This Week In WWE Review (11/8/25 – 17/8/25)

Punk has a megastar Problem

The show opens up with a vengeful CM Punk. He is angry that he is not champion right now and admits to having a Seth Rollins problem. Rollins is trying to be CM Punk but he is failing miserably. Punk finally became world champion again, but he apologises for letting the title slip away so quickly. He is more desperate to be world champion than before. Punk promises Seth that he will get his title back and break his legs.

Out comes an understandably frustrated LA Knight. What an awesome face to face this is. They shake hands. Knight praises Punk for his Summerslam win and he got robbed. Punk deserves a rematch, but, last week CM Punk get him disqualified. Wrong place, wrong time. They don’t have a problem, but Knight says do the deed on his time, not Knight’s. He says Punk gets a rematch after he gets his.

CM Punk says that Knight should be thanking him for saving his head from a stomp. CM Punk says he is next in line and tells Knight to get to the back. LA Knight has no interest in thank you’s and says he is way more overdue. As good as Punk is, he ain’t on his level. Knight gives him two favours. He will forget last week happened as long as it doesn’t happen again. Knight is going to go beat Seth Rollins and Punk can be his first successful title defence. CM Punk is interrupted by Paul Heyman alongside Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. Heyman warns Knight to not get into the favour business with CM Punk. Punk wants a fight so Heyman proposes a tag match tonight between these 4 men. Knight doesn’t want them he wants Rollins, Punk interrupts him to accept the challenge. Knight refuses to be spoken for and he accepts the challenge too. We hear Breakker shout “what you’re 47 what you gonna do? And you are 40. You’s are 100 years old combined!”

I mean, you have two of the best talkers in CM Punk and LA Knight, as well one of the GOATs in Paul Heyman. On top of that, you have Bron Breakker becoming my favourite trash talker right now. This was a really fun segment to set up the main event and tease the future for the World Heavyweight title.

The first match of tonight is an interesting tag match. AJ Styles teams with Dragon Lee to face Dominik Mysterio and El Grande Americano. A clash of 2 feuds, as well as a teaser ahead of this Saturday at AAA TripleMania where 3 of these men challenge El Hijo de Vikingo for the AAA Mega Championship.

Dragon Lee hits a suicide dive on El Grande before the bell rings, giving an early advantage to him and Styles. They are in control, unfortunately the fans are not really on their side much preferring to support Dirty Dom and Americano. Styles is still over, but Dragon got booed. Styles is beaten down throughout the break, finally getting the hot tag to Dragon Lee who gains crowd support for his flashy offence. Dom saves Americano from the finish and he gets dropped with an enziguiri. Dom and Americano tie Dragon Lee to the turnbuckle by his mask, Dom puts on his own lucha mask and tries to unmask Dragon Lee.

We enter another ad break as Mysterio & Americano dominate Dragon Lee. Lee finally gets some space from a rope hung stomp and gets a hot tag to AJ Styles. We see an awesome spot in this match where AJ launches Dragon Lee over him onto Dominik Mysterio, Dragon monkey flips Dom into a Styles Clash. Amazing. El Grande tries to use the metal plate but Styles kicks it away. Dom grabs it and puts it inside his own mask and headbutts Styles, allowing Americano to steal a cheap pinfall.

Great tag match, really solid wrestling with that awesome Styles Clash spot and a really creative finish. Bonus points awarded for the electric Canadian crowd who made this match feel even greater than it was, loudly chanting and reacting to everything they did.

Genius beats the prodigy

Iyo Sky faces Roxanne Perez tonight. Interestingly, she refuses to have Asuka and Kairi Sane in her corner although they offered to keep the action fair. This follows last week when they referred to Rhea as Iyo’s “new friend” in what felt like a passive aggressive comment. I hope to all the Gods that we are going to see a fallout between Iyo, Kairi and Asuka. As much as I love them as a group, I would die to see them wrestle each other.

Some impressive wrestling by Iyo and Roxanne early on, competing evenly until Perez takes the early advantage. She slaps Iyo across the face, firing up the Genius of the Sky to fire up and outwrestle her. Iyo sends her out of the ring and goes for a suicide dive, but Raquel Rodriguez pushes Perez out of the way and takes the hit. Perez sends Iyo into the steps to take back control.

Roxanne remains in control during the break, using cheap tactics and getting help from Raquel now and then. Iyo meets her in mid-air with a dropkick to turn the tide and begin to get back into the match. Iyo tried to do something in the corner but it was messed up and looked pretty awkward, a very rare botch from one of the best women in WWE. Perez rolls out to avoid the Over The Moonsault, taking her down with a top rope hurricanrana and a flashy moonsault knee smash for a great near fall. Shining Wizard from Perez gets another great near fall.

Acai moonsault by Iyo to the Judgement Day before going for the Over The Moonsault. Perez gets her feet up but this spot gets botched badly. Iyo does the moonsault and Perez was too far out, nearly stomping on her face. The feet up by Perez doesn’t make contact at all. Unfortunate mistake. Asuka & Kairi come out to try and help, but Perez pushes Iyo into them and scores a flash roll up for a shocking win.

This was a really good match, mired by a two pretty noticeable mistakes that prevent me from scoring this too high. Both women got a good amount of time to wrestle a really fun match, Naomi’s absence is Roxanne’s gain. she got a surprising win here but I am not against it at all.

Later, Iyo complains about her loss to Asuka and Kairi, Asuka gets super pissed and shoves Iyo before walking away. Kairi looks torn in the middle. GIVE ME A TRIPLE THREAT RIGHT NOW HHH YOU COWARD.

No Women’s Title Match

Awesome video package for Bayley where she talks about her struggles with wanting more and feeling less, being the role model before she felt like she was one and being stuck on her own. She blames herself for her lack of success and she has gotten no where. She repeats that it is all her fault.

Then we see the video quality change and then it goes black, we hear some maniacal laughing. Afterwards we see Lyra Valkyria reacting and she stands by what she said about Bayley how they need to move on separately, it is not her fault that Bayley is struggling right now although she empathises and hopes she can open up more and feel better.

I am all for this. I’ve been a huge Bayley fan for a long time but I think that she has been lacking as a character since Wrestlemania 40. She had a good title run and she has had some great matches and feuds but her face character has felt pretty surface level. This will hopefully showcase a much more layered version of Bayley, I look forward to seeing where this leads.

Shoe-la Fala

Our main event came quickly, it is already happening after only 2 hours. Hey, who am I to complain, 3 hour Raw’s are a slog to get through sometimes. Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker vs LA Knight & CM Punk. Bron-Bron attack LA Punk before the bell but Knight takes back control. We see Knight using an arm wrench over and over for “Yeah!” chants, then Punk tags in and does to same to get the same chants. Knight stares at him but he lets him have it. Knight and Punk are clearly having a lot of fun working together.

The action spills outside and now we see the cracks begin to form a little as Knight and Punk try to outshine each other. They are still playing nice but the competitiveness is getting more and more intense. Punk and Knight actually remain in control for much of the break until Bronson drops Punk with a clothesline. Bron-Bron wear down Punk. For the first time, commentary actually acknowledge this group as being called The Vision.

Punk gets a hot tag to LA Knight who takes the fight to Bronson Reed. He goes for the Megastar elbow, but takes out Breakker with a clothesline instead. This distraction allows Reed to squish Knight in the corner and regain control. Breakker wipes Knight out with his clothesline over the announce table. Now Knight is beaten up during the ad break. Knight tries to go for a tag, but Punk drops from the apron to confront Breakker who was preparing to attack him. Bron-Bron hit a Steiner-esque assisted diving bulldog for a near fall. Punk finally tags in and hits his comeback on Breakker. CM Punk is set up for the GTS, but he is attacked from behind by Seth Rollins for a DQ.

Ugh, okay. Another really good match with a deflating finish. I actually do not mind this ending in a DQ, I like this finish more than the Zayn vs Rusev one. However, doing two screwy DQ finishes on one show feels extra cheap and I did not it being reused. If the Zayn vs Rusev DQ didn’t happen, I would be fine with this, but that isn’t the case. I knew that Rollins was going to be involved, it was a matter of when so that lack of suspense hurt the finish a bit too. Really good work by all 4 guys though. Still a lot of fun to watch.

No Women’s Title Match

Damn, I am disappointed. Naomi is not medically cleared to compete tonight and that sucks I was very much looking forward to her match with Iyo Sky. No one’s fault here, just really shitty news. I hope it is nothing serious and she makes a quick recovery.

Wild Card Rule still sucks

Sami Zayn vs Rusev is our next match on the show and of course Sami Zayn is incredibly over in front of his home province in Canada. We get some nice hot offence early on by the Canadian including the Arabian Moonsault, but it isn’t long until Rusev drops him with a swinging Uranage and takes control.

Rusev dominates through the break, but Sami fights back into the match. He goes for a Helluva Kick but Rusev meets him with a Matchka Kick. Rusev goes for the Accolade, Sami blocks and escapes and gets a near fall. Rusev does the 10 beats of the Bodhran to Sami Zayn, mocking his rival Sheamus. I loved that the fans didn’t chant along, because he is a heel and shouldn’t be supported. Sami catches Rusev with a corner exploder, but he is attacked by Solo Sikoa and the MFTs before he can hit the Helluva Kick, causing a DQ. Security deal with the MFTs, Sheamus runs out and brawls with Rusev from the ring through the crowd and backstage.

What a disappointing ending to a fun match. What is the point in having two separate brands if all of the stars can just come and go whenever they please? It is stupid and it is ruining both shows. Remember when WWE announced the awful wild card rule in 2019? This is basically that but unofficial. I don’t have any real interest in seeing Solo Sikoa vs Sami Zayn, just another uninteresting obstacle in-between Sami and a world title opportunity. However, the match was fun thanks to the crowd plus the Rusev & Sheamus brawl was pretty awesome. Just a shame it had to end with more Samoan family bullshit.

About As Good As it could be

The intercontinental champion Becky Lynch faces Natalya’s protégé, Maxxine Dupri. We will see how good Becky is if she call pull out a good match from Maxxine Dupri. I like Maxxine, she looks great and she is naturally likable but her wrestling skills are, well, rough to say the least.

I thought this was a non-title match but we saw the graphic and suddenly this is now a title match, even commentary don’t acknowledge this as being a title match at first. Becky bullies and schools Maxxine early on, taunting and mocking her. She does some great heel work telling Dupri to get out of her ring and that she doesn’t deserve to be here. Maxxine counters the Manhandle Slam into a stunner which was cool. Maxxine throws some pretty shitty punches in the corner, they were a little funny. Becky and Maxxine trade pinfall attempts, Becky even tries to use the ropes to steal a cheap pin which I thought sucked. I get that she is a heel, but needing to cheat to defeat Maxxine Dupri? Kinda lame. Lynch gets the Disarmer on and taps Dupri out. She also knocks out Natalya before celebrating her win.

It was never announced that she was still the champion and commentary never referenced the IC title being on the line at all, so I don’t fucking know if this was a title match or not. I am going to assume that the graphics team fucked this one up.

The match was okay, about as good as it it could be. Both women bring a lot of energy and we saw some nice moments. Becky Lynch does her best to bring out the best of Maxxine, but this match had a ceiling. Weird that we don’t see Nikki Bella here at all, considering it seems like they are setting up Lynch vs Bella.

World title set up

So The Vision beat up CM Punk and LA Knight after their match until Jey Uso comes out with a chair to make the save. Adam Pearce sees this as an opportunity and he books a fatal 4 way for Clash in Paris. Seth Rollins, Jey Uso, LA Knight and CM Punk for the World Heavyweight title. I cannot help but feel like Jey Uso has been shoehorned into this a little bit. Also, it baffles me that he would book Jey for this match but wouldn’t add Roman Reigns? We know Roman is going to be in Paris, why would his face be the focus of poster? A little confusing to me.

What else is confusing is that CM Punk and LA Knight just broke out into a brawl, Jey Uso tried to stop it but he gets an elbow from Knight. The Vision use this opportunity to lay them all out and Seth Rollins stands tall. Confusing isn’t the word, it all makes sense kind of but I think that Punk and Knight getting into blows felt a little rushed. I don’t think they developed that angle enough on this show to warrant them breaking down and beating each other up. That is just my opinion. It would make more sense if they had an intense argument, Jey Uso tries to play peacemaker and then The Vision attack.

This was the closing angle, it wasn’t bad but I think it could have been a hell of a lot better.

Battle of the be-her-moths

NXT opens up with a clash of powerhouses, Lash Legend vs Nia Jax. I was looking forward to this one. We see an impressive feat of strength from Lash when Nia goes for a guillotine choke, but Lash powers her up and slams her into the corner. This match is a back and forth battle, both women throwing big strikes and slams on each other, fighting to a stalemate. Lash clotheslines Nia out of the ring to assume control before the break. The physicality continues on the outside, the steel steps are set up by the announce table and Nia clears the path. The action returns to the ring for a while but when we return to the announce table, Lash goes for a fallaway slam but she could not follow through and Nia splashes her through the table.

Lash gets a great near fall from a powerslam. Lash then lifts Nia from the top rope for a powerbomb, but Nia counters into an Annihilator, then hits a second to win.

This was the female equivalent of meaty men slapping meat. This was a lot of fun, two dominant women beating the hell out of each other. I don’t mind Nia winning, I hope this means Lash will get a chance at a rematch in the future.

Friendship break-up

Josh Briggs comes out full of smiles as he is booed by the NXT universe. “Your boos mean nothing because I see what you guys cheer” is actually a hard bar. He struggles to speak over the loud boos and chants. They chant for the lights to be turned off and even Josh Briggs says no. Briggs says Inamura was a selfish and greedy friend who cared only for himself and his stupid code of honour. Briggs tried to help him, but he wouldn’t listen to his advice. He is a man of mayhem and te only way to survive in NXT is to fight dirty.

He wants the honour on the line next week in a Philadelphia Street Fight. Yoshiki walks out and says he thought Briggs was his friend but he turns out he is a jackass. In a street fight there are no rules, so the honour will be in beating him. Briggs and Inamura have a scrap until security separate them. Inamura takes out Briggs and the security.

Good promo, I thought both men did good mic work. I still think that this feud has been mega rushed from them being friends to enemies, the writing of the angle has been poor but the performances by Yoshiki and Josh have been good. I look forward to their street fight. Why are they not competing at Heatwave?

Juggernaut gets real

Jordynne Grace sits down and talks with Kelly Kincaid about Blake Monroe’s comments about her journey to WWE and what she used to look like. Grace says she struggled to look at herself in the mirror for so long, never being happy with how she looked and never feeling good enough no matter how she tried. Jordynne admits to letting her guard down with Blake Monroe, she always felt like an outsider and wanted to connect with someone who was also supposedly an outsider here.

Her and Blake struggle with the same issue, the only difference is that Blake projects her insecurities by bringing other women down. Grace says champions come in all sizes and colours and sends a nice message to other women out there.

I thought this was a nice angle following from the brutal words of Blake Monroe a couple weeks back. It is a pretty generic message we have seen a few times, but I am not going to complain about it. If this had an impact and reached anyone who needed to hear this, then that is all that matters.

The Best America Has Got

Alba Fyre wrestles Kendal Grey, who is a young rookie who has been appearing on Evolve. She has an amateur wrestling background and we see that come out a little in this match. Alba Fyre does a good job as the heel here, she hits an impressive dropkick to a mid-air Kendal. This put a spotlight on the promising Kendal who got ample time to showcase the skills she has learned in a short amount of time.

Kendal is selling well, her moves look good and she got support from the crowd. She did good work. Alba winning was inevitable and it was the correct choice.

Ethan Page comes out and mocks that being the best America has to offer, but Tavion Heights comes out and warns him that she was not his pick. He chose a gold medal Olympian. Tyra Mae Steele attacks from behind with suplexes for everybody. It will be nice for Tyra to get such a prominent feature, we will see if the hype WWE have generated is legit.

DarkState finally do good

Our main event is DarkState vs NXT champ Oba Femi, TNA champ Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans & Moose. Everytime DarkState ends up in this situation, there always ends up being something that absolutely ruins this match for me. I’m hoping the star power of their challengers will keep this match exciting.

DarkState rush the ring but they don’t start the brawl, Je’Von does. After the brawl calms down, we get some nice in-ring work from Saquon Shugars and Evans. Moose and Oba Femi showcase their power and clear the ring. They want Trick to do a big dive but he refuses, so Oba and Moose launch him over the top onto DarkState. Trick is confused and shock at first but he then plays ball with them and he is hyped. That was a fun spot.

DarkState try and beat down both Trick and Moose but both men dominate Cutler James. Je’Von tags in my god what a horrible exchange he has with Cutler. Not Evans’ fault, Cutler James just absolutely sucks. Oba Femi is in now to dominate, not once in this match has DarkState looked like a threat at all. Osiris Griffin gets in and turns the tide a little and now DarkState work together to beat up the NXT champion. Oba fights back and tags Je’Von who goes absolutely wild, taking out DarkState on his own. DarkState quickly take back control and beat down Je’Von until he gets the tag to Moose who tees off on DarkState.

Moose murders Shugars with an awesome sit-out spinebuster for a great near fall. The good guys counter DarkState’s Shuggy boat powerbomb by catching Evans and throwing him back for a double stunner which looked awesome. However, Oba aims for Shugars but hits Evans by mistake, Moose hits Oba by mistake, Shugars takes out Moose. Trick Williams decides against helping Je’Von Evans and DarkState drop Je’Von to get the win. Hank & Tank brawl with DarkState to end the show.

Wow, DarkState finally had a good match. Not just a good match, a pretty damn great one. That is thanks to their opponents. The only man on DarkState who was doing anything exciting was Saquon Shugars. Osiris Griffin was solid, Dion Lennox was forgettable and Cutler James was just plain bad. However, all of their shortcomings were hidden by the awesome work of Oba Femi & Friends. I liked seeing them all work well together, but eventually fall apart towards the end. Trick bailing on Evans makes sense since they are enemies and fighting next week, but also he didn’t fancy his odds in a 4 v 1 scenario. Actually smart booking.

I still hate these guys

Chelsea Green arrives with her Secret Hervice and start scouting the women’s locker room, looking for the threats to her safety tonight. She interacts with a few of the young talent, before unfortunately crossing paths with the two biggest morons of NXT. Hank and Tank are here, wearing wigs and make up, pulling pouty faces and pretending to be women I guess. They are shooed away.

These two fucking jokes are the current NXT tag team champions. They defeated Fraxiom. Never forget that. NXT tag wrestling is dead. RIP.

Say his name

Second match of the night is Charlie Dempsey vs my boy, Joe Hendry. It is nice to see Hendry paired with a technical wrestler and demonstrate how good Hendry is as a wrestler, not just as a meme.

Unfortunately this doesn’t go anywhere near as long as I would like to. This is a pretty dominant victory for Hendry, Dempsey doesn’t really get much in, it was basically a squash. I imagine this is going to carry on a story of Dempsey racking up losses.

Action was fine, I was hoping for more from this though.

Heatwave

Lola Vice and Kelani Jordan team up to face Fallon Henley and the Double Champ Jacy Jayne, representing Fatal Influence. TNA’s Ash By Elegance and Masha Slamovich are in the crowd, watching ahead of their soon to be announced match at Heatwave. We see some nice tandem offence from Lola and Lani early on. Henley and Jazmyn Nyx bait Jordan into a chase right into a Jacy Pump Kick on the outside. Fatal Influence beat down Kelani Jordan through the break until Kelani flips over a back drop and gets the tag. Lola Vice hits her various kicks before hitting her running hip attacks to the pleasure of WWE’s biggest gooner, Booker T.

Kelani Jordan gets back in for some offence. There is this really stupid spot where she is perched on the top, both Jacy and Jazmyn run over and just shout at her which distracts Jordan enough for Henley to throw her off. They didn’t even try to attack her or anything, Jordan looked silly. There was also this really flashy move where Kelani went for something, but Jacy essentially countered with an arm drag but there was so many added steps that it looked silly and unnatural.

Nyx tries to get involved but distracts the referee as Lola Vice spinning backfists Jacy Jayne. Jordan hits the split-legged moonsault to pin the NXT & TNA champion.

Match was fine, there were a few issues that irked me. Jacy suffers a big loss before her title match this weekend. This was a basic tag match, nothing really caught my eye other than the things I didn’t like.

Nia Jax defeats Lash Legend (B Grade)

Joe Hendry defeats Charlie Dempsey (C Grade)

Josh Briggs Challenges Yoshiki Inamura to a Street Fight (B- Grade)

Sit Down Interview with Jordynne Grace (C+ Grade)

Fatal Influence defeats Kelani Jordan & Lola Vice (C Grade)

Alba Fyre defeats Kendal Grey (C+ Grade)

DarkState defeat Oba Femi, Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans & Moose Ends in a No Contest (B+ Grade)

Homecoming

Our show opens with the never seen 17, John Cena. I was fully expecting to see another Hulk Hogan tribute so I am glad we are starting strong. This is the first we are seeing John since the contract signing where he was forced to sign by Cody. He goes to speak, but he is immediately cut off by Cody Rhodes. I must say, that they have been reusing this trope A LOT recently. The immediate interruption. It works and it is effective, but they are using it very heavy handily. It is rare we see a promo without an interruption these days.

They go face to face, the crowd is 50/50 on cheering either man. Cena shushes Cody. He told Cody that he was exhausted and a match at Summerslam would be too difficult. Cody didn’t listen to him, assaulted him, forged his signature and booked the most dangerous match on one of the biggest stages. He has one thing to say. Thank you.

John Cena had a wake up call. 5 months ago he was convinced into making great a choice that would make great TV. But after the dust settled and he made an impact, those who supported him left and now he is alone and pretending to be someone he is not. John Cena doesn’t want to ruin wrestling, he loves wrestling. He just doesn’t want to be forgotten. Today is the day John Cena returned to WWE and he is ready for a fight with Cody Rhodes, the man who brought him back. Cody Rhodes vs John Cena, with Cena at his best in a match Cody wanted. “At Sunday the only platinum rapper coming to whip your ass is me.” COLD ASS DUNK ON TRAVIS SCOTT. The crowd are eating this up.

Cody asks for two cans of beer and says “welcome back John Cena.” They shake hands and toast their drinks. Cody leaves and Cena basks in the crowd’s adulation.

Huh. This is either an incredible mislead from John Cena, or a complete bullshit retcon by WWE. The segment was fun, I am choosing to believe the former but I will come back with an edit post-Summerslam if it turns out this segment was garbage. I can foresee Travis Scott still appearing at Summerslam, hell maybe The Rock might actually show up.

Collecting debt

Damien Priest vs Aleister Black was a match I was looking forward to, this had potential to be a very good match and it ended up being that way. This was a stiff back and forth strike encounter with some fun moves and counters by both men. On the outside, Priest dodges a moonsault attempt and then pounces Black over the anounce table. Things paused for a few seconds and it dawned on me that this was going to end in a DQ. Black popped up and launched a chair at Priest’s head. He beat up Priest, slamming his head into the steel steps and then hitting Black Mass. Damian Priest wins, but Aleister looks strong.

I actually don’t hate the booking decision, but the issue is because WWE (Smackdown especially) have reused to screwy DQ finish so much recently, it feels cheap and it does not feel impactful. All I can think of is “wow yet another lame screwy finish” but it wasn’t even that lame! Understanding booking, but if WWE want moments like this to matter, then stop doing this booking trope so often. Match was good, unsatisfying conclusion.

Fuck You Too WWE

The show opens with Solo Sikoa and the MFTs who claim to run Smackdown and brag about beating up Sami Zayn on Raw, as well as stomping out Jimmy Uso and Jacob Fatu. Out comes Sami Zayn about losing his world title dreams and he feels liberated from his obsession. He thanks Solo for the attack, which surprises Solo. Zayn says there is one other title in WWE that he hasn’t held other than a world championship. The US championship. Solo says he can look at this title as much as he wants he will never get it, and orders him to leave his ring and his show.

Sami

Fuck this fucking company. Changed my mind. Opening segment was trash. Well executed by Cody and Cena, but written like shit.

Another Zelina Vega Match

Our opening match of the night is a championship rematch, Zelina Vega trying to win back her US title from Giulia. Giulia is now accompanied by Kiana James, her business representative. After the exciting, hot opening segment this was a sure fire way to put them back to sleep.

This was incredibly hard to get into, the crowd were completely dead for the first 70% of this match. Giulia was doing solid ring work but the fans were not biting at all. There were some good moments in this match. The top rope butterfly suplex from Giulia was cool, it was followed by the Arrivaderci and an alternate version of Northern Lights bomb for an awesome kick out. Okay so there were two highlights to this match. Giulia eventually hits her proper Nothern Lights bomb to retain. The last couple of minutes were really good but man the start was brutal.

Zelina looked off her game, or maybe on her game since she is regularly underwhelming in the ring. She was moving slower than usual and making a mess of her moves. The crucial ending sequence saw Giulia get her knees up for Vega’s moonsault, however Vega misfired and landed across her head, so the knees never made any contact. Not a complete wash of a match, Giulia looked great at least. The right woman won, I hope to not see Zelina near the US title for quite some time. I personally think she needs more work before getting close to a title again.

Open Challenge

AAA world tag champions Los Garza come out for their open challenge for their championships. Santos Escobar demands New Jersey stand and show them respect. They ask any tag team in the back to come out and face them. It turns out to be…Mr Iguana and Psycho Clown! A nice pop for Mr Iguana, these two are making their Smackdown debut here tonight. Of course we have La Yesca, the iguana plushie, alongside them.

There is a cool part of this match when Psycho clown rips off the face of his mask, revealing another mask beneath as he just peeled off his actual face. It looked fucking awesome. My new favourite mask.

A hot start for Psycho Clown, he then gets beaten up by Los Garza until he makes the hot tag. The crowd are super into Mr Iguana. He gets a nice little showcase, even if he botched his flashy springboard move a little. Eventually though, Los Garza retain by hitting their finish on Psycho Clown.

I thought this was very average and rushed. It was a little rough around the edges, Iguana was botchy at times and there were some awkward sequences from Los Garza. It all feels a little last minute. However, I am a fan of Mr Iguana so I had a great time seeing him do his thing. Does the gimmick have legs to be more than sporadic appearances? I am unsure.

Sucks to be Sicks

The Wyatt Sicks deserve better than what they are being given. They thrive on their character building and their personalities, not their wrestling. They should be getting more time to cut creepy promos or have interesting vignettes. Instead, they are being treated like every other tag team, as if they are not an unstoppable spooky force that wrecked an entire locker room one time.

Dominant (not) Debut

Jimmy Uso has the unfortunate pleasure of being Talla Tonga’s debut opponent. This should have been short and impactful. Jimmy gets an early flurry, Talla demolishes him in quick fashion. Bish Bash Bosh, Talla looks strong as fuck. This match should have been 3 minutes, but this went far longer than it should have and it was painful to sit through. Talla did not do anything remotely interesting. He did an incredibly slow beat down, Jimmy briefly tried to fight back but he was ultimately destroyed by Talla. A bad match.

The post match angle didn’t make sense either. Solo and his MFTs swarm Jimmy in the ring and the Steel Cage comes down. They swarm Jimmy, but out comes Jacob Fatu to slide in just before the cage comes down. Instead of beating up Fatu 4 v 1, Solo gets scared and leaves with Talla, leaving Tonga Loa and JC Mateo to get their asses beat by Fatu. That doesn’t even make sense. That doesn’t put over Fatu as strong, it puts over Solo as stupid and cowardly.

Probably the worst segment on this show. What a wasted opportunity.

Smelly Hole

Our main event segment for another mediocre Smackdown brings Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre out to the ring. I am so damn glad Drew McIntyre made it back to the US, I don’t want him stuck in this weird ass Jelly Roll feud but at least he gets a Summerslam feature. Logan Paul insults the fans, specifically the green shirt guy. He says that he and Drew are defending the WWE from outsiders like Jelly Roll that think they can use WWE for themselves. Logan says Jelly Roll will never belong here.

Drew says what happens to “Smelly Hole” is on Orton. McIntyre quotes Jelly Roll’s song and says that he has God on speed dial. “When he prays, bad things happen.” Cold ass line. A very sad looking Jelly Roll rocks up with Randy Orton, Nick Aldis tries to stop them from going to the ring but he fails. The 4 men get into a brawl, security keep them apart, especially an aggressive Orton. The show closes with Orton hitting security guards with RKOs and Jelly Roll lands a chokeslam.

Oh brother I am worried how much this is gonna stink. Another good piece of mic work by Drew McIntyre and Logan Paul, but Jelly Roll looked completely out his element here. He rolls in looking like a lost puppy, then he get in the ring and lacks any intensity at all. His chokeslam looked fine, felt like I waited an eternity for him to hit it but it was executed fine. I hope this match doesn’t completely blow but I don’t have the highest hopes.

This was a pretty flat way to end the show, even with the security pull away brawl.

The MFTs Claim To Run Smackdown ( Grade)

Giulia (c) defeats Zelina Vega, US Championship (C+ Grade)

Los Garza (c) vs Mr Iguana & Psycho Clown (C Grade)

Damian Priest defeats Aleister Black by DQ (B- Grade)

Talla Tonga defeats Jimmy Uso, Jacob Fatu Prevents Beatdown (E Grade)

Raw

Penta vs Xavier Woods

NXT

Trick Williams vs Je’Von Evans, Number 1 Contender

Yoshiki Inamura vs Josh Briggs, Street Fight

Jasper Troy vs Ricky Saints

Fatal Influence vs The Elegance Brand

Blake Monroe & Jordynne Grace Face to Face

Smackdown

???

Confirmed NXT Heatwave Card

Oba Femi (c) vs ???, NXT Championship

Blake Monroe vs Jordynne Grace

Jacy Jayne (c) vs Ash By Elegance vs Masha Slamovich, NXT & TNA Women’s Championships

Hank & Tank (c) vs DarkState, Tag Championships