 Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans Challenged Universal Champion Seth Rollins and Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch to a Winners Take All Match at Extreme RulesAnother week, another talking segment to open Raw. Ugh. I like Rollins, but I'm so sick of seeing him in this spot every Monday night. Everyone's mic work was decent, but this played out in predictable fashion with Corbin and Evans challenging Rollins and Evans for their respective titles at Extreme Rules and the babyfaces accepting for some reason. I was ready for Rollins and Lynch to start new storylines on this show, but apparently WWE needs a filler main event for Extreme Rules before they get to the good stuff at SummerSlam. It makes sense I suppose, but that doesn't mean I have to care. The Usos and The New Day def. Raw Tag Team Champions The Revival and SmackDown Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan & Rowan in an Elimination MatchWhen one member of a team was eliminated, the whole tandem was gone. I don't know what WWE's recent obsession is with elimination and 2-out-of-3 Falls stipulations, but they aren't making these matches any more compelling. If anything, they feel like a desperate attempt to kill television time. Michael Cole called New Day "top contenders" to Bryan and Rowan despite losing Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn at Stomping Grounds. The match itself was entertaining and I assume both babyface teams will receive tag title shots coming out of this.
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 Drew Gulak def. Akira Tozawa and Tony Nese in a Triple Threat Match to Win the WWE Cruiserweight ChampionshipAs much as I'd like to see the Cruiserweights make the main card on these pay-per-views (like they did at Money in the Bank), they probably benefited from being on the Kickoff show because the crowd was at its hottest. This was all action from bell to bell and the audience ate up everything they did. It was perfectly paced and while I would have preferred to see Nese's title reign continue, it was cool to see Gulak get his moment after all these years. Nese was protected in that Gulak pinned Tozawa to win the title, meaning Nese vs. Gulak is only inevitable. Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch def. Lacey EvansI doubt many people were looking forward to this match coming into the pay-per-view because of how it was an unnecessary rematch from Money in the Bank, so it was smart to open the event with it to get it out of the way early. To their credit, it was a significant improvement over their original encounter as it was much smoother and it was easily Evans' best showing to date. Hopefully we can move on from this feud now that Lynch has beaten Evans clean twice now.
 Tessa Blanchard def. JAke CristWhy is IMPACT so adamant about doing more intergender matches? As I've said before, I'm personally not a fan of it, but at least this was a bit of a fair fight since Crist is a lackey for Sami Callihan and has never been positioned as a real player in IMPACT. This was a fine match with Blanchard going over as she should have. I was hoping her feud with oVe would end after this and she could go back to chasing the Knockouts Championship, but Blanchard vs. Callihan has already been added to Slammiversary. Ugh. We'll see if it exceeds expectations. Madman Fulton def. Eddie EdwardsIf anyone can get me invested in a Madman Fulton match, Edwards is the guy. His flurry of offense was fun and his craziness always makes his matches interesting. Fulton maintained momentum with the win and Edwards was protected in defeat via Killer Kross' distraction on the big screen. I wasn't not sure what to think of Kross basically attempting to murder The Sandman, though. I expect that to receive a polarizing reaction from fans.
 NXT North American Champion Velveteen Dream, Matt Riddle and Tyler Breeze Interrupted Undisputed EraI'm not at all a fan of when Raw and SmackDown Live open with talking segments featuring the same Superstars every week, but it made sense for NXT to kick off with the new NXT Champion Adam Cole and his crew. They cut good promos establishing their dominance before being interrupted by Dream, Riddle and Breeze, who all played their roles well in this segment. The crowd being hot for everyone and everything that was said helped tremendously, too. Damian Priest def. Raul MendozaI've been highly anticipating the NXT TV debut of the former Punishment Martinez since he was signed late last year, and although he has appeared on NXT TV before under his previous persona, this was his true debut with his new gimmick. Mendoza was probably the perfect person for him to face because of how exciting of an athlete he is. This was a very fun squash match for Priest that got him off to a strong start in NXT.
 Kassius Ohno def. KEnny WilliamsOhno hasn't won too many important matches in NXT UK, but you can always expect him to beat one of the guys lower on the card like Williams. This worked because it was a fun clash of styles and Williams didn't lose much in defeat because he's a tag team guy, anyway. It was a nice match that could have gone longer but was good for what it was. For what it's worth, Williams teased feuding with Noam Dar post-match. Travis Banks Interrupted ImperiumEvery member of Imperium took turns cutting a promo about what they stand for and why they came together. The crowd booed the hell out of them for it, so this generated great heat. As I mentioned last week, I'm a big fan of Alexander Wolfe joining the stable, as it's a vast improvement over what he was doing before on SmackDown Live (which was basically nothing). Banks also handled his promo well, but I thought it was weird that the announcement that WALTER and Banks will be facing off for the WWE United Kingdom Championship next week was randomly thrown out there. I would have spent more time building it up, and in fact, I figured they would hold off on it until TakeOver: Cardiff. Apparently not, but hopefully they prolong the program by having that match next week end in a non-finish.
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