 Kickoff Show: Sami Zayn def. JD McDonaghAlthough I have no desire to see WWE's Kickoff matches return regularly, this one made sense to add to the card because of Zayn being received so well by the Saudi Arabia crowd at Night of Champions earlier this year. It was your average Raw match, but it was easily their best bout to date and very well wrestled. McDonagh is very skilled in the ring but loses quite a bit. I know he's basically The Judgment Day's punching bag, but he should win more than he does. World Heavyweight Champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins def. Drew McIntyreThis was my most anticipated match of the night and it definitely delivered. Not only did they have strong chemistry as expected, the nearfalls were suspenseful because it realistically could have gone either way. What an excellent opener. McIntyre's clean loss adds to his looming heel turn, and I liked the post-match angle with Zayn stealing Damian Priest's Money in the Bank briefcase and preventing him from cashing in. Zayn really needs to move on from feuding with Judgment Day, but I'm not sure what else he'd do at the moment. Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley def. Shayna Baszler, Nia Jax, Raquel Rodriguez and Zoey Stark in a Fatal 5-Way MatchThe commentators constantly talking about how Ripley had a 20 percent chance of retaining automatically meant she was winning. Therefore, the outcome was no surprise. This was well worked, but the crowd seemed to sit on their hands for a majority of it. The finish was nicely executed, though. I would've rather seen Stark get pinned over Baszler, but I guess it doesn't make much of a difference if they're still building to Ripley vs. Jax one-on-one at some point. Solo Sikoa def. John CenaI came into this event fully expecting Cena to go over with the story being that he hasn't won a singles match in over five years, so I was pleasantly surprised that wasn't the case. Not only that, but he went over pretty decisively and dominantly. The money is in the follow-up, so we'll see if WWE can capitalize with Sikoa the way they failed with Austin Theory earlier this year. The match was solid and more competitive than Cena's past outings. The Miz and Ibrahim Al Hajjaj Attacked Grayson Waller on Miz TVAl Hajjaj was introduced as one of Saudi Arabia's hottest movie stars, so he was obviously over in front of this crowd. I can't imagine this segment did much for those watching from home, but I assume WWE was contractually obligated to get him on the show in some form or fashion and this was fine. If nothing else, it cemented Miz in the babyface role with him being aligned with Al Hajjaj and attacking the heel Waller. Logan Paul def. Rey Mysterio to Win the United States ChampionshipSay what you will about Paul, but the guy continues to bring it in the ring. This was fun as he and Mysterio meshed well and pulled off some sweet spots. I figured Paul would win the title, but I wasn't sure how. Mysterio was protected in defeat via the brass knuckles, which Paul also used to win at SummerSlam. Santos Escobar chased off the entourage, but it'll be interesting to see if that causes a rift between them at all. As I've said before, I'm in favor of Paul as the U.S. champ, but I'm not confident he's going to make more appearance than he had been prior to the build to the Crown Jewel. WWE Women's Champion IYO SKY def. Bianca BelairIt's a bummer this crowd wasn't as into this match as the Puerto Rico crowd was for their original encounter at Backlash. They put forth a great effort and told a logical story with SKY targeting Belair's knee throughout, but the crowd never really got into the action. Kairi Sane showing up to aid SKY to victory was pretty cool and adds an interesting wrinkle to the title scene. The heel turn is a twist, but she has history with SKY from NXT as well as with Bayley, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out. Cody Rhodes def. Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champion Damian PriestWithout anything at stake, this ended up being your typical television match. I wasn't disappointed, if only because my hopes weren't high to begin with, but it was good for what it was. I could've done without the Judgment Day shenanigans, but that's par for the course at this point. Rhodes winning was never in doubt. With Jey Uso helping out Rhodes, all signs point to Uso and Rhodes getting a rematch for the tag titles sometime soon. Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns def. LA KnightMore than most of Reigns' recent title defense, this was very predictable, but to me, it was all about how Knights would fare in a pay-per-view main event with "the guy." Ultimately, he proved he could hang. This exceeded my expectations, and as tired as the Bloodline interference has become, this was very entertaining prior to that point. I suppose it's better than Knight losing clean, and I'm curious where he goes from here (before eventually unseating Paul as United States Champion, probably at WrestleMania). Overall ShowWWE's put together a string of above-average events this year, but this won't go down as one of the better ones. The stage looked amazing, but the crowd wasn't as hyped as other pay-per-view crowds we've gotten elsewhere. They were actually fairly tame in the middle and that hindered my enjoyment of the event, but we got some two top-notch matches between the opener and the main event. Paul becoming United States Champion and Sane's return were notable, too. The interference in the last four matches was a bit much and WWE needs to be more mindful of that going forward. On the whole, it was a thumbs-up event even if it wasn't a home run.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
May 2025
|
RSS Feed