play to the crowd they just didn’t respond. If you weren’t a world title contender, they didn’t care. The fans were super quiet during all matches accept for big spots. It shouldn’t take Cody Rhodes pulling out a table for you to care about his match!

Can WWE hurry up and go back to Europe and the rest of the world? Where the fans actually appreciate the shows and are willing to make noise for everything? I miss those crowds. The quiet damaged a lot of these segments, especially the matches. Not solely their fault.

Bad booking

Do you know why the Fatal Four Way PPV only happened once and never again? Well, it turns out that unless you add stipulations it is hard to have a lot of variety in a Fatal Four Way match. Having a PPV with 3 4-way matches was a bit excessive. Do you know why Wrestlemania 2000 was a bad show? One of the reasons is there were too many multi-person matches and not enough singles matches.

So, guess why I didn’t like this episode of Smackdown that much? 4 Fatal 4-way matches, not even 1 singles match. What a horrible idea. An overabundance of 4-way’s made each one less and less interesting, which could also contribute to the weak ass crowd we got tonight.

Four-Way Fumble

Jade Cargill defeats Nia Jax, Michin and Piper Niven to progress in the Queen of the Ring. This started slow and uneventful. Piper and Nia formed an alliance to clumsily beat up Jade together. Actually a large portion of this match is them 2 dominating and it sucks. Reminiscent of Big Show and Kane ruining the 2015 Royal Rumble. They got too much time in this one. The only good thing they did was launch Jade Cargill over the announce table at Wade Barrett. Wade sold the move which was awesome.

Michin is by far the best worker in this match, she tries to keep things entertaining. She hit a cool springboard moonsault onto everyone but the set up took far too long. Her hurricanrana on Nia Jax was hilarious because Nia sold it by doing a forward roll in slow motion. The match is at its best when it is Jade vs Michin, the best worker here vs the weakest worker but the most motivated.

Piper spears Nia through the barricade which I didn’t care about since we already saw that spot this week on NXT. Jade beats Piper with Jaded to advance. This match was pretty bad. The crowd were dead for most of it. Boring at best and poorly executed at worst.

We’re Here

Wyatt Sicks defeat Motor City Machine Guns in tag action. Awesome entrance for them as always. Dexter Lumis and Joe Gacy are in action whilst the rest of the group watch on from ringside. The crowd are incredibly silent for this one and I wish that they weren’t, but I guess they weren’t given much to react to. I also think that they’re confused if they are supposed to be supporting or booing the Wyatts.

I think there was an opportunity to do something really interesting here. They didn’t need to dominate and bury the Guns, but it would have been cool to see the Wyatts take an absolute beating but barely keep them down. Instead, they wrestled a bog standard tag match.

There was a few awkward moments in this match too, a lot of them involving Dexter Lumis. A few times we saw Lumis blatantly going from position to position for moves and not really selling all that well. Then there was the really awkward ending to the match when Lumis and Gacy mistime a High-Low, Dexter goes for the pin but this is clearly not the finish of the match. Lumis I’m sure just shouts “FUCK” and then speaks to Uncle Howdy. Lumis drops a top rope leg drop for the win.

The action was fine outside of those awkward slip-ups. A lack of excitement and unclear face/heel divides made this hard for fans to get invested in. I love the Wyatts, I love the MCMGs. They’re both better than this and deserve better than this.

The queen will not be queen

Alexa Bliss progresses in the Queen of the Ring tournament, defeating Charlotte Flair, Aba Fyre and Candice LeRae. The main story of this match is the interactions between Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair. Bliss offered a partnership to get Charlotte back on track but Flair is too good for her apparently.

Bliss and Flair stare down but Alba and Candice attack. We can hear Charlotte loudly calling spots early on in this. I would have much preferred to see Alba Fyre and Candice LeRae get time as a heel team in this match rather than what we got in the other Fatal Four Way.

Candice LeRae hits a springboard moonsault to break up a figure 8 from Charlotte on Alexa, that was cool. Bliss has the match won with Twisted Bliss but Charlotte breaks up the pin. The finish comes as Flair has Alba in the figure 8, Alexa Bliss hits the Sister Abigail DDT on LeRae and pins her. As the ref counts 3, Fyre taps out. Bliss is the winner, just. I liked that closing spot.

Charlotte Flair takes another big loss. She stares daggers through Bliss.

This was a decent match, though disappointing considering the level of talent in the ring. I wish that Fyre and LeRae got more time to shine here, they didn’t really have anything memorable other than Candice’s moonsault. This was all about Flair and Bliss.

John Cena is Confronted by Familiar Faces (B+ Grade)

Randy Orton defeats Carmelo Hayes, LA Knight & Aleister Black, KOTR R1 (B+ Grade)

Solo Sikoa Extends an Ultimatum to Jacob Fatu (B Grade)

Jade Cargill defeats Nia Jax, Michin & Piper Niven (D- Grade)

Naomi Threatens Tiffany Stratton With a Cash-In (B Grade)

The Wyatt Sicks defeat Motor City Machine Guns (C- Grade)

Raw

Sheamus vs Rusev vs Bronson Reed vs ???, KOTR R1

Asuka vs Stephanie Vaquer vs Raquel Rodriguez vs Ivy Nile, KOTR R1

NXT

Blake Monroe Contract Signing

Lash Legend vs Kelani Jordan, Evolution Eliminator

Zaria vs Izzi Dame, Evolution Eliminator

Thea Hail vs Jaida Parker, Evolution Eliminator

Lola Vice vs Jordynne Grace, Evolution Eliminator

First Class & Trick Williams vs Elijah, Yoshiki Inamura & Josh Briggs

Smackdown

John Cena vs R-Truth

Randy Orton vs Sami Zayn, KOTR Semi-Final

Alexa Bliss vs ???, KOTR Semi-Final

Confirmed WWE Night of Champions Card

John Cena (c) vs CM Punk, WWE Championship

Queen of the Ring Finals

King of the Ring Finals