-Darren Young won an eighteen-man battle royal for an I-C Title shot at The Miz at Battleground. -Sheamus beat Zack Ryder thanks to a pre-match backstage beatdown by Rusev. -Breezango upset the Lucha Dragons thanks to a handful of tights on Breeze's rollup of Kalisto. -Kevin Owens defeated Cesaro with a new finisher(torture-rack backbreaker) in between close encounters of the Zayn kind. -Titus beat Heath as the Slater Gators exploded. -Enzo & Cass beat Anderson & Gallows by DQ when Styles interfered; Cena made the save. -Sasha defeated Dana, but Charlotte deemed her still unworthy of a title shot. -Vince said Stephanie would run Raw and Shane would run Smackdown, but both would choose GMs next week.
Oh, and Ambrose defends the WWE Title against Rollins next Monday.
I was worried about the brand split, but then they introduced this deep, rich, complex hierarchy of who's in charge of each show. I'm also really excited about the completely opaque standards for which show is winning the war between the two.
You actually wrote this whole thing up with no mention of The Wyatts vs New Day Swamp Yard Brawl?
I'm all for New Day having an edge to their game and I like the idea of The Wyatts being a scary intimidating threat to people, but doing a Rob Zombie style WCW Junkyard Brawl a week after Final Deletion was not the way I would have done things. It's like TNA reversed roles for the week with one company doing a bad imitation of the other.
What was with The Wyatts suddenly having unlimited Aces and Eights faceless numbers, and were half of them using their cell phone flashlight app? Did New Day just walk back home?
At least Mick Foley seemed to like the Women's match, and that closing promo sure made that Brand Split sure look promising, and now next week we name ANOTHER level of Authority for each show!
Originally posted by BigDaddyLoco I'm all for New Day having an edge to their game and I like the idea of The Wyatts being a scary intimidating threat to people, but doing a Rob Zombie style WCW Junkyard Brawl a week after Final Deletion was not the way I would have done things. It's like TNA reversed roles for the week with one company doing a bad imitation of the other.
Yes, I agree with this. I'm in the minority with New Day. I don't LOVE them. Great wrestlers, I just think the gimmick is too silly. When your tag champs of 300+ days are acting as silly as Breezdango and Golden Truth it's not a good thing. I've been waiting for them to show some kind of mean streak so they aren't silly 100% of the time. The Wyatts should have been their chance to do that but that segment was just garbage.
As for the Wyatt Family. I wish the ending with other followers in the woods would have been the introduction of one or two more wrestlers instead. They desperately need a shake up with their members.
We're going to have 4 authority figures? Ugh.
Owens and Cesaro did have a fun match. I'm loving The Club's antics as well.
Bad timing on their part with that segment. It wasn't the focal point of the show like the Hardys match was, but the comparisons were obvious. At least they seem to be teasing Sister Abigail, whichever developmental gal that might end up being.
The WWE.com recap accidentally gave away the SmackDown Live GM, suggesting it was supposed to be announced tonight at one point. It's gone now, but it'll probably be talked about until it's announced.
doing a Rob Zombie style WCW Junkyard Brawl a week after Final Deletion was not the way I would have done things.
This was not an accident of timing, but a purposeful attempt to show they could do the same thing as TNA but much better. It wasn't - it was bad, but bad in a different way, with nauseating editing.
I actually kinda liked the New Day outdoor segment, for all that the ending didn't make much sense. I guess New Day just hitchhiked back to town afterwards. At least there wasn't dueling fireworks cannons.
I really don't care about the brand extension angle, even less so now that Stephen is getting control of RAW back. Because two years of plummeting ratings under the Authority taught them nothing. I bet HHH winds up as RAW GM, so we can go back to the 30-minute opening promos.
Not really much to write home about, other than Bray trying to legit murder Woods with an axe. Wonder if this is going to lead to some weird Falls-Count-Anywhere, 'Boiler Room Brawl' type match where everyone ends up in the woods again somehow.
Originally posted by BigDaddyLocoYou actually wrote this whole thing up with no mention of The Wyatts vs New Day Swamp Yard Brawl?
Sadly lacking in dilapidated boats.
George Michael weighed his options. Maeby had chastised him for not taking risks, and what would be a bigger risk than perpetuating a lie about software just to ignite the passions of a woman? Of course it would be a lie, and since Maeby wouldn't know it was a lie, he wouldn't appear to be taking a risk. Perhaps the bigger risk was to tell his father he was lying, that he came up with it because he wanted his father to leave so he could enjoy what remained of his senior year. After all, he wondered, wouldn't that be the course of action taken by an overtly sexual man, a man who owns a pair of matador pants? He had not responded now for 41 seconds according to his unfailing internal clock, and it was time to come clean.
Serious question: was Steph drunk? Based on life experience, she exhibited a lot of the signs. The trip on the STEEL steps didn't help either.
The Rollins Report came off way better than I thought it would. I thought it would be crap, it wasn't, I'm happy. The subsequent Ambrose promo (and Seth's reaction) was some of the best character work done in the main event in what feels like forever. Seriously, I can't think of any recent main event promos that come close. Great stuff.
Sasha is my girl. But she has no chemistry with Dana. It went forever and Sasha isn't yet good enough to completely carry an entire match. Dana was put in this sink-or-swim position because of Emma's injury. She's barely treading water and it's not great to watch. I hope it all clicks for her soon. I like Dana. She's got a great opportunity here. But this was brutal. You could actually see the wheels spinning for her throughout the match. It's a shame because Sasha is over AF but Dana just sucked all the heat out of it.
Backwoods folk luring a group of African Americans out to their compound in order to beat them up / teach them a lesson / legit murder them. Not sure this was completely thought out beforehand.
Disappointed Rollins didn't get Reigns to admit to needing that sweet, sweet can.
The Wyatt compound match looked like an action movie version of 12 Years a Slave. I liked Final Deletion more than this, but the actual wrestling/fighting in FD was terrible. You could see that the Hardy's are falling apart physically with each floppy punch thrown. The Wyatt Family and New Day were literally beating the shit out of each other. Plus I like that this was a street (swamp?) fight and not a wrestling match with a ring. It really really could of did without a piss filter over it though.
Sasha is fine in long matches. See Her vs. Bayley/Charlotte/Becky in NXT Championship matches. Dana is raw as all hell. It's seems like she's moving at half speed sometimes. I honestly think they should of went with Alexa who is killing it as a heel down in Full Sail.
John Cena just did the most anti Cena thing ever. He actually came through and saved his new buddies before they got their asses totally kicked. This is not the same Cena that would let Ryback and Shaemus get killed by the Shield and then show up later in the show after the dust is cleared. He's finally evolved into learning a new move "PREEMPTIVE STRIKE".
Cesaro v. Owens was very good.
I feel like Darren Young is getting a reluctant push, he better make this work in a very short time. Also if some current wrestler is gonna get a mentor who is a veteran then I nominate Brooklyn Brawler for Zach Ryder. They are both great at their Job.
Cole: "Yeah, thanks to Kane. You should buy Kane a Rolex watch for what he did for you."
Rollins: "Oh don't be silly, Kane doesn't wear watches."
Originally posted by thecubsfanThe Ambrose/Rollins bit was good.
My favorite touch was that despite being 3-4 interviews stitched together, all of them had the title in the shot; it had be intentionally, since Reigns' reigns have been only 3-4 months in total, so there were only probably those sitdown interviews that he has done as champion. Despite those restrictions, they still had enough material to make it work.
STOP BREAKING MY KAYAK, PLEASE. PLEASE STOP! GOSH DARN IT. OH, WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?
Go Pack Go! Owner of one (1) share. Let's Go Riders! Owner of one (1) share. (0-2, 5th West)
Originally posted by CruelAngel777Also if some current wrestler is gonna get a mentor who is a veteran then I nominate Brooklyn Brawler for Zach Ryder. They are both great at their Job.
You may have missed one of the most surprising cuts from a couple of months ago...
The July 11th 2016 edition of RAW did 3.171 million viewers overall. This is up from last week's 2.658 million viewers and 3.093 million viewers two weeks ago. It's interesting to note that the 1st hour was the lowest rated hour when it has typically been the 3rd as of late.
Sorry, the Compound a week after the insanity of #FinalDeletion just didn't work. It's a weird setting for New Day to be in anyway, though it was good they were serious and not cracking booty jokes the entire time. The editing killed it, though. Back to the ring, please. Or more drones. Really they should have held this back a few weeks. I never thought I'd say this, but something TNA did has left too big of a shadow to try to immediately copy.
I like Dana, but she's not good for long matches with "veterans" like Sasha. As noted before, Alexa was probably the superior pick, though really Sasha heeling it up is the best pick of all, not that the fans wouldn't still be eating her up.
Ryder is having such a weird year. Glad he's getting another PPV payday and a title shot to boot. With the random way they throw him around, I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a surprise win to boost the crowd.
I expect to most likely care about SmackDown in a few weeks. Guess it depends on who is drafted where, but I expect most of the workhorses will end up on SmackDown and the "super star entertainers" and hosses will be bloating three hours of Raw.
Originally posted by andy1278I like Dana, but she's not good for long matches with "veterans" like Sasha. As noted before, Alexa was probably the superior pick, though really Sasha heeling it up is the best pick of all, not that the fans wouldn't still be eating her up.
Dana's character is great, but yeah she's not ready for long matches on RAW in the ring, especially after being hurt most of 2015 and just working as Emma's backup. Also she's a lot shorter than Charlotte, which is an odd visual dynamic if she's supposed be the "muscle" Charlotte is "hiding" behind.
You know that if they are in a TLC match it doesnt mean that they have to use the ladder. I know i can see henery jumping off a ladder onto someone laying on a table....but who knows "Anything can happen in the WWE"