– Kickoff Match: Enzo Amore and Big Cass defeated The Club.
1. United States Championship Match: Chris Jericho defeated Kevin Owens (c). 2. Cruiserweight Championship Match: Austin Aries defeated Neville (c) via DQ, champion retained. 3. Raw Tag Team Championship Match: The Hardy Boyz (c) defeated Sheamus and Cesaro. 4. Raw Women’s Championship Match: Alexa Bliss defeated Bayley (c). 5. Bray Wyatt defeated Randy Orton. 6. Seth Rollins defeated Samoa Joe. 7. Braun Strowman defeated Roman Reigns.
- I will not be alone in saying that Jericho winning is totally unexpected. I know this because everyone except two people in the prediction thread predicted Owens would win. This will likely lead to Jericho vs Styles.
- Bliss is heads and shoulders above everyone in the woman's division in terms of character and mic work, so I like that she won the belt.
- Matt Hardy is doing a great job of mixing in pretty much every version of himself in a match.
- That house of horrors match was an abomination.
- Finally, Braun won clean!
(edited by El Nastio on 1.5.17 1130) "You can't put a price on integrity"
I liked that two heated feuds had blood in them. I miss it when it matters.
I'm glad someone on SmackDowns team was we're losing Ambrose, the Miz, AJ, and Owens is going back to RAW in a month? So they got to keep AJ. The only plus is no more Zayn and Owens.
I know Vince thinks wrasslin fans aren't really high IQ people, but I doubt it was pitch dark at 6:23pm in San Jose this late in April. They'll just look outside and see it's dark and believe it. I though Kane was returning when the house turned red. Matt probably watched that and just slowly shook his head. How was Wyatt worse off after a 45 min limo ride than before he got in the limo?
Not a fan of Alexa winning. I get that people like the Harley Quinn thing and her mic skills are good, but she is not someone who belongs in this elite list of women they are creating. Bayley pretty much carried her in this. I figure she will be the stop gap for Sasha and Bayley for the summer.
Braun wins the match. Good. Looks like Yosemite Sam at the end. Not good. Jericho going to Smackdown now gives us a shot at Jericho/Nakamura. Can't wait. Raw needs to focus on getting Balor and Ambrose back into being relevant pieces instead of people that can go to the pre-show. Not sure why Miz/Ambrose didn't happen. Oh right, House of Horrific booking went on forever. Gotcha.
Originally posted by texasranger9I'm glad someone on SmackDowns team was we're losing Ambrose, the Miz, AJ, and Owens is going back to RAW in a month? So they got to keep AJ. The only plus is no more Zayn and Owens.
Owens isn't going back to Raw. He was sent to Smackdown in the Superstar Shakeup. The stipulation was to ensure that Smackdown kept a mid-card title, so if Jericho won the match that was booked before the Shakeup he'd go to Smackdown too. The stipulation never said that if Jericho won Owens would be sent back to Raw.
Originally posted by texasranger9I'm glad someone on SmackDowns team was we're losing Ambrose, the Miz, AJ, and Owens is going back to RAW in a month? So they got to keep AJ. The only plus is no more Zayn and Owens.
Owens isn't going back to Raw. He was sent to Smackdown in the Superstar Shakeup. The stipulation was to ensure that Smackdown kept a mid-card title, so if Jericho won the match that was booked before the Shakeup he'd go to Smackdown too. The stipulation never said that if Jericho won Owens would be sent back to Raw.
So yes, there will be more Zayn and Owens.
I'm glad it is that way, but question why Angle would let that happen. Smackdown got a 2 for none. We all know Jericho is leaving so it's not that important in a non-Kayfabe since.
I didn't dislike the House of Horrors match in the house itself. They tried to do some fun things and it wasn't worse than boiler room brawls in the past. What made it silly was the long commute in a limo. Either make the entire match take place in (or around) the arena or make the finish happen at the spot. Now it was anti-climactic as hell.
I was confused btw because I thought it was for the title. So I was surprised to see Bray win it.
Jericho winning is cool. He gets to put new fresh people on the list. And a feud between him and Ziggler could be fun. The match was fine.
Bliss winning was a good choice. I don't know what lotjx means with Harley Quinn because she's not channeling that character at all (and btw, her outfit was iron man-ish) And because she wasn't a horsewoman when she started doesn't mean she isn't getting built up to be in that same league. Bayley as champ wasn't working so give it to the best character you have, reshuffle the deck and go from there. Also, it allows them to keep Nia away from the title a bit longer.
Rollins-Joe was a nice match but definitely not the end of it. Tag match was good. And while telegraphed, the heel turn was nicely done and needed. With the Revival out for a while longer the Club were the only heels.
I didn't expect Braun to win, especially clean like this. I'm slightly intrigued if they'll keep his momentum going. Or if this is just gonna be that Roman fights back and beats him annoyingly clean next time.
Aries-Neville was the wrestling match of the night, kinda like at WM and they can keep it going for a while longer. However, aarrgh! Stupid ref. You see what he's doing and why. Be smart and let the match continue! You were not harmed!
The show started out absolutely great. The U.S. title match was fun (Jericho's interaction with the young fan with the List after sealeed it for me), the tag match continued and was just great, the cruiserweight match was entertaining enough, and the womens' match was solid.
Then it happened. There are many complaints about the House of Horrors. It was dark at 6:30 p.m. Bray didn't feel the need to have Rowan or any of his other followers there. It was less of a spooky house of horrors and more of an unkept house from the 80s that maybe some kids broke into and spraypainted the fridge (minus the doll room, which was dumb in itself). It had one of those Christmas projector lights outside that changes colors. Oooooooooh. And yes, the limo ride. It was the Goldust-Piper Hollywood Backlot Brawl minus the camp and fun.
I felt bad for the fans watching in the arena. I went to the Bash at the Beach where Sting & Vampiro had the graveyard match, and it was hard watching that 15-20 minutes of mostly darkness on a video screen (AND we had to watch half of the hardcore match on the video screen).
I honestly turned it off for a while after the House of Horrors part one, so I missed Rollins-Joe. I came back in time for the finish to the Horrors, which was no better.
Braun smash and win was fun!
It was a good show overall that had this one killer stinker right in the middle.
Originally posted by texasranger9I'm glad it is that way, but question why Angle would let that happen. Smackdown got a 2 for none. We all know Jericho is leaving so it's not that important in a non-Kayfabe since.
It's always risky to try to read too much into things, but I'll try.
We can assume that the initial trade in the Shakeup was Dean Ambrose for Kevin Owens. They were each holding the midcard titles for their brand at the time. Now, from the perspective of the GMs, it might be an unfair trade. Even though both have been their brand's top champions at times over the last year, Dean Ambrose was the #2 overall draft pick during the draft, while Kevin Owens was down around #18 or so. Owens is also a troublemaker who would be bothering a face GM like Angle. Plus, there's the issue that Owens and Jericho had their title match already set up for Payback, leaving Smackdown at risk of losing a belt. So to make the trade more appealing to Smackdown, the Jericho stipulation was added. That made Bryan more likely to accept, because it was no longer just Ambrose for Owens, it was instead Ambrose for Owens and maybe Jericho too. In the end, it paid off for him.
Of course, I could've come up with all kinds of reasoning as to why the Wyatt Family was under the control of Triple H for the better part of two years, and then all the subtle buildup of that got thrown away so Wyatt could punch Triple H in a Royal Rumble match. That's the danger of trying to assume there's more to a storyline than what they're blatantly talking about.