I will never understand how SmackDown and Raw are produced by the same person.
So on Monday, Shane McMahon announced all the contestants for the Raw men’s contest without exception, and most people do not deserve a place. Jeff Hardy has a lot of losses, just like Miz, as well as Randy Orton as late. Apart from the fact that Kofi Kingston is at the same show, but they do not care that he is a former champion.
A three-hour show had no qualifying matches, while a two-hour show was full. Explain to me how it makes sense.
SmackDown did it right again. Not too shocking anymore. SmackDown made several stars to be in their thinning room. I want to see them in the game. With the exception of two of them, I would like to see the rest win. One of them is very interesting, and I will mention it soon.
Let’s look at the main hits and misses of this series. For a full overview of SmackDown, check out Rev.’s live blog. Claire Elizabeth!
Stars settle
Roman Reigns started the show by telling Adam Pearce that he does not run SmackDown because that is all that Reigns controls.
He that Edge is afraid to face him, and he does not let go of the title until he is ready. Pearce said Reigns will defend the Universal title in the Elimination Chamber, but Heyman said Reigns should not defend anywhere in the room, only on the Chamber Show.
Instead, the winner of the Chamber contest gets a title contest on the spot. Pearce put Kevin Owens and Jey Uso in the game and then announced the thinning out for the rest of the evening. Reigns jumped out of the ring and came into Pearce’s face to intimidate him and withdrew at Heyman’s request.
Alright! I wanted SmackDown to get the extermination room contest because there are more men deserving the headline photo. Now, if they rule right after that match? Clearly that’s the easy W for Reigns, but we’ll see if they get crushed, or get the real idea of babyface treatment.
What a match we had for the main event.
Cesaro is a great etiquette, even though he has sustained injuries that we will soon have. The other winners of a qualifying match appeared (I keep it here for free), but did not interfere.
Cesaro made the turn on Ziggler and Bryan took out Roode and Ziggler tapped out. I liked to see some people score important victories tonight. It is how you make and keep stars at a high level. Victories matter!
Then Jey Uso appeared ABROAD, and everyone got involved until Owens came out and cleaned the house. A good old-fashioned Stunner party.
They showed Reigns looking annoyed in the back and shaking his head that he might have to face him again.
I’m one of the few who’s good with another rematch, just because Owens hasn’t had a clean sheet loss yet. The technical elimination room is unlikely to be clean no matter who it is unless Jey Uso eventually wins. He is the most intriguing winner. I wondered when they would return to the family game, and when Jey would start cracking out of his trance. Maybe it’s coming soon?
Never stop
Man was an incredible segment before the game.
Big E talked about how he was ready to move on from Sami Zayn and Apollo Crews, but Crews decided to come out and answer the open challenge again. This time, E said no and told Crews to go back and raise his salary.
Woof. Crew has not take it well. The best part of this was the argument beyond the goal that both had before E’s opponent, Nakamura, came out. Crews said he will always be after E, as long as he has the Intercontinental title. Such a wonderful moment between both men.
So E and Nakamura started wrestling, and Crews encouraged Nakamura to encourage the ring. Crew went to the apron and E chased him down. Nakamura struck E with his knees and went to the Kinshasa, and E struck him. E go for the Big Ending and Crews come in and intervene to cause a disqualification.
Crews said he would not concede as long as Big E had the title, and he backed his words. Normally I do not go for the DQ, but in this context it actually makes sense. Apollo is going to do anything to get under E’s skin. Makes things make sense, and suddenly annoying things are much less annoying.
To mock someone’s ass
Sasha Banks came out and said that the EST should choose ME, which Belair asked to come out.
She knows about Sasha’s achievements, but told The Boss that she’s not The Boss or her. Suddenly the champions for women come out and Jax and Baszler complain about no one talking about their victory at the Royal Rumble. Belair and Banks both showed clips from Raw about the “my hole” incident and Baszler lost to Naomi, which led to a fight with the baby faces standing tall.
Okay, so WWE decided to censor “my ass” (heh) and bring it into the show. I think the good way to do that would be to do what they did here, by not letting Nia say it every time. Implicating the words by squeezing from pain and grabbing her lower back works for me.
Bianca and Sasha looked good here, but I do not think there should be a title-title match. The titles for ladies do not have to be involved in a feud with a major title championship every time. It was a good segment, and maybe they could break down between the baby faces if they were to play the title game, which would then lead to Bianca Sasha officially choosing.
On paper that looks good, but how would it play out?
By the way, Bianca Belair’s husband was dancing with Sasha Banks when she came in? It was weird.
The rest
Seth Rollins burns it again
Seth Rollins returned and ‘Burn it Down!’ He mentions that he became a father for the first time and his daughter changed his life and gave him a new vision. Where does he fit into a show with great talent and potential? To be a leader for all! (Basically nothing has changed.) He asked everyone to accept the vision, and everyone left. Except Cesaro. Cesaro just shrugs his shoulders and says he hasn’t changed a bit.
Furious, Rollins attacks Cesaro and knocks him down the driveway. Bryan and referees come to separate them, and Rollins walks away. I was worried that Cesaro would be the weak link and that he and Bryan would lose their qualifying match, and I am very thankful that was not the case.
Sami Zayn and King Corbin defeated Rey and Dominik Mysterio
Early Dive Dives out of the ring to Zayn and looks like he’s hitting his head on the announcement table, but he looks good. It was cramped and he sold it wonderfully. Almost also well. Corbin and Zayn mostly dominated until Dom had a sprint with Zayn. Dom had an amazing Tornado DDT. Graves continued the disagreement between Dom and Rey for several weeks. Honestly that was what made me think they were going to win, but Zayn beats the suplex and Helluva Kick to win! It’s so nice to see Sami Zayn win.
Street Profits Defeat Alpha Academy
Um okay such a match I did not expects Angelo Dawkins against Chad Gable would be needed. A clinic for mats between them every time they were going together. Then Otis noticed and did great hoss stuff. It’s now that I’ve realized that Otis and Gable are a good match. Tez let his frog splash out of the sky to achieve the victory. It’s just amazing to witness every time.
Bayley defeated Liv Morgan
It was clear we were going to get Liv and Bayley after Ruby and Bayley happened. Morgan starts hot and dominates the first minute, chasing Bayley out of the ring so she can regroup. Morgan looked really cool … I think you could call it a springboard face enhancer for a near fall. She favored her left arm before that and Bayley took advantage. Then Billie Kay gets her CVs in Ruby’s face and this led to Ruby throwing the CVs behind her in the ring. The referee was therefore caught with it and Bayley raked Morgan’s eyes and pinned her.
And at this point I would have attacked Billie Kay or just ignored her because she was too involved in this business after she was clearly told to leave several times. I like Billie in this role, but it’s not good to constantly interrupt the Riott group and cause losses. But how can you really blame Billie here? Ruby had to ignore it all, or go along with it just to keep Billie quiet.
Grade: B +
What were your thoughts, Cagesiders?