This Week In WWE Review (16/6/25 – 22/6/25)

You Want it? Come Get it

Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio open up Raw. They get some loud boos from the crowd. Liv is out here to talk about respect and she needs to remind everyone that this is her division. Nikki Bella had to learn the hard way last week and now she is beat up at home and that is where she belongs. She mocks Iyo Sky for saying Nikki paved the way, Nikki definitely didn’t pave the way for her.

Liv says she is the greatest tag team champion of all time and demands the respect she deserves, as well as a rematch for the women’s world championship. Iyo Sky interrupts and she gets some loud chants from the crowd which is awesome. She tells Liv to shut her mouth, all she does is whine and show disrespect. Iyo is ready for a fight if she wants it, Liv is willing to fight but only with the title on the line. Liv tries to get Iyo to just hand it over, but Iyo says she needs to earn it. She can’t just steal the title like she stole Dirty Dom.

Dom pleads for Iyo to make things easy and hand the title over. Iyo throws the title into Liv’s hands, then dropkicks her. She takes out Dominik and poses in the ring.

I’m glad Iyo finally got some significant screen time. This was a fun opening segment. Iyo vs Liv should be good. I still think it is absolutely ludicrous how Iyo is defending Nikki Bella. I agree with Liv, hearing her show respect to Nikki Bella for paving the way was incredibly ass.

We Weren’t Ready

A returning Asuka defeats Ivy Nile, Raquel Rodriguez and Stephanie Vaquer to advance in the Queen of the Ring. The result was probably predictable, but it was the right call to make. It was either her or Vaquer, but I’m glad the Empress of Tomorrow got a great showing. Asuka got a pretty huge pop for her entrance which was nice, she was wearing a cool Oni mask. Not only is she still wearing face paint but now she has body paint on her shoulders, she looks awesome. 13 months since her last match, it has felt so long.

You wouldn’t think she was gone for so long. Sure there was a few shaky moments, but for the most part all of her stuff looked great and well executed. All the women involved got a good showing here actually. Ivy Nile continues to be an incredibly impressive wrestler, she just lacks a character that anyone can find investment in. Raquel played her role of the powerful giant well. One of the best spots of the match was her lifting up Vaquer and Ivy simultaneously and Asuka taking them all down with a missile dropkick. Raquel actually had the match won with a Tehana Bomb to Ivy Nile, but Rhea Ripley pulled her off the pin, getting payback for last week.

The encounters between Vaquer and Asuka were awesome. Vaquer again was in top form in this match and continues her meteoric rise on the main roster. I look forward to a 1v1 between these 2 at some point.

After the Raquel interference, Asuka hits a running hip attack on Raquel to win. The move is called the ‘Empress Impact’ which sounds a little lame, but maybe I will warm up to it. This was a good match.

You’re Next

Gunther comes down and raises his championship in the ring and he gets a celebratory display of pyro. He is getting booed out of the building which I am glad, the heel bully champion should be hated like this! They make it hard for him to speak. He admits that at Wrestlemania, Jey Uso was the better man… for one night. For every other single night, he is untouchable. A mixture of boos and cheers there.

Gunther has heard the rumours. The crowd chants for Goldberg and he denies that will ever happen, he cast him out. Gunther talks to Seth Rollins via the camera. Gunther is right here if he is a target so don’t waste anymore time.

Goldberg’s music plays. Holy shit. The old dad is back in jeans and a tee no less. The crowd pop loud, I think they have forgotten the pain of his recent WWE run.

Goldberg says to not be confused, he is here to celebrate the victory. One thing before he goes though, he started something with him and his family a few months ago. Goldberg says that he will end it in front of his family. July 12th, Saturday Night’s Main Event. “You’re mine, because you’re next.” That line was awesome.

Damn, well that was certainly unexpected. I thought this was a great segment…AS LONG AS GOLDBERG DOES NOT WIN THE MATCH. This should be his retirement match, going out on his back in his home town to the best wrestler in the world. Oh no, he’s going to win isn’t he?

Farmer Strength

First time ever 1v1 between Styles and McDonagh here, to no ones surprise this was a good wrestling match. The match starts off competitively, some great mat wrestling by Styles. Dominik gets himself involved and Styles chases him to the timekeepers area, McDonagh dives over the barricade onto him to take control.

McDonagh beats Styles down through the break. Cole mentions Dom has a huge smile on his face so Mysterio turns around and says “the best smile in WWE history” which was funny. Eventually Styles makes the fight back. Cole comments that he hasn’t heard anyone call the Ushi-Goroshi in years. That is because Corey knows a lot more about wrestling than a lot of the commentators WWE have had for the past few years.

Styles wins the match with the Styles Clash, but Michael Cole absolutely botches the final call for the match. He references Wade Barrett calling it a “Styles Flash” then Corey corrects him because he said a “Flash Clash”. I hate both of those things. Then Cole says JD kicked out, but he didn’t.

This was solid wrestling contest, with the right man going over as we prepare for the inevitable Mysterio vs Styles match. I did expect this to be better than it was though, but I guess it shouldn’t be outshining the opener or the main.

Role Model

Ding Dong Green Bay! Bayley is here for a promo and she is glad to be back. It starts off immediately awkward when she pauses for the crowd to sing and no one does until she mentions it.

Bayley doesn’t take wrestling for granted, she was born to do this. 2 months ago, she was stripped of an opportunity, robbed of a Wrestlemania match. She speaks to the camera and Becky Lynch. Her attack didn’t do any damage, it made her stronger and more motivated. It bothers Bayley that Becky has been just above her, but she is climbing the ladder and she will knock her down and take everything from her. She calls Becky out, and here comes The Man.

Becky Lynch comes out wearing Chicago Bears gear and the fans hate it. Becky says that they were both the same, not supposed to be on top of the division but Becky refused to accept second place. Bayley would prefer to have friends than a legacy. Bayley says she does have a legacy and she doesn’t mind bringing the locker room with her. Becky stopped fighting for the people because they stopped fighting for her and guess what, they stopped fighting for Bayley too. She says no one cared that Bayley was missing at Wrestlemania, they cheered for Becky.

Bayley says Becky was so paranoid of her reaction that she took out Bayley and Lyra Valkyria because she is scared of how the fans react to her. They throw some more jabs at each other, Bayley lays out the challenge and Becky says not tonight. Becky tries to slap her but Bayley drops her with a big forearm.

This was a great face off. These two are reliably great together.

It’s About Time

After the confrontation between Karrion Kross and Sami Zayn backstage, it seems that we may finally see Kross in the ring for the first time since his sensational shoot/work promo over Wrestlemania weekend.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of Karrion Kross getting the feature on Raw that he deserves.

King of the Yeet

Jey Uso defeats Rusev, Sheamus and Bronson Reed to progress in the KOTR tournament. Another predictable winner, but again probably the right call.

These 4 got plenty of time and like the women’s match, all 4 competitors got ample time to shine. Rusev and Bronson Reed were by far the most impressive. Rusev came out of this looking incredibly strong and I liked his interactions with Sheamus throughout the match. Bronson was given a lot of time to dominate and he looked comfortable being on top. Reed is everything they hoped JC Mateo would turn out to be. Sheamus is a veteran and his stuff looked great, he was a good anchor in this one. Jey Uso is entertaining as always, he does the usual shtick that he does and it is over.

Some cool spots here like Sheamus and Rusev continuing to brawl even after Bronson attacking them. Sheamus hitting an impressive white noise on Bronson Reed. This match was well structured and well wrestled.

Then we have the chaotic finish as expected. Bron Breakker pushes Jey Uso off the top rope. Sami Zayn and Penta make the save. LA Knight returns the favour and pushes Bronson off the top and helps Jey pick up the win.

Afterwards, Seth Rollins comes down ready to stomp Jey but Cody comes out and stares him down. The fans chanted holy shit. Seth was doing his best Triple H impression shaking and going redder than blood in the face. Seth leaves as Cody stares down his friend and KOTR opponent, Jey Uso.

A great match with a hot finish. Cody vs Jey will be very interesting. Rollins vs Rhodes might be the current day Austin vs Rock. Triple H vs HBK. Flair vs Dusty.

I will never shut up about this

This week, this is what happened in the tag division.

The New Day came out and cut a 2 minute promo burying the town of Green Bay. If you missed it, it was because it happened during a commercial break, so you will only see it if you saw Raw live on Netflix.

During a 5-10 second clip of Bayley walking backstage, we see Grayson Waller and Austin Theory arguing whilst the New Day stand and watch.

Liar

Jey Uso says that he and Gunther are 1-1 each. They will run it back and see who is the worthy, deserving champion.

Um, no Jey. You are 4-1 down.

Unfortunate Injury

Literally within 10 seconds of the match, Kairi Sane takes down Liv Morgan with a single leg and the match is halted as she rolls out. After being checked over, the match is called off and Kairi Sane is victorious.

Such a shame for this to happen. I hope it is not serious because they clearly have a lot of plans for Liv Morgan going forward. Crazy how injuries can just happen like this. I’m not going to rate this, but of course the injury is a negative part of the show.

It was later revealed she dislocated her shoulder.

Gotta say, seeing Kairi Sane run the ropes and jump around in joy after hearing she won was a little hilarious.

Legends Rise

The second Evolution Eliminator of the night saw Kelani Jordan and Lash Legend go to war. I am a fan of both of these women so I was excited to see this one. I am glad it lived up to my expectations. Lash is still a little inexperienced but she is working with the naturally gifted Jordan.

A powerhouse vs a high-flyer is usually a good pairing. There are some great moments in this match. Lash bouncing Kelani’s head between the top and middle ring ropes, I haven’t seen anyone do that before. Kelani countering a top rope back suplex into a crossbody was a great near fall. This was a well contested match by both these women.

Lash Legend hits her finisher to win and advance. I was happy for either of these to advance, I like them both and I didn’t think either of them were going to be the opponent for Jacy Jayne at Evolution.

Great Rush

6-man tag action, KC Navarro was supposed to be in this match but for some reason he has been replaced by Wes Lee. Lee, AJ Francis and Trick Williams team up to face Elijah, Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura. I am not excited to watch AJ Francis wrestle again. Lucky for him he is in very good company.

This was quite a lot of fun. Trick Williams is doing great character work and it is shining through his wrestling style now too. Wes Lee and Inamura are the best wrestlers in this match and had the most fun spots. Elijah though impressed me a lot, he has clearly improved as a performer since his WWE release and spending time in TNA. Josh Briggs was good here too, a deceivingly quick big man.

AJ Francis is so bad man. He can barely lift his leg up for a kick. He has the athleticism of a brick wall.

Yoshiki Inamura won the match for his team, pinning the TNA world champion! A great match and a surprise result. What I don’t like is Inamura just giving that title shot to Briggs. Why? Briggs hasn’t earned it, Inamura has.

Push Zaria PLease

Zaria is so good. I want her pushed to the moon as soon as possible please.

Izzi Dame defeats Zaria in a pretty physical match. Dame is another person who has improved a lot recently and she showed that here. She got her shit in and it looked good.

Zaria was in control but she got distracted by Tatum Paxley running in to hug Sol Ruca, desperate to be friends. Ruca screamed, Zaria turned around, turned back into a Sky High and lost. The finish was a bit deflating, but I understand why it was done. I like where the Paxley storyline might go.

Juggernaut

Another good match on this show is Jordynne Grace vs Lola Vice. I am liking the MMA style of Lola more and more, she incorporates submissions into her wrestling very well. They never feel random or forced, it all feels like part of her plan. I think as she grows and gets more experience, she will only improve her ring psychology.

Lola uses her strikes and submissions to wear down Grace but the Juggernaut uses her power to stay in this fight. Lola is actually on offence a lot more in this than I expected. There was a great near fall when she lands her patented spin kick. Grace persevered and activates Beast Mode to win the match.

Well wrestled, the finish felt a little abrupt. I think this needed another 5 more minutes and it could have been a top tier women’s match.

Grace winning is no surprise to me.

Parker Advances

The show opens with Jaida Parker vs Thea Hail in the first of four Evolution Eliminator matches to earn a title shot against Jacy Jayne. The match started hot as Thea attacked Parker during her entrance, this feud has been developing for the past few weeks. Jaida is the clear fan favourite, Thea being booed quite a lot.

I didn’t like the booking here. This entire match so Jaida Parker beat Thea’s ASS, giving her next to no offence from the opening bell. Thea turned the tide with a couple of pin attempts and then she locks in her kimura finisher. I would have bought this more if Thea actually targeted Jaida’s arm in this match at all. What was supposed to make Parker look crafty actually made her look weak, because she shouldn’t have been in a near-losing situation when she was so dominant.

There was also the dreaded chin lock rest hold spot that consumed about 3 minutes of this match. I don’t mind these holds if there is a purpose. There was not one for this.

This match was wrestled well, disagree with the structuring and decisions made in the match.

Downfall

The Don Tony D’Angelo comes to the ring and he knows he needs to be aware of everything around him. He doesn’t know what is going down, but all he wants from Luca is trust and loyalty and he isn’t getting it.

Tony calls out Luca to meet face to face. D’Angelo says if Luca is going to lie he can do it publicly. Tony asks what happened in the desert. This whole interaction feels straight out of a WWE video game. They keep going back and forth, Luca says that he can be trusted. They waffle on, Tony cuts off Luca and demands to look him in the eyes and tell him if he is with Stacks or not. Luca is interrupted by Stacks.

Stacks calls Tony pathetic. He says he has never questioned Luca like Tony has. Stacks says he saved Luca in the desert because he doesn’t deserve to be stuck with D’Angelo. Stacks and his goons attack, Luca helps Tony but accidentally strikes Tony when Stacks moves out of the way.

Boring angle. It is a real shame how far this has fallen. The fans don’t care and neither do I anymore. Poorly booked, poorly delivered, just poor.

What the fuck was that?

I’m talking about that Chase University segment.

Seriously, what the fuck was that?

Not you too

Is WWE Smackdown the only brand who cares about tag team wrestling? This week was the first time we saw the tag champions Hank & Tank for a long time. It was in a throwaway backstage segment. The titles have lost all the value that Fraxiom spent so long building. There are no teams arguing, fighting or challenging them to be next in line. No one cares about the titles, so why should I?

On a similar note, where is Lexis King? Why has he not been featured much recently? We haven’t seen Noam Dar since he returned either but he is back next week at least. Where are my boys?

Jaida Parker defeats Thea Hail, Evolution Eliminator (C+ Grade)

Lash Legend defeats Kelani Jordan, Evolution Eliminator (B Grade)

The Don Questions Loyalties (D- Grade)

Chase U Segment (F Grade)

Trick Williams, AJ Francis & Wes Lee defeat Elijah, Josh Briggs & Yoshiki Inamura (B+ Grade)

Izzi Dame defeats Zaria, Evolution Eliminator (B Grade)

Jordynne Grace defeats Lola Vice, Evolution Eliminator (B Grade)

Blake Monroe Signs Her NXT Contract (C+ Grade)

Call Out

LA Knight opens the show, he is hugely over still of course. He does a recap of Money in the Bank and the King of the Ring where he was screwed by Seth Rollins and his boys, he got a little payback. There is only one way this goes and it ends with Knight vs Rollins and it should happen now. He calls out Seth Rollins, but is met with Paul Heyman.

Heyman does great crowd work here getting heel heat for him and Rollins. Knight shuts him up. Heyman acknowledges the bad blood but he calls himself the biggest fan of LA Knight. Heyman throws out a “YEAH!” Rollins has allowed Heyman to approach Knight and tell him to leave Michigan otherwise something really bad will happen before the end of the night.

LA Knight mocks Heyman’s occasional voice breaking which was funny. Knight has heard this before because Heyman is a liar, a swindler, a scammer, a schemer. He is a leech. Knight asked for Rollins but got a tough talking Heyman. He threatens Heyman, if he can’t get Rollins then he will fight him right now. He asks the fans and they cheer loud for it. Knight turns his back and allows Heyman to take the first shot, but Heyman slides away.

Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed come down to the ring and Knight tries to fight them off. Reed & Breakker beat his ass in and around the ring but Knight grabs a chair to even the playing field. Heyman pulls his troops back.

A solid opening segment. The fans didn’t bite much on the beat down after the promos, I think they were expecting a run in to make the save but no one came out. It went quiet towards the end.

Queen Asuka?

Asuka defeats Alexa Bliss in the first match of the night to advance to the Queen of the Ring finals.

This was an even back and forth match between two faces. I assume Asuka is a face, she is presented as so. Loud duelling chants for both of these women which is nice to hear.

Asuka hit a sweet strike combo followed with a German suplex and a running knee for a 2. Alexa gets a roll up near fall and nearly hits the Sister Abigail DDT, but Asuka escapes into a roll up of her own for a 2. That was a nice sequence.

There was a moment when Alexa went for Twisted Bliss, but she just stands there and decides against it. She approaches Asuka who traps her in an double arm bar. The was weird, did Bliss accidentally try to go to the finish early? I’m unsure but it was a little awkward.

The match ends when Alexa eventually tries to Twisted Bliss, but Asuka gets her knees up. Asuka hits the Empress Impact to win.

Pretty good match, I thought they were going to get more time based off the start of the match which was pretty slow. I predicted an Asuka victory but I expected to see a Charlotte Flair run in. I think Asuka winning was the right call. There were some nice sequences here, but this was mostly just a standard, fun TV match.

R-King-O

Randy Orton defeated Sami Zayn to advance to WWE Night of Champions. I REALLY wanted Sami to win here, but I do not mind the result assuming that this is part of his journey to the world title eventually. This match was great, pretty simple but the spots and crowd work was done excellently.

There were some great moments of character development for Zayn. Orton does an eye poke in the corner, he hits some uppercuts but Sami returns fire with an eye poke of his own. Randy is in control for most of the break, but Sami shows some newfound aggression and he fights out of mounted punches into some of his own. Sami steals Orton’s Back Suplex onto the announce table spot.

The closing sequence saw both men trade big counters as they looked for the killing blow. Sami aims for the Helluva Kick but a powerslam counter gets a near fall. Zayn misses the kick again, he counters an RKO with a Blue Thunder Bomb for a great near fall. Sami goes up top for splash, Zayn misses, counters an RKO, goes for the Helluva again but Orton lands the RKO to win.

Great stuff.

Pretty confident Cody is beating Jey now.

I love you Jacob

Solo Sikoa comes out and calls out Jacob to meet him alone. Solo feels terrible about what happened and wants to clear the air. Out comes Fatu to a huge pop and loud chants.

Solo doesn’t want a fight. He loves Jacob. Solo is just trying to take care of his family. Families fight, they forgive and they move forward. Solo says no one saw his potential other than him, he was the only one who wanted him in WWE. He provided for him and his family because he loves him. Solo says he doesn’t have anybody else, only Jacob. Solo wants him back and it doesn’t matter if he won’t say the 4 words, he will. “I love you Jacob.”

Crowd chants bullshit.

“So you love me huh?” The way Jacob sees things is Solo be using him to gain power, fight his battles and remain Tribal Chief. Solo brought him in for fame and gold. Jacob demands Solo look at him when he speaks. Crowd go wild for this. Ever since Fatu won the title, Solo is the one who is different. Jacob thinks maybe the problem is the gold.

Fatu lays it on the ground between them and says “if it is what I think it is, fight me for it!” Fatu lays out the challenge but warns him that if he comes at him what to expect. Fatu does his catchphrases, Solo tries a cheap shot but Fatu catches it.

Here comes JC Mateo to help do a beat down but Jimmy Uso comes to make the save. He tries to fight, but Mateo & Solo take him down. Fatu revives himself and takes out Solo & Mateo. Jimmy and Jacob stare down but do not come to blows.

Great segment. My favourite thing on this show. This is the brilliant storytelling that WWE have been lacking since 2023-2024. A slow burn angle that doesn’t overstay its welcome, keeps progressing and now it is blowing off. Solo vs Fatu is the hottest angle of the year in WWE.

pipebomb

John Cena gets himself DQd by attacking R-Truth with the WWE championship. A lame finish to a bad match, more on that later. CM Punk rushes to make the save but he gets clobbered by Punk with the title. Then John Cena pulls out a table, and I lost my shit. I just realised that this is a set up for a pipebomb. John Cena lost a tables match to R-Truth when CM Punk cut his pipebomb.

Cena puts CM punk through the table and begins to recite the opening lines of Punk’s most famous promo, he continues to make direct references and quotes but he adapts it to fit this new narrative.

John Cena doesn’t hate CM Punk, he likes him more than anyone else who has shared a locker room with Punk. He hates the idea of Punk, he is not the best in the world. Cena is the greatest in the world. He says Punk is greater at one thing, he is the best bullshitter in the world. “Hey I’m breaking the 4th wall, ha ha!” The truth is, Cena is jealous that Punk has conned fans into believing he is the best. However, they don’t believe him anymore because Punk changes his ideals like Cena changes t-shirts. He says Punk will step on anyone’s throat to get ahead. Cena name drops Claudio Castagnoli, Nic Nemeth and Matt Cardona! Cena is Punk’s only friend, the one who gave him the stage for the pipebomb.

Punk regurgitates the 5 promo moves of doom. Cena says Punk is not the voice of the voiceless, he is a millionaire. He is not Punk he is capitalist. He is Mr TKO. His tweet are strong, his actions are weak. Cena will prove that each and every day, Cena has been the GOAT. The fans know Punk was the GOAT for 7 minutes, 14 years ago. After NoC, if Punk is still delusional enough to belive he is the best, then it is a small world after all. “You’re welcome Grand Rapids.”

USA Network can keep the extra minutes, Elvis has left the mother fudging building. Cena says thanks for letting me steal your infamous promo and make you look even more foolish.

This, was insane. I don’t really have words to say. John Cena is now the anti-hero. This might actually trigger more boos for CM Punk, it was that crazy of a promo. I have watched this over and over again. John Cena dropped the promo of all promos.

Actually insulting

Aleister Black is set to wrestle Kit Wilson. First off, shout out to Elton Prince, I hope he is recovering well. I miss Pretty Deadly. Black makes his entrance, but then someone appears from the crowd and beats up Kit Wilson. It’s R-Truth. Huh, okay. Black just stands on the ramp watching on confused as Truth beats Wilson’s ass. Truth grabs a mic and calls out John Cena. He operates on his own time and he is calling the shots. He attacks Wilson some more, until he is finally calmed down by security. R-Truth then just leaves, Aleister Black stands there like a fucking spare part.

THIS SUCKED. What are we doing here WWE?! We don’t have anything worthwhile for Aleister Black to do other than make an entrance for a match that never happened? Even if we take out the R-Truth run-in, Black vs Wilson? Is that the best we can do? Black is an amazing wrestler and he proved in AEW he is phenomenal at creating a character. JUST HAVE HIM CUT A COOL ASS PROMO EVERY WEEK.

I am beyond pissed off at this wasted segment. This meant nothing and provided nothing.

We got a brief backstage face to face with Truth and Black but Damian Priest steps in the way.

Booooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Semi-Finalist confrontation

Cody Rhodes is out for a promo segment. Before he can even speak, out comes an ecstatic Jey Uso. Shouldn’t Jey be feeling a bit down in the dumps from losing his championship last week, not happy to be here like usual? Just a thought.

Crowd are hot for Jey, maybe even more so than Cody. Jey says Cody has nothing he needs to say. They have been in the trenches together for years, they have both been to the mountaintop and they both want to climb it again. Jey has got to get his, this isn’t personal but on Monday it will be 4 letters, 1 word, yeet.

Cody goes to speak but Sami Zayn comes out, ahead of his match with Orton. Sami is happy to share the ring with 2 great friends and 2 of the best in the business. He recognises only 1 of them has not won a world championship. Sami made sure he was there to congratulate Jey for winning. He was there when Cody finally finished his story to congratulate him. Now, it is Sami’s time to finish his story.

Randy Orton comes out now. He tells Cody again there is no line he won’t cross to become a 15 time world champion. Orton tells Jey that if they are across the ring from each other at Summerslam (huh?) that it won’t be 4 letters, it will be 3 letters. Randy tells Sami he will be a world champion, but not at Summerslam because he is being dropped by an RKO tonight.

This was a pretty mid segment, disappointing considering the star power involved. What is with Cody barely getting much mic time since he has came back? He is one of the best talkers but I don’t think he is getting the time to talk. Orton said his generic stuff, Jey did his usual stuff. Sami’s promo was short but awesome, he had more fire than the other 3 combined.

Stale booking

Nia Jax is here to talk about Tiffany Stratton. She says Tiffany betrayed her and she has her title. Nia is getting “what?”-ed out of the building. Stratton interrupts and calls her the toxic ex she cannot get away from. Tiffy tells her to get over it and admit that Tiffy is better than her. There is an awkward silence. Nia wants a rematch. Next week Stratton and Nia will wrestle and Tiffany looks forward to kicking her ass again. Tiffany says it will be a Last Woman Standing. Nia beats her up and holds up the title. Nia beats her up some more, out comes Naomi and she tries to cash in but Nia Jax drags her out of the ring.

Stratton dropkicks Naomi into Nia and holds her title up.

This was a fine segment. Stratton and Nia have good chemistry so the match should be great. My issue here is two things.

A) They should have done all of this when the Stratton vs Nia rivalry was hot.

B) Isn’t this rivalry already settled? Only 5 weeks ago Tiffany defeated her in the Smackdown main event and I thought that would have been the end until Nia returned 2 weeks ago and attacked her.

To me, this reeks of creative not having any concrete plans for Stratton until Naomi cashes in.

WHY SHow it?

Why would you show the pipebomb if you’re going to cut it up?

We got a decent CM Punk and John Cena promo package talking about Yin & Yang. They of course talked about their history and the pipebomb needed to be mentioned. But why did they choose the one portion they didn’t want to? CM Punk says “you are better than me at kissing Vince McMahon’s ass.” However, in this clip he just says “you are better than me at kissing ass.” JUST DON’T SHOW THAT PART. There was a lot of great lines in that promo. You don’t need to poorly edit a stellar promo.

Am I nitpicking? Probably, but I am still not over that abhorrent Aleister Black seg.

Push Chelsea Green

Chelsea Green vs Charlotte Flair and bloody hell was I not excited for this. Why? Because we have 3 matches left in the show and only 1 hour and 15 minutes of screen time left. I expected to see a short, dominant win for the Queen here.

Chelsea got a huge pop here, I don’t see why they are not pushing her. She is totally able of being a top star.

Not a lot happened here. Chelsea Green “heeled it up” even though she was getting loud cheers from the crowd whilst Flair was getting an incredibly mixed reaction. The match ended hot with some near falls for Chelsea but she was ultimately beaten by the Figure 8. Alexa Bliss would come out to save Charlotte from a beat down by Green & the Secret Hervice.

I think Flair continuing her losing streak would have been a much better storyline than this. The match was okay, a bit boring but the closing minute was very good. They are slow burning the hell out of this Flair and Bliss thing and I am already getting tired of it.

Chelsea Green deserves better. I pledge allegiance.

Predictable

LA Knight vs Bronson Reed time. LA Knight appears from the crowd and sneak attacks Bron Breakker before mocking Bronson. A hot start but this was the best it would be.

This was incredibly short and generic. Knight is on offence for a couple of minutes. Bronson gets heat through the break, Knight fights back but Bron Breakker causes a DQ.

Totally predictable. The match was as basic as it gets. The DQ finish is lame, I don’t think this match really needed to happen. They could have just had the promo and the beatdown segment. Another segment that didn’t really serve much of a purpose and didn’t really advance anything either.

Breakker spears Knight again. Bronson hits a Tsunami, then another, then another. They leave as Knight struggles in pain.

The Truth

So yeah, the John Cena vs R-Truth main event. It wasn’t really about this at all, it was all just a set up for the real main event. The Pipebomb.

The match was pretty bad. Slow, uneventful and I think it consisted of like 7 moves being used over and over again. Shoulder tackle, back suplex, 5 knuckle shuffle, Lou Thesz press, stinger splash, punching and championship to the head.

John Cena tried to leave, brained Truth with the title and got DQd. Two DQ finishes on this show, back to back. That is some bad booking right there. I can almost forgive it because of what came after, but this entire show was incredibly mediocre so I cannot.

Production Complaints

6 matches on this show is far too many, I know one of them didn’t happen but that is a whole problem I addressed on its own. I have 10 segments that are graded and I think that is excessive. They have tried to cram in so much on one show that little of it feels truly developed. None of the matches had enough time to reach a higher standard.

Were there more ads on this show than usual? I know that WWE has ruined their product with ads already, but I felt like we were given even more ads than usual last night. Brutal.

LA Knight calls out Seth Rollins (B Grade)

Asuka defeats Alexa Bliss, QOTR Semi-Final (B Grade)

Aleister Black vs Kit Wilson Is Ruined By R-Truth (F Grade)

KOTR Semi-Finalists Share Words (C Grade)

Randy Orton defeats Sami Zayn, KOTR SF (B+ Grade)

Nia Wants a Rematch (C Grade)

Raw

Becky Lynch (c) vs Bayley, Intercontinental Championship

Jade Cargill vs Roxanne Perez, QOTR SF

Cody Rhodes vs Jey Uso, KOTR SF

NXT

Trick Williams (c) vs Josh Briggs, TNA World Championship

Noam Dar (c) vs Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo, Heritage Cup

Jaida Parker vs Lash Legend vs Izzi Dame vs Jordynne Grace, Contender Match

Tavion Heights vs Je’Von Evans

Smackdown

Tiffany Stratton (c) vs Nia Jax, Last Woman Standing for WWE Women’s Championship

Zelina Vega (c) vs Giulia, US Championship

Street Profits (c) vs Wyatt Sicks, WWE Tag Championships

Confirmed WWE Night of Champions Card

John Cena (c) vs CM Punk, WWE Championship

Dominik Mysterio (c) vs AJ Styles, Intercontinental Championship

Jacob Fatu (c) vs Solo Sikoa, US Championship

Asuka vs ???, Queen of the Ring Finals

Randy Orton vs ???, King of the Ring Finals