 The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland and Butch) def. Imperium (Intercontinental Champion Gunther, Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci)What an awesome way to open the show. These trios are simply incapable of having a bad match together. They beat the hell out of each other here and had yet another highly physical, excellent affair. Sheamus winning for his team tells me that his pursuit of the Intercontinental Championship isn't over, and it shouldn't be. I'd hate for Sheamus to finally beat Gunther at Backlash when it should have happened at WrestleMania, but I'd just be happy if it happens at all. Ricochet def. IvarApparently Ricochet and Braun Strowman are still feuding with The Viking Raiders. It's fine because they work well together, but the feud has no real substance, not to mention it's apparent that it's designed to kill time with the two teams before the now-announced Draft. Ricochet is obviously the bigger singles star of him and Ivar, so the outcome made sense and it was a nice match while it lasted. Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez def. Shotzi and NatalyaMorgan and Rodriguez will challenge Becky Lynch and Lita for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship this Monday on Raw, so it was logical to give them a momentum-boosting win before then. This was perfectly passable, but unfortunately, no one cared because WWE has given fans no reason to care about the women's tag team division. We don't even know why the hell Shotzi and Natalya are teaming up beyond WWE having nothing else for them to do. Triple H Revealed the Return of the WWE DraftI thought this was advertised to open the episode, but I could be wrong. Nonetheless, this was the major announcement everyone was hoping for from Triple H on Monday's Raw. I'm a big advocate for holding a Draft, provided WWE actually enforces the rules of the Brand Split coming out of it. They haven't in the past, and certainly not since Triple H took over WWE Creative, so that's why I'm skeptical. Still, it's something to look forward to, whenever it takes place. The Judgment Day (Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio) def. LWO (Rey Mysterio and Santos Escobar)The Latino World Order are officially back in the form of Rey and Legado del Fantasma and that's pretty damn cool. Judgment Day took turns discussing their many rivals beforehand and Priest said he'll explain his attack on Bad Bunny from Monday's Raw next Monday night. I thought this might be the tag team match they do at Backlash, but I'm actually glad we got it on this show so it can be Rey and Bunny against Priest and Dominik at the event instead. This was fun and I liked that Priest picked up the win for his team. Jey Uso def. Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champion Sami ZaynThis was the perfect main event for the post-WrestleMania SmackDown given the long history these two have as part of the Bloodline storyline. Some suggested at one point that it should have been the WrestleMania match, but I think it worked better here (not to mention Zayn and Kevin Owens winning the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship from The Usos was a much bigger moment). This was an enjoyable main event. The Usos got their heat back with Jey winning and then Matt Riddle made the save to help Zayn and Owens fend off them and Solo Sikoa. Sikoa was the one who put Riddle on the shelf back in December, so realistically, this should have been where Riddle returned instead of on Raw where he beat up The Miz. Overall ShowI said the same thing about Tuesday's NXT, but this show was such a breath of fresh air coming off that supremely-disappointing post-WrestleMania Raw on Monday. Ricochet vs. Ivar and the women's tag team match weren't anything out of the ordinary, but the two other tag team matches delivered along with the main event. There was effective storyline progression and Triple H's announcement was notable. Two thumbs-up for this episode and hopefully Vince McMahon remains "out of the weeds" creatively if this week was any indication.
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