Extreme Rules was this past Sunday, and the fallout from that event will lead into the second largest show of the WWE year. Before we get to Summerslam though, let’s see how well I predicted Sunday’s show…
–Mixed Tag: Winners Take All: Universal Champion Seth Rollins & Raw Womens Champion Becky Lynch vs Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans
Prediction: The Man and the Man’s Man retain their titles and move on to bigger challenges next month
Well I was partially right. The champs did officially win the announced match, but then Mr. Money in the Bank cashed in on Rollins instead of on Kingston as I had predicted.
–No Holds Barred: Roman Reigns & the Undertaker vs Drew McIntyre & Shane McMahon
Prediction: Shane is moving on to a feud with Kevin Owens, Taker is supposed to setting up a program with McIntyre, and Roman is Roman. If I were booking, the heels would go over to fuel those next feuds. The faces are Reigns and Taker though, so I wouldn’t bet against WWE giving them the win just because of who they are.
Elias joined the heels to make it essentially a 3 on 2 match, but as expected the Graveyard Dogs prevailed. Unfortunately they did so in a way that doesn’t give the heels a lot of room to rebound into the feuds I was anticipating for them.
–WWE Title Match: Kofi Kingston(c) vs Samoa Joe
Prediction: It would be great to see Kingston continue his Cinderella run with belt into Summerslam at least. However, depending upon the severity of his back issues, they have some options. He could barely survive the match with Joe only to have Lesnar cash in on the already broken champ. IF Kingston is not healthy enough for a rematch next month, Reigns (recently transferred to SDL if that even matters any more) would be available to step up and fight Lesnar at Summerslam Kingston retains with a possible Lesnar cash in..
Again, I was partially correct. Kingston did defeat Joe, but Lesnar waited until later to make his presence felt.
–Smackdown Womens Title: Handicap Match: Bayley(c) vs Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
Prediction: Bayley retains
Bayley retained, but there was no story progress towards the inevitable breakup of the Bliss & Cross pairing.
Intercontinental Title Match: Finn Balor(c) vs Shinsuke Nakamura
I didn’t have this match on my preview card, but it was added to the kickoff show. It’s sad that these 2 phenomenal athletes and the prestigious IC Title were all relegated to the opening kick off show match. The arena was still half empty giving them no crowd energy to work off of too. Nakamura got the victory, and as we now know Balor is going home to Ireland to recharge his batteries.
-Smackdown Tag Titles: Triple Threat: Daniel Brian & Rowan(c) vs New Day (Woods & Big E) vs Heavy Machinery
Prediction: Champions retain
I’m actually happy to be wrong about this one. The New Day won the titles and since Kingston also retained the WWE Title all 3 members have their own gold. I’m surprised we didn’t see a much larger New Day celebration this week on TV.
-Aleister Black vs Cesaro
Prediction: Black wins (he’d be dead in the water if he lost his 1st big match, and that would be a waste)
Phenomenal match (how could it not be with these two) with the correct winner. Black needed the win to establish himself, but I hope Cesaro one day gets a long overdue run at the top like Kofi is currently enjoying.
-Raw Tag Titles: Revival© vs Usos
Prediction: Revival retains… I have no justification. I just don’t want to see another Revival push cut short too soon.
Correct prediction.
-Cruiserweight Championship: Drew Gulak© vs Tony Nese
Prediction: Gulak retains
Correct prediction.
-Last Man Standing: Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley
Prediction: Strowman, because it’s a basically a coin toss.
Strowman did indeed win, but both men came away looking pretty strong.
-Kevin Owens vs Dolph Ziggler
Another match that wasn’t part of my original card breakdown was basically a squash match for Owens. KO came away looking like money, but Ziggler has been buried back into obscurity in the process.
-US Title: Ricochet© vs AJ Styles
I knew this match was on the card, but somehow it got left off of my preview. Styles won with the help of Gallows and Anderson. It should be interesting to see where Ricochet goes now and if he enlists any help to neutralize the extra members of the Club.
My overall score for the night was 8-1-3 not counting the misplaced MitB cash in.
News of the Week
Injury Report
Former Women’s Champion Mickie James went under the knife this week for ACL surgery. It’s expected to take 7-9 months of recovery. If that holds true, it’s possible she could be back in action in time for Wrestlemania next year.
Balor/Wyatt
Bray Wyatt made his long awaited live return Monday night by taking out Finn Balor. Coincidentally, Balor will be taking some time off soon. The exact reason is unclear, but he requested and was granted time off. It was originally thought that the two might meet at Summerslam with Balor’s vacation beginning after. We’ve since learned though that Finn has already flown home to Ireland, so perhaps this was just the first in a series of attacks for “the Fiend.”
Bischoff
There are quite a few rumors making the rounds regarding Eric Bischoff’s new role as Executive Director of Smackdown. Unlike Paul Heyman, whose creative influence has been felt on Raw even before becoming ED, Bischoff is reportedly not engaging in the creative process. Some reports have the creative team for the show voicing frustration that their new boss has spent the last two weeks relocating to Stamford but not meeting with anyone regarding how the show operates. Reports from other sources provide a possible explanation for this in that Bischoff doesn’t plan to work on the creative side of the show. Instead he will focus his efforts on dealing with network executives, especially in regards to the big move to Fox.
NXT News
The 4th and final match in round 1 of the NXT Breakout tournament went down this week. Australian heavyweight Bronson Reed (formerly Jonah Rock) took down Dexter Lumis. Reed will next face Cameron Grimes in the 2nd round.
Raw Reunion
Next week live at Amelie Arena in Tampa WWE is a special episode called Raw Reunion. A ton of past stars are set to appear. It’s an interesting mix of the usual big name stars of the past, former stars currently working jobs behind the scenes each week, and a few who haven’t been seen in a while. So far they’ve advertised the following stars for the big show: Steve Austin, Sgt. Slaughter, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Booker T, X-Pac, Eric Bischoff, Santino Marella, D-Von Dudley, Ted DiBiase, Kurt Angle, Jerry Lawler, Christian, The Boogeyman, Jimmy Hart, Hurricane Helms, Mark Henry, Mick Foley, Pat Patterson, Gerald Brisco, Lillian Garcia, Alundra Blaze, Kelly Kelly, Rikishi, Ron Simmons, Godfather, Road Dogg, and Psycho Sid.
Coming Soon…
NXT TakeOver Toronto Aug 10
-NXT Title- 2 out of 3 falls, each fall has a stipulation: Adam Cole© vs Johnny Gargano
WWE Summerslam Aug 11
Just one night after Extreme Rules, Raw began setting the stage for WWE’s 2nd biggest show of the year. We already have contenders for the top two titles on the red brand with ground work laid for other stories.
-Universal Title: Brock Lesnar© vs Seth Rollins- Rollins successfully overcame 9 other superstars from both brands to earn a rematch against Lesnar.
-Raw Womens Title: Becky Lynch© vs Natalya- Natalya defeated 3 other superstars to become number 1 contender.
-Smackdown Womens Title: Bayley© vs Ember Moon- After tagging together on SDL Bayley said she wanted to put the title on the line against a truly deserving challenger. It’s interesting that they’re going for face vs face in both women’s title matches, but maybe the build up to the show will result in some shifting status for one or two of the women involved.
Likely additions:
Kofi Kingston vs Randy Orton and Iiconics vs Kabuki Warriors
NXT UK TakeOver Cardiff Aug 31
-NXT UK Womens Title- Toni Storm© vs Kay Lee Ray
WWE Clash of Champions Sept 15
WWE Hell in a Cell Oct 6
NXT TakeOver Wargames Nov 23
WWE Survivor Series Nov 24
WWE TLC Dec 15
