WWE Summerslam 2017
August 20, 2017
Brooklyn, New York
If Brock Lesnar wants to hold on to his Universal Championship, he
must go through the biggest and baddest stars of the Raw roster. A fatal
four-way match determines who leaves the biggest event of the summer as
the top dog of the WWE.
Match 6: Bray Wyatt vs. Finn Balor
Interesting feud heading into this one with Finn Balor bringing out his demon side in his attempt to go against Bray Wyatt and his demons. Dig the entrance from Balor as the children singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" before his music hits. Nice touch. The Match itself was pretty bland, Wyatt is able to get in some offense but Balor was too much to contain. Once Wyatt had an opening, he did his signature taunt that had no effect on Balor. Balor was able to quickly hit his Coup de Grace on Wyatt to secure the win in about 10 minutes. Like I said, a pretty bland match but nobody was really expecting anything amazing and it didn't need to be for a match like this. Take it or leave it.
Winner: Finn Balor
Rating: **1/4
Match 7: WWE Raw Tag Team Championship - The Bar (c) vs. Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose
Loved the reunion between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose during the summer of 2017 as they challenge both Cesaro and Sheamus for the gold. Always love to note how Cesaro and Rollins worked very well with each other in the Ring of Honor days as they now headline big WWE shows, pretty damn cool. Solid action here between the two teams that felt a little like watching a Raw main event for the better part of the match until they finally got the ball really rolling in the latter end. Also loved Cesaro running into the crowd to tear apart a beach ball, legendary shit right there. Rollins is able to hit a hurricanrana on on Cesaro that drives him into Sheamus as Ambrose hits a Dirty Deeds DDT to secure the big win. Solid match and cool to see Rollins and Ambrose win the tag titles at a Summerslam event, makes the belts get a bit of a rub in the process.
Winners: Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose
Rating: ***1/2
Match 8: WWE United States Championship - AJ Styles (c) vs. Kevin Owens
Speaking of guys who were once Ring of Honor stars, we have AJ Styles and Kevin Owens going at it with Shane McMahon serving as the guest referee. These two have great chemistry and it certainly showed here. Great action with each guy getting in a good amount of offense against each other and they played the story of Shane being the third man in the match nicely. The nearfalls were believable here and the spots with Shane didn't insult your intelligence like most matches with referee bumps do. Owens thought he secured the win as Shane made a 3 count until cancelling his decision after realizing that Styles had his foot on the bottom rope. Owens and Shane get into a little bit of a shoving match and soon after, Styles capitalizes on the mayhem and hits Owens with both a Phenomenal Forearm along with a Styles Clash to pick up the big win. Great match.
Winner: AJ Styles
Rating: ***3/4
Match 9: WWE Championship - Jinder Mahal (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
The hype for Shinsuke Nakamura was for real, everyone and their mother thought that Summerslam 2017 was going to be the event of his official crowning as WWE Champion. Unfortunately for him, the WWE was way bigger on Jinder Mahal. Very cool to see how they showed both broadcasts from the perspective of the Indian and Japanese announcers, nice touch. Nakamura was able to get in his signature offense against Mahal but fighting both Mahal and The Singh Brothers proved to be too much as a late distraction caused Mahal to hit his Khallas finisher to score the win. This was a fairly short match that only ran a bit over 10 minutes and while many were criticizing the match over that fact, I felt like it was exactly what it needed to be. This is their first encounter and it sets up bigger matches between the two down the line after this as Nakamura now his out with the distractions from The Singh Brothers. Mahal just gets way too much hate.
Winner: Jinder Mahal
Rating: ***
Match 10: WWE Universal Championship - Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns
Four of the biggest (maybe even literally) guys in the company and all in their prime... this is the ultimate Summerslam main event. Crowd is pumped for this one and you can feel the buzz in the air as Brock Lesnar circles the ring as his opponents all stare him down. This was a war and Lesnar was the star of it all. Crowd was mostly hot for Braun Strowman going into this one and got even hotter for him when he destroyed Lesnar by driving him through two tables and toppling him with another one. Crowd was going bonkers at this point. However, the only real drawback I had for the match was the few minutes that Lesnar was out of the match, the action in the ring definitely took a step back and the crowd just wasn't as invested as much to what was happening. The action picked up more again once he returned to the ring and eventually hit Roman Reigns with an F5 to secure the win. Interesting choice to have Reigns eat the pin here since it would have made more sense to have Samoa Joe eat it considering he was the last person to challenge Lesnar before this and they still had some beef to settle. Regardless, amazing main event and easily one of the best Summerslam matches in quite some time. Everyone thought for sure that Lesnar was going to drop the belt but they hit us with that swerve. Good stuff.
Winner: Brock Lesnar
Rating: ****3/4
Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
That main event was worth the price of admission alone. These shows can be way too long and drag at times but this one went by pretty smoothly and most matches on the card played their role nicely. However, the card was still pretty forgettable aside from the main event which was absolutely electric. If there's any real reason to remember this show, it's for that. Brock Lesnar is the best in the game.
Rating: 7.5/10
Monday, August 3, 2020
Thursday, July 30, 2020
WWE Summerslam 2017 Review (Part 1)
WWE Summerslam 2017
August 20, 2017
Brooklyn, New York
If Brock Lesnar wants to hold on to his Universal Championship, he must go through the biggest and baddest stars of the Raw roster. A fatal four-way match determines who leaves the biggest event of the summer as the top dog of the WWE.
Match 1: John Cena vs. Baron Corbin
Baron Corbin's dreams of becoming a WWE Champion slipped away from him after he failed to successfully cash in his Money in the Bank contract after John Cena caused a distraction against him. John Cena doesn't look worried at all about his competition in the ring and even had time to tell JBL how shook Corbin was while putting on JBL's cowboy hat. However, Corbin was able to get in a decent amount of offense in against Cena but let's face it, we all knew what the end result was going to be here. An Attitude Adjustment from Cena ends the match pretty quickly. As of 2020, this was the last time we saw Cena in action during the biggest event of the summer and it's pretty interesting to see how his career was beginning to really slow down at this point.
Winner: John Cena
Rating: **1/4
Match 2: WWE SmackDown Women's Championship - Naomi (c) vs. Natalya
Feel like this match would have been the better option to open up the show. Nonetheless, Naomi puts her title on the line against Natalya. Naomi had some serious steam behind her at this point and was really coming into her own as the brand's champion. Good match here for what it was with the crowd just having trouble sinking their teeth into things. Another reason why I think this would have been better to open the show, crowd would definitely have invested more into this. Regardless, Natalya gets a pretty surprising victory here by submitting Naomi with the Sharpshooter. I liked the ending but the whole match just felt a little too dull for what I was expecting from the two.
Winner: Natalya
Rating: **1/2
Match 3: Shark Cage Match - Big Cass vs. The Big Show
Summerslam has been known to have some bizarre matches... this is one of them. At this point, Enzo Amore was becoming a lost cause and the dead crowd behind his promo before the match proved that. Enzo is being suspended above the ring in a shark cage while The Big Show fights for his honor against Big Cass. As you would expect, a pretty boring match here that probably went on a few minutes longer than it needed to. Enzo tried to add some spice to the match by escaping the shark cage but after quickly getting knocked out by Cass, I question if there was any point to it. Cass hits his Empire Elbow on Show to secure the win.
Winner: Big Cass
Rating: *1/4
Match 4: Randy Orton vs. Rusev
Rusev attacks Randy Orton before the match to get the upper hand on him for the match. Unfortunately, Orton is able to toss Rusev into a turnbuckle before hitting him with an RKO for the win in less than 10 seconds. That was possibly the fastest Summerslam match ever. Guess they just didn't have enough time on the card for these two.
Winner: Randy Orton
Rating: n/a
Match 5: WWE Raw Women's Championship - Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Sasha Banks
Sasha Banks is looking to score her 4th Women's Championship here against Alexa Bliss. Before the match, Bayley wishes Banks luck which I thought was pretty cool considering their history in the Barclays Center. The whole match was essentially Banks playing defense against Bliss and while there were some cool spots spread out throughout the whole match, much of it felt a bit too slow considering how good these two can be in the ring. Banks is able to lock Bliss in a Bank Statement out of nowhere to submit Bliss for the win. I dug how the submission victory came out of nowhere but it just felt like it was a one-sided affair up until Banks miraculously pulled out the win. Not a fan of the Women's Championship just getting tossed around left and right to everyone.
Winner: Sasha Banks
Rating: **1/4
August 20, 2017
Brooklyn, New York
If Brock Lesnar wants to hold on to his Universal Championship, he must go through the biggest and baddest stars of the Raw roster. A fatal four-way match determines who leaves the biggest event of the summer as the top dog of the WWE.
Match 1: John Cena vs. Baron Corbin
Baron Corbin's dreams of becoming a WWE Champion slipped away from him after he failed to successfully cash in his Money in the Bank contract after John Cena caused a distraction against him. John Cena doesn't look worried at all about his competition in the ring and even had time to tell JBL how shook Corbin was while putting on JBL's cowboy hat. However, Corbin was able to get in a decent amount of offense in against Cena but let's face it, we all knew what the end result was going to be here. An Attitude Adjustment from Cena ends the match pretty quickly. As of 2020, this was the last time we saw Cena in action during the biggest event of the summer and it's pretty interesting to see how his career was beginning to really slow down at this point.
Winner: John Cena
Rating: **1/4
Match 2: WWE SmackDown Women's Championship - Naomi (c) vs. Natalya
Feel like this match would have been the better option to open up the show. Nonetheless, Naomi puts her title on the line against Natalya. Naomi had some serious steam behind her at this point and was really coming into her own as the brand's champion. Good match here for what it was with the crowd just having trouble sinking their teeth into things. Another reason why I think this would have been better to open the show, crowd would definitely have invested more into this. Regardless, Natalya gets a pretty surprising victory here by submitting Naomi with the Sharpshooter. I liked the ending but the whole match just felt a little too dull for what I was expecting from the two.
Winner: Natalya
Rating: **1/2
Match 3: Shark Cage Match - Big Cass vs. The Big Show
Summerslam has been known to have some bizarre matches... this is one of them. At this point, Enzo Amore was becoming a lost cause and the dead crowd behind his promo before the match proved that. Enzo is being suspended above the ring in a shark cage while The Big Show fights for his honor against Big Cass. As you would expect, a pretty boring match here that probably went on a few minutes longer than it needed to. Enzo tried to add some spice to the match by escaping the shark cage but after quickly getting knocked out by Cass, I question if there was any point to it. Cass hits his Empire Elbow on Show to secure the win.
Winner: Big Cass
Rating: *1/4
Match 4: Randy Orton vs. Rusev
Rusev attacks Randy Orton before the match to get the upper hand on him for the match. Unfortunately, Orton is able to toss Rusev into a turnbuckle before hitting him with an RKO for the win in less than 10 seconds. That was possibly the fastest Summerslam match ever. Guess they just didn't have enough time on the card for these two.
Winner: Randy Orton
Rating: n/a
Match 5: WWE Raw Women's Championship - Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Sasha Banks
Sasha Banks is looking to score her 4th Women's Championship here against Alexa Bliss. Before the match, Bayley wishes Banks luck which I thought was pretty cool considering their history in the Barclays Center. The whole match was essentially Banks playing defense against Bliss and while there were some cool spots spread out throughout the whole match, much of it felt a bit too slow considering how good these two can be in the ring. Banks is able to lock Bliss in a Bank Statement out of nowhere to submit Bliss for the win. I dug how the submission victory came out of nowhere but it just felt like it was a one-sided affair up until Banks miraculously pulled out the win. Not a fan of the Women's Championship just getting tossed around left and right to everyone.
Winner: Sasha Banks
Rating: **1/4
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Match of the Day - 7/30/20: CM Punk vs. Triple H (Night of Champions 2011)
Didn't mean to have two CM Punk matches as the Match of the Day but here we are. On the last post, we looked back at Punk's match with Jeff Hardy from Summerslam 2009 and talked about his epic summer that year, who would have figured that his 2011 summer would completely trump it? Looking back at this match in 2020 is pretty funny considering how real their feud in 2011 was and how the two seemingly have yet to squash whatever beef they have against each other.
Their match at here at Night of Champions can be described as... a mess. A fun mess. A fun No Disqualification match that saw Punk drive an elbow through Triple onto a table, interference from The Miz and R-Truth and finally, some interference from Kevin Nash. Yes, Kevin Nash. Triple H is able to hit a second Pedigree on Punk to score the win. As much as CM Punk annoys me and all, he certainly had a point when he was upset at Triple H not putting him over. It basically shows how much trust and belief they had behind this Punk train. Something tells me Punk still hasn't forgotten this.
Monday, July 27, 2020
Match of the Day - 7/28/20: Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk (Summerslam 2009)
I refuse that this match was 11 years ago... 11 freaking years ago! This match was only just a few years ago, right? RIGHT?! Well, 2009 was an extremely successful year for SmackDown with guys like Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, John Morrison, Jeff Hardy and CM Punk all shining like the superstars they are. The summer featured an incredible feud between both Hardy and Punk with Punk making his first heel turn in his WWE career. Their feud culminated in a big TLC match here at Summerslam in Los Angeles.
If you haven't seen any of their matches from 2009, do yourselves a favor and do so. As a matter or fact, watch everything Hardy was doing around this time frame. Nobody in the company was hotter than him, not even John Cena. Their match here at Summerslam did not disappoint. I was so stoked to see this match go on last at the biggest event of the summer, nobody else on that card was holding a candle to these men. This match would be one of Hardy's final WWE matches before returning to the company in 2017 so it was evident that he wanted to leave on a bang. That he did. I don't recall a match where Hardy was as reckless as this one, you could almost feel the passion in his eyes watching this one. The shot of him standing atop the ladder as he was ready to hit a Swanton Bomb on Punk was one of the most insane shots you will ever see in a WWE ring.
Punk secured the win and the World Heavyweight Championship in the process before quickly being met with The Undertaker and a Chokeslam soon after. This was my first time watching this match in years and it absolutely holds up with some of the best you will see out there. Hardy seriously left it all out on the line here. Go watch this.
Monday, June 22, 2020
WWE One Night Stand/Extreme Rules PPV Review Archive
ECW One Night Stand 2005 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2016/06/ecw-one-night-stand-2005-review.html
ECW One Night Stand 2006 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2016/06/ecw-one-night-stand-2006-review.html
WWE One Night Stand 2007 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2019/05/wwe-one-night-stand-2007-review.html
WWE Extreme Rules 2009 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2014/07/wwe-extreme-rules-2009-review.html
WWE Extreme Rules 2010 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2018/04/wwe-extreme-rules-2010-review.html
WWE Extreme Rules 2011 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2014/07/wwe-extreme-rules-2011-review.html
WWE Extreme Rules 2012 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2013/07/wwe-extreme-rules-2012-review.html
WWE Extreme Rules 2013 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2015/01/wwe-extreme-rules-2013-review.html
WWE Extreme Rules 2014 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2015/06/wwe-extreme-rules-2014-review.html
WWE Extreme Rules 2015 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2018/07/wwe-extreme-rules-2015-review.html
WWE Extreme Rules 2016 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2018/07/wwe-extreme-rules-2016-review.html
WWE Extreme Rules 2018 - https://rayalmighty1.blogspot.com/2018/07/wwe-extreme-rules-2018-review.html
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
WWE NXT TakeOver: Chicago 2017 Review
WWE NXT TakeOver: Chicago 2017
May 20, 2017
Rosemont, Illinois
Hideo Itami gets the biggest match of his career when he challenges Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship. In the main event, The Authors of Pain defend their NXT Tag Team Championship against #DIY in a Ladder Match!
Match 1: Eric Young vs. Roderick Strong
Before the match, Roderick Strong takes out both Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe from behind to try to and limit them as distractions. At this point, Strong is still on the rise to being one of the brand's top babyfaces while Eric Young was being booked as one of the stronger heels on the show. Solid and very physical match here, Young works really well as a heel with his slower and more methodical approach in the ring. This made it so whenever Strong was about to get the upper hand on things, you were almost anticipating a change of power happening. However, the help from both Dain and Wolfe at ringside overshadowed much of the action in the ring. Why didn't the referee kick them out for all the distractions they were creating? It almost became more of an annoyance to watch above anything. Strong was able to seal the win with his awesome suplex into a backbreaker finisher. Good match, just wish they didn't test our intelligence with the stupid interfering in front of the referee.
Winner: Roderick Strong
Rating: ***
Match 2: NXT United Kingdom Championship - Tyler Bate (c) vs. Pete Dunne
Cool to see them put on a match for the NXT UK brand here along with having Jim Ross on commentary for this one. Both Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne are the young stars of the brand and this is a great way for the two to get a rub. Crowd was seriously hot for this one here and they got even rowdier when the match progressed. Loved how they structured this match, slow and methodical in the beginning before ramping things up and hitting us with some spectacular spots and believable nearfalls spread out the match. One of the sweetest spots I've seen in a long time had Bate nail a corkscrew 450 splash off the top rope like it was nothing which led to a nearfall. Eventually, Dunne would nail his Bitter End finisher to score the win. Great match, loved how it didn't go over 30 minutes and hit us with an excessive amount of nearfalls to the point where it exhausted us. Would it benefit from a few more minutes? Sure, but there is a huge card still left to go and you don't wanna break out all the stops in the second match of the night. Either way, great way to put the spotlight on these guys and their brand.
Winner: Pete Dunne
Rating: ****1/4
Match 3: NXT Women's Championship - Asuka (c) vs. Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross
With Ember Moon being out of action, Asuka still has a tall task ahead of her in defending her gold and undefeated streak against both Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross. Match was very reminiscent of the match at TakeOver: San Antonio but almost at a lesser scale. You get your cool spots in the beginning of the match and the ladies in the ring were great in keeping the action flow throughout the entire thing. But despite that, this match just didn't seem to click like most of Asuka's great matches. Crowd wasn't so into the match and likely because the last match pooped them out a bit or possibly because they all just knew that Asuka wasn't going to be dropping that belt. They didn't help matters when the finish just saw Asuka hit a quick knee strike on Riot before pinning both opponents to score the win. A definitely underwhelming finish to a rather underwhelming match. But still a good match nonetheless, you're not always getting nor do you always need a ***** performance.
Winner: Asuka
Rating: ***1/4
Match 4: NXT Championship - Bobby Roode (c) vs. Hideo Itami
First off, how cool is it to see Hideo Itami get a chance at some NXT gold? Loved following him back in the day and to see him get a spot here is pretty darn cool. As usual with most Bobby Roode matches, a slower pace to start things off which is a nice change of scenery when it comes to NXT. His style allows to build for stronger and more dramatic finishing sequences. As expected, very physical action between the two here and while it was pretty evident that Itami wasn't going to be dethroning Roode, they did a great job of building some intense drama as the match progressed. Itami was able to hit a GTS but with Roode quickly rolling out of the ring soon after, he wasn't able to get the victory. Slick way to protect the GTS there. Roode was able to hit two Glorious DDTs in a row to score the big win. Again, nobody really expected Itami to win the match here but they did a great job of keeping the drama alive before delivering us a fantastic finish. Good match heading into the main event.
Winner: Bobby Roode
Rating: ***1/2
Match 5: NXT Tag Team Championship - Ladder Match - The Authors of Pain (c) vs. #DIY
Both Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano score another crack at the tag team gold against The Authors of Pain here in the main event of tonight's TakeOver. With these guys going on last, you just get the feeling that something's gotta give. At this point, I've seen way too many Ladder Matches to the point where I'm almost become tired of seeing them so coming into this, I was interested to see what unique things they were going to bring to the table. While the match had its slow points, there was certainly no shortage of drama here and like the last match, they did a great job of building towards an awesome finish. That build saw some nasty spots like Rezar being driven through a ladder set in the corner by Ciampa and a spot that saw both Ciampa and Gargano dive off ladders through both members of The Authors of Pain. However, a final blow with the Super Collider allowed AOP to gain an opening to win the match. Afterwards, Ciampa shockingly turned on Gargano by driving him off the stage. Good match and a solid way to end the show. You can never go wrong with a Ladder Match, especially when the guys in the ring are as good as these guys. However, you do run into the problem of repetitiveness, how many Ladder Matches can you have in a year span before they start getting old? Regardless, credit to the guys in the ring for some great closing action.
Winners: The Authors of Pain
Rating: ****
Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Another great TakeOver event that had a little bit of everything. You had your big singles title matches that all delivered on what they needed to and you had it topped off with a great main event along with a shocking turn to cap the show.
Rating: 8/10
May 20, 2017
Rosemont, Illinois
Hideo Itami gets the biggest match of his career when he challenges Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship. In the main event, The Authors of Pain defend their NXT Tag Team Championship against #DIY in a Ladder Match!
Match 1: Eric Young vs. Roderick Strong
Before the match, Roderick Strong takes out both Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe from behind to try to and limit them as distractions. At this point, Strong is still on the rise to being one of the brand's top babyfaces while Eric Young was being booked as one of the stronger heels on the show. Solid and very physical match here, Young works really well as a heel with his slower and more methodical approach in the ring. This made it so whenever Strong was about to get the upper hand on things, you were almost anticipating a change of power happening. However, the help from both Dain and Wolfe at ringside overshadowed much of the action in the ring. Why didn't the referee kick them out for all the distractions they were creating? It almost became more of an annoyance to watch above anything. Strong was able to seal the win with his awesome suplex into a backbreaker finisher. Good match, just wish they didn't test our intelligence with the stupid interfering in front of the referee.
Winner: Roderick Strong
Rating: ***
Match 2: NXT United Kingdom Championship - Tyler Bate (c) vs. Pete Dunne
Cool to see them put on a match for the NXT UK brand here along with having Jim Ross on commentary for this one. Both Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne are the young stars of the brand and this is a great way for the two to get a rub. Crowd was seriously hot for this one here and they got even rowdier when the match progressed. Loved how they structured this match, slow and methodical in the beginning before ramping things up and hitting us with some spectacular spots and believable nearfalls spread out the match. One of the sweetest spots I've seen in a long time had Bate nail a corkscrew 450 splash off the top rope like it was nothing which led to a nearfall. Eventually, Dunne would nail his Bitter End finisher to score the win. Great match, loved how it didn't go over 30 minutes and hit us with an excessive amount of nearfalls to the point where it exhausted us. Would it benefit from a few more minutes? Sure, but there is a huge card still left to go and you don't wanna break out all the stops in the second match of the night. Either way, great way to put the spotlight on these guys and their brand.
Winner: Pete Dunne
Rating: ****1/4
Match 3: NXT Women's Championship - Asuka (c) vs. Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross
With Ember Moon being out of action, Asuka still has a tall task ahead of her in defending her gold and undefeated streak against both Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross. Match was very reminiscent of the match at TakeOver: San Antonio but almost at a lesser scale. You get your cool spots in the beginning of the match and the ladies in the ring were great in keeping the action flow throughout the entire thing. But despite that, this match just didn't seem to click like most of Asuka's great matches. Crowd wasn't so into the match and likely because the last match pooped them out a bit or possibly because they all just knew that Asuka wasn't going to be dropping that belt. They didn't help matters when the finish just saw Asuka hit a quick knee strike on Riot before pinning both opponents to score the win. A definitely underwhelming finish to a rather underwhelming match. But still a good match nonetheless, you're not always getting nor do you always need a ***** performance.
Winner: Asuka
Rating: ***1/4
Match 4: NXT Championship - Bobby Roode (c) vs. Hideo Itami
First off, how cool is it to see Hideo Itami get a chance at some NXT gold? Loved following him back in the day and to see him get a spot here is pretty darn cool. As usual with most Bobby Roode matches, a slower pace to start things off which is a nice change of scenery when it comes to NXT. His style allows to build for stronger and more dramatic finishing sequences. As expected, very physical action between the two here and while it was pretty evident that Itami wasn't going to be dethroning Roode, they did a great job of building some intense drama as the match progressed. Itami was able to hit a GTS but with Roode quickly rolling out of the ring soon after, he wasn't able to get the victory. Slick way to protect the GTS there. Roode was able to hit two Glorious DDTs in a row to score the big win. Again, nobody really expected Itami to win the match here but they did a great job of keeping the drama alive before delivering us a fantastic finish. Good match heading into the main event.
Winner: Bobby Roode
Rating: ***1/2
Match 5: NXT Tag Team Championship - Ladder Match - The Authors of Pain (c) vs. #DIY
Both Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano score another crack at the tag team gold against The Authors of Pain here in the main event of tonight's TakeOver. With these guys going on last, you just get the feeling that something's gotta give. At this point, I've seen way too many Ladder Matches to the point where I'm almost become tired of seeing them so coming into this, I was interested to see what unique things they were going to bring to the table. While the match had its slow points, there was certainly no shortage of drama here and like the last match, they did a great job of building towards an awesome finish. That build saw some nasty spots like Rezar being driven through a ladder set in the corner by Ciampa and a spot that saw both Ciampa and Gargano dive off ladders through both members of The Authors of Pain. However, a final blow with the Super Collider allowed AOP to gain an opening to win the match. Afterwards, Ciampa shockingly turned on Gargano by driving him off the stage. Good match and a solid way to end the show. You can never go wrong with a Ladder Match, especially when the guys in the ring are as good as these guys. However, you do run into the problem of repetitiveness, how many Ladder Matches can you have in a year span before they start getting old? Regardless, credit to the guys in the ring for some great closing action.
Winners: The Authors of Pain
Rating: ****
Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Another great TakeOver event that had a little bit of everything. You had your big singles title matches that all delivered on what they needed to and you had it topped off with a great main event along with a shocking turn to cap the show.
Rating: 8/10
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
WWE Money in the Bank 2017 Review
WWE Money in the Bank 2017
June 18, 2017
St. Louis, Missouri
The annual Money in the Bank PPV event sees two wild Money in the Bank Ladder Matches along with a WWE Championship match that has Jinder Mahal defending his newly won title against Randy Orton.
Match 1: Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Tamina vs. Carmella vs. Natalya
This is the first ever Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match and it looks to be a good one with some great talent lined up for this. Pretty wild to think that less than two years later, both Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch would go on to headline a WrestleMania. But I digress, solid opening match here and nice way to introduce this watch to the women's division. There wasn't anything that was so over-the-top but there was way more than enough here to keep my attention throughout the match with the wrestlers nicely spreading apart some of their bigger spots and really allowing everyone to get a spot in. Not every damn Ladder Match has to have a triple backflip off the top of a ladder or something. With Lynch climbing the ladder and ready to secure the briefcase, James Ellsworth appeared out of nowhere and dropped Lynch off the ladder. Ellsworth then climbed the ladder and retrieved the briefcase for Carmella to win the match. Not sure how I feel about that finish. If they wanted to use Ellsworth, then I would have preferred to see him earlier in the match and not be the deciding factor in the match. But also, it puts some extra heat on Carmella and really got some people talking about this one. I want to hear what you think.
Winner: Carmella
Rating: ***1/4
Match 2: WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship - The Usos (c) vs. The New Day
These two teams had a phenomenal rivalry in 2017 with this match being the starter to it all. Since this was just their first match, they didn't pull out all the stops here but instead made sure to give us a nice appetite for things to come. As you would expect from these four guys, great action throughout the contest, they have pretty great chemistry with just about everyone. Also enjoyed watching The Usos as heels, I feel like their vicious and fast style suits them better as heels. The New Day had the win on their fingertips as both Big E and Kofi Kingston landed their Midnight Hour finisher on Jey before Jimmy pulled his brother out of the ring. Afterwards, the two left the ring and walked away from the match with their belts which would then lead to the referee calling for the countout. I get that they don't want to give us a straight finish with this being their first encounter, but I think they could've at least done a fishy pin or something considering the match before this already gave us a lame finish.
Winners: The New Day (via countout)
Rating: ***
Match 3: WWE SmackDown Women's Championship - Naomi (c) vs. Lana
Announcers note that this is Lana's first singles match since WrestleMania of last year. That can't be right... can it? Regardless, nobody was going into this match expecting much and while the match wasn't that bad, it wasn't very good. Carmella entered the match and thought about cashing in her Money in the Bank contract but decided not to when she saw that it probably wouldn't be going her way. Naomi is able to submit Lana to retain her title. Nothing much to see her with Carmella's interference really just being a way to cover up some of the bland action in the ring. But with all things considered, this could have been much worse.
Winner: Naomi
Rating: *1/4
Match 4: WWE Championship - Jinder Mahal (c) vs. Randy Orton
After shocking the world and defeating Randy Orton for the WWE Championship, Jinder Mahal must prove that his championship reign is not a fluke. Prior to the match, they show some past WWE Champions sitting ringside for the match including Bob Orton and Ric Flair. Mahal comes out looking like a million dollars with The Singh Brothers accompanying him by his side. Orton is the hometown hero and comes out to a spectacular ovation from the crowd. Solid action here with Mahal working on the left knee of Orton throughout the match and as usual, Orton doing a fantastic job of selling the injury. You just get the feeling that Orton was really high on Mahal at this point. They did a great job of reminding us about the legends sitting ringside for the match with Orton dropping Mahal on top of the barricade next to them along with Mahal stealing some of the moves from the legends at ringside. The match came to a collision when The Singh Brothers put Mahal's foot on the bottom rope during a count after an RKO from Orton. From there, The Singh Brothers were kicked out but would get their hands on Bob Orton on their way out. This led to Orton beating the living daylights out of the two before hitting an RKO to both of them with one of those being through an announcers table. However, Mahal would capitalize on all the mayhem and hit Orton with a Khallas as soon as he stepped back in the ring. Enjoyed that match but would love to have seen more of just Mahal and Orton. However, they wanted to have another oddball finish to set up their Punjabi Prison match and this was a solid way to do so. Just almost feels like this entire event is setting up for matches down the line and it gets pretty repetitive.
Winner: Jinder Mahal
Rating: ***
Match 5: Breezango vs. The Ascension
Welp, we needed a match to bridge the gap between the two main events and this is it. Pretty boring tag match here that had the crowd either sitting on their hands or going to the restroom. Fandngo is able to quickly roll up Viktor to score the pretty easy win for himself and Tyler Breeze. At this point, The Ascension were so lost in the scuffle that there was seriously very little hope in rebuilding the team. On to the main event.
Winners: Breezango
Rating: 3/4*
Match 6: Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - AJ Styles vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin
Before the match, Baron Corbin attacks Shinsuke Nakamura before the match to grab the upper hand on things and temporarily takes Nakamura out of the action. Definitely the best guys on the SmackDown roster that you could ask for in this match with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens truly being the two standouts for me in this match. As I said earlier, not every Ladder Match needs to have somebody land a triple backflip and follow it up with a corkscrew moonsault off two ladders for it to be enjoyable for me. In fact, I'd rather much see less of that at this point. Like the first Ladder Match in the night, the spots were nicely spaced out and all of them made sense, it certainly didn't feel like they were just tossing up big spots for the sake of it. Credit needs to go to Owens for taking the brunt of all the nasty exchanges along with Zayn for also tossing himself in the fire many of the times. Also need to credit AJ Styles for the awesome spot of him hanging from the top and trying to grab the briefcase while he was hanging on to the chain, made for a sweet looking spot. Nakamura would later return to the match to take out Corbin when he had an open window for the briefcase but it didn't prove to be much as Corbin was later able to secure the briefcase to win the match. Good main event, maybe a little too long for my liking but it made sense when taking into account how weak the rest of the card was. Also an interesting choice to have a heel win the match with Jinder Mahal being the WWE Champion at the time and it really not looking like he was going to lose the strap anytime soon during this period. The match was fun but nowhere near what I was expecting with the talent in the ring.
Winner: Baron Corbin
Rating: ***1/2
Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Easily one of SmackDown's weakest PPV outings with no match on the card really being a standout. There were definitely some great moments throughout the show and the action wasn't bad but nothing was really great either. Money in the Bank PPVs usually deliver but unfortunately, the 2017 edition is a hard pass.
Rating: 5.5/10
June 18, 2017
St. Louis, Missouri
The annual Money in the Bank PPV event sees two wild Money in the Bank Ladder Matches along with a WWE Championship match that has Jinder Mahal defending his newly won title against Randy Orton.
Match 1: Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Tamina vs. Carmella vs. Natalya
This is the first ever Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match and it looks to be a good one with some great talent lined up for this. Pretty wild to think that less than two years later, both Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch would go on to headline a WrestleMania. But I digress, solid opening match here and nice way to introduce this watch to the women's division. There wasn't anything that was so over-the-top but there was way more than enough here to keep my attention throughout the match with the wrestlers nicely spreading apart some of their bigger spots and really allowing everyone to get a spot in. Not every damn Ladder Match has to have a triple backflip off the top of a ladder or something. With Lynch climbing the ladder and ready to secure the briefcase, James Ellsworth appeared out of nowhere and dropped Lynch off the ladder. Ellsworth then climbed the ladder and retrieved the briefcase for Carmella to win the match. Not sure how I feel about that finish. If they wanted to use Ellsworth, then I would have preferred to see him earlier in the match and not be the deciding factor in the match. But also, it puts some extra heat on Carmella and really got some people talking about this one. I want to hear what you think.
Winner: Carmella
Rating: ***1/4
Match 2: WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship - The Usos (c) vs. The New Day
These two teams had a phenomenal rivalry in 2017 with this match being the starter to it all. Since this was just their first match, they didn't pull out all the stops here but instead made sure to give us a nice appetite for things to come. As you would expect from these four guys, great action throughout the contest, they have pretty great chemistry with just about everyone. Also enjoyed watching The Usos as heels, I feel like their vicious and fast style suits them better as heels. The New Day had the win on their fingertips as both Big E and Kofi Kingston landed their Midnight Hour finisher on Jey before Jimmy pulled his brother out of the ring. Afterwards, the two left the ring and walked away from the match with their belts which would then lead to the referee calling for the countout. I get that they don't want to give us a straight finish with this being their first encounter, but I think they could've at least done a fishy pin or something considering the match before this already gave us a lame finish.
Winners: The New Day (via countout)
Rating: ***
Match 3: WWE SmackDown Women's Championship - Naomi (c) vs. Lana
Announcers note that this is Lana's first singles match since WrestleMania of last year. That can't be right... can it? Regardless, nobody was going into this match expecting much and while the match wasn't that bad, it wasn't very good. Carmella entered the match and thought about cashing in her Money in the Bank contract but decided not to when she saw that it probably wouldn't be going her way. Naomi is able to submit Lana to retain her title. Nothing much to see her with Carmella's interference really just being a way to cover up some of the bland action in the ring. But with all things considered, this could have been much worse.
Winner: Naomi
Rating: *1/4
Match 4: WWE Championship - Jinder Mahal (c) vs. Randy Orton
After shocking the world and defeating Randy Orton for the WWE Championship, Jinder Mahal must prove that his championship reign is not a fluke. Prior to the match, they show some past WWE Champions sitting ringside for the match including Bob Orton and Ric Flair. Mahal comes out looking like a million dollars with The Singh Brothers accompanying him by his side. Orton is the hometown hero and comes out to a spectacular ovation from the crowd. Solid action here with Mahal working on the left knee of Orton throughout the match and as usual, Orton doing a fantastic job of selling the injury. You just get the feeling that Orton was really high on Mahal at this point. They did a great job of reminding us about the legends sitting ringside for the match with Orton dropping Mahal on top of the barricade next to them along with Mahal stealing some of the moves from the legends at ringside. The match came to a collision when The Singh Brothers put Mahal's foot on the bottom rope during a count after an RKO from Orton. From there, The Singh Brothers were kicked out but would get their hands on Bob Orton on their way out. This led to Orton beating the living daylights out of the two before hitting an RKO to both of them with one of those being through an announcers table. However, Mahal would capitalize on all the mayhem and hit Orton with a Khallas as soon as he stepped back in the ring. Enjoyed that match but would love to have seen more of just Mahal and Orton. However, they wanted to have another oddball finish to set up their Punjabi Prison match and this was a solid way to do so. Just almost feels like this entire event is setting up for matches down the line and it gets pretty repetitive.
Winner: Jinder Mahal
Rating: ***
Match 5: Breezango vs. The Ascension
Welp, we needed a match to bridge the gap between the two main events and this is it. Pretty boring tag match here that had the crowd either sitting on their hands or going to the restroom. Fandngo is able to quickly roll up Viktor to score the pretty easy win for himself and Tyler Breeze. At this point, The Ascension were so lost in the scuffle that there was seriously very little hope in rebuilding the team. On to the main event.
Winners: Breezango
Rating: 3/4*
Match 6: Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - AJ Styles vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin
Before the match, Baron Corbin attacks Shinsuke Nakamura before the match to grab the upper hand on things and temporarily takes Nakamura out of the action. Definitely the best guys on the SmackDown roster that you could ask for in this match with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens truly being the two standouts for me in this match. As I said earlier, not every Ladder Match needs to have somebody land a triple backflip and follow it up with a corkscrew moonsault off two ladders for it to be enjoyable for me. In fact, I'd rather much see less of that at this point. Like the first Ladder Match in the night, the spots were nicely spaced out and all of them made sense, it certainly didn't feel like they were just tossing up big spots for the sake of it. Credit needs to go to Owens for taking the brunt of all the nasty exchanges along with Zayn for also tossing himself in the fire many of the times. Also need to credit AJ Styles for the awesome spot of him hanging from the top and trying to grab the briefcase while he was hanging on to the chain, made for a sweet looking spot. Nakamura would later return to the match to take out Corbin when he had an open window for the briefcase but it didn't prove to be much as Corbin was later able to secure the briefcase to win the match. Good main event, maybe a little too long for my liking but it made sense when taking into account how weak the rest of the card was. Also an interesting choice to have a heel win the match with Jinder Mahal being the WWE Champion at the time and it really not looking like he was going to lose the strap anytime soon during this period. The match was fun but nowhere near what I was expecting with the talent in the ring.
Winner: Baron Corbin
Rating: ***1/2
Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Easily one of SmackDown's weakest PPV outings with no match on the card really being a standout. There were definitely some great moments throughout the show and the action wasn't bad but nothing was really great either. Money in the Bank PPVs usually deliver but unfortunately, the 2017 edition is a hard pass.
Rating: 5.5/10
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