 By Graham "GSM" Matthews
Bo Dallas def. R-Truth Is it just me or does it feel like we see this same match every other week on Superstars? As I always say, while the match wasn't half-bad, I couldn't have cared less about it due to Truth's involvement, and the crowd was unsurprisingly sitting on their hands the entire time as well. The only positive coming out of this was Dallas winning for once, which was a shocker considering Truth always wins against fellow enhancement talent. It won't change Dallas' place on the card, mind you, but it was a nice change of pace. King Barrett def. Jack Swagger These two had a damn good match on Superstars a few months back, but since then, all they've had are forgettable encounters. I figured that would be the case when they wrestled on Raw and SmackDown, but I thought we'd get more out of them on this show. It was slightly longer than usual, but not that much of it was out of the ordinary. The crowd was more behind Swagger than usual due to this show emanating from his home state of Oklahoma, but despite taking Rusev to the limit on SmackDown this week, he still couldn't beat Barrett. Strange.
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 Cesaro comes face-to-face with Seth Rollins. By Graham "GSM" Matthews
Cesaro def. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins by Disqualification (Non-title) While I wasn't too high on Rollins tapping out clean to John Cena on Monday's Raw, this promo was effective in helping him regain some of his lost heat and I loved how he tried to change the focus to him surviving Brock Lesnar at Battleground. Cesaro's mic work only continues to improve and he did well for himself here. The match was tame compared to their encounter last week, but it was merely designed to set up the main event tag team match, so there was no reason for this match to go longer than it did before the interference from Kevin Owens. The Lucha Dragons and Los Matadores def. The New Day and The Ascension I get why they wouldn't want to put the Matadores and The New Day on the same team because The New Day cost them a win this week on Raw, but how much more sense did it make to have them team with their opponents from Monday instead? My disdain for the Matadores gimmick is well-documented and I wish they'd either go away or go back to being Primo and Epico because they add nothing to the division in their current roles. I assumed this would be a relatively throwaway bout, but it actually exceeded expectations and I appreciated The Lucha Dragons scoring the win for their team.  By Graham "GSM" Matthews
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Matt Taven and Michael Bennett def. Corey Hollis and Jonathan Gresham (Non-title) It's rare that you see unknown enhancement talent compete in squash matches on ROH TV, so it was a refreshing change of pace from the norm. Since the match wasn't completely one-sided, it was a fun little match between the two teams that allowed the heel duo of Taven and Bennett to hit their signature spots and score the dominant win. I was surprised Adam Cole was nowhere to be seen at ringside, but perhaps that plays into his eventual dissension with the group. Moose def. Dalton Castle, Cheeseburger, Silas Young, Caprice Coleman and Brutal Bob Evans in a Six-Man Mayhem Match I loved how this match was able to incorporate three different feuds going on right now and effectively further each one. Usually, I'm not high on multi-man matches because it comes across as a lazy way to sqeeeze multiple feuds into one match, but having this be every man for themselves instead of a standard six-man tag definitely helped. They were a few rest holds scattered throughout the bout, but the action was entertaining on the whole and the finishing sequence was especially fun. Everyone shined at one point or another, but Castle was the highlight of this match for me based off his hilarious mannerisms alone.  Jeff Jarrett gets emotional during his induction speech. By Graham "GSM" Matthews
Rockstar Spud Confronted Austin Aries Aries has barely been featured on TNA TV since the Best of Five series a while ago, so it was cool to see him return in a notable role at the start the show. He's always been an exceptional mic worker, so it came as no surprise that his verbal exchanges with both Bully Ray and Spud were very good. It's great that Spud is finally being able to showcase his skills on the stick and he definitely made the most of his opportunity here. They did a solid job of making their match feel meaningful and I like how they switched it up by saving it for next week instead of rushing it for this week's main event. Eric Young def. Chris Melendez Is it just me or does anyone else not care about this feud at all? I guess the same can be said for most of the rivalries going on right now in TNA, but there isn't anything about this specific storyline that stands out as being special. Young is awesome in this crazy role, but I don't think Melendez has connected with the crowd enough for fans to invest enough in his character. Henceforth, having him lose again won't do him any favors because it will eventually establish him as a loser.  The Vaudevillians surround Alexa Bliss. By Graham "GSM" Matthews
Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder def. Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady I assumed going in that we'd be getting a quick squash match from Amore and Cassady considering Dawson and Wilder have always been utilized in an enhancement role, but what we got instead was a rather competitive contest. Both teams looked good coming out of it and it was easily one of the more enjoyable tag team bouts I've seen in NXT in recent memory, which isn't saying much given how much work the division still needs. I was initially surprised to see Dawson and Wilder go over, but I liked the move as it established them as legitimate threats and might trigger a mini-feud between them in the meantime. Baron Corbin def. Jesse Sorenson Hey, I remember Jesse Sorenson! He was that guy from TNA who broke his neck and was unceremoniously fired before he could come back! That classy company, TNA is. In other news, it's another week with another Corbin squash. Yawn. Unless they plan to call him up to the main roster sooner rather than later as a member of The Wyatt Family (which I'm still skeptical about), I'm not sure what purpose these matches serve. We got a cool video package on Corbin several weeks back, but other than that, he has shown very little development as both a wrestler and character. |
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