Kevin Owens def. Drew McIntyreIt was announced at the start of the show that Shane McMahon would not be appearing, which caused Owens to celebrate before being interrupted by McIntyre. Owens defeated Elias at Smackville on Saturday, so I suppose it was only logical for him to take out another one of Shane's lackeys in McIntyre ahead of SummerSlam. If you're wondering what happened to the advertised match of The New Day vs. McIntyre and Elias, I have no clue, it was apparently changed early Tuesday. Nevertheless, this was damn good. Beating McIntyre doesn't mean as much as it used to, but it's cool to see Owens so over as a face right now and it was imperative that he continued building momentum by winning here. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross def. SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley and Ember MoonDamn, I really thought we had seen the last of Bayley taking on Bliss and Cross, but apparently not. On the bright side, this was more about whether Bayley and Moon could coexist before they clash for the SmackDown Women's Championship than it was the actual match. Well, they couldn't, and it ultimately cost them the victory. It wasn't like Bayley turned on Moon, though; they just lost straight up. I have no desire to see Bayley vs. Moon at SummerSlam turned into a Triple Threat with Bliss involved, so here's hoping that isn't where this is headed.
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Lacey Evans def. Dana BrookeEvans vs. Brooke didn't do a ton for me on paper, but I can appreciate a fresh match on Main Event when most of what we see on this show week after week is the same old stuff. It was also nice to see Evans back in action, as I don't think she has been featured at all on WWE TV since losing in the Extreme Rules main event over two weeks ago. Brooke has been making strides in recent months on Main Event, though I honestly expected this to be worse than it was. They produced a competent content and Evans winning was the right result. Robert Roode, EC3 and Eric Young def. The Lucha House PartyIt's sad to see three former TNA World Heavyweight Champions (who all had potential to go a lot farther than they have on the main roster) relegated to Main Event duty against Lucha House Party. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Lucha House Party on 205 Live, but they've meant nothing since moving to Raw late last year and have largely been mainstays on Main Event. That said, this was a nicely paced albeit brief bout that was fun while it lasted. Lucha House Party were on offence for a majority of the match before falling short to Roode, EC3 and Young as they should have.
24/7 Champion R-Truth and Carmella def. Drake Maverick and Renee Michelle in a Mosh Pit Tag Team Match; Mike Kanellis def. Truth to Win the 24/7 ChampionshipRegardless of whether you're a fan of the 24/7 Championship stuff or not, you have to admit that it was refreshing for someone other than Seth Rollins or Brock Lesnar kick off the show for once. As you'd probably expect, the "Mosh Pit" stipulation was just another way of calling this a Lumberjack match. This was complete comedy and was thankfully kept (relatively) short and sweet. Despite Truth retaining his title, he was then immediately pinned by Mike Kanellis, who then voluntarily dropped it to his pregnant wife Maria later in the show. I'm genuinely curious how she'll be beaten for it. Will WWE wait until the baby is born to have her lose the belt? I'm only half-kidding. Ricochet def. Andrade, Rey Mysterio, Sami Zayn and Cesaro in a United States Championship No. 1 Contender's Gauntlet MatchIt's worth noting that there was wrestling during one of the commercial breaks, so hopefully that means that Vince McMahon's dumb edict about there not being any wrestling during commercial breaks is finally over. At any rate, this was a good Gauntlet match with some fun mini matches mixed in. Cesaro looked strong in defeat against Mysterio during the first fall, Zayn was beaten in a matter of seconds (what else is new?), Mysterio vs. Andrade was well wrestled it lasted, and Ricochet vs. Andrade was a blast. Ricochet vs. AJ Styles was always the endgame for SummerSlam, but I liked that Ricochet had to earn himself a rematch for the title instead of randomly being granted one for no reason.
WWE Champion CM Punk def. World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus (Non-Title)This marked the first-ever one-on-one encounter between these two, and although both men were world champions, it was comical for Michael Cole to call it "one of the biggest matches in WWE history." That said, they did give this a big fight feel with the video packages for Punk and Sheamus, the pre-match interviews, and the in-ring introductions. I loved all of that, because it was so different than anything happening on Raw or SmackDown back then. The actual match was excellent and given a ton of time. I expected it to end in a non-finish because WWE heavily wanted to protect them both, so Punk winning following a head shot to the turnbuckle post to Sheamus was a pleasant surprise. Team CoBro def. Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd in a WWE Tag Team championship No. 1 Contender's Tournament Quarterfinal MatchTeam CoBro had to have been one of the dumbest team names I've ever heard for Zack Ryder and Santino Marella. Man, that was brutal. What's interesting is that their tandem didn't last very long, so they likely had a team name solely because WWE was in the middle of a brief tag team renaissance at the time and wanted to make them feel official. Compared to Punk vs. Sheamus, this was a nothing match, though it was fun for what it was. If nothing else, it had some significance with it being a quarterfinal matchup in the WWE Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Tournament.
ECW General Manager Tiffany Interrupted ECW Champion ChristianFollowing his successful title defense against Yoshi Tatsu the week prior, Christian was viciously attacked by William Regal, Vladimir Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson. Regal and Christian had been feuding for months by this point and Christian wanted to get his hands on Regal so he could put their rivalry to rest once and for all. Regal agreed to the title match but wanted it on "his terms" in his native England the next week on ECW. This was a solid segment that set up the rematch between Christian and Regal and segued nicely into Regal's outing against Goldust. William Regal def. GoldustWith Regal challenging for the ECW Championship the subsequent week, it was only logical for him to score a win here so he could continue building momentum. No one was expecting an instant classic from Regal and Goldust in 2009, but it was perfectly serviceable for as long as it lasted with both men holding their own and Regal picking up the clean victory as he should have. I appreciated that there was no interference from Kozlov and Jackson.
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