Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso def. The Judgement Day (C) – Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships
Not sure what the plan is with the Judgement Day and all the championships, but that’s a conversation for another time. In regards to the actual match itself, I thought we got a very, very good bout even incorporating your typical Judgment Day tag team overbooking with JD, Rhea and Dom. I thought the heat segment with Jey lasted a bit long, but I kind of got the feeling that Cody and Jey would be winning the tag titles so I didn’t mind it too much.
I must say that 3-D into the Cody Cutter was pretty sick, and the near-falls towards the end was pretty good. It’s interesting that they pulled the trigger on making these two a tag team, although since Cody orchestrated Jey Uso coming to RAW, it somewhat makes sense. I just hope that this doesn’t result in a hot potato of the tag titles. It’s an unorthodox pairing, but they’re two crowd favorites. ***3/4
Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar and Carlito def. The Street Profits and Bobby Lashley
It was abundantly obvious that Carlito would be coming in once Escobar went down, but the story of this match was the journey in getting up to that point, and honestly, it was really no different than a standard Smackdown tag team match. As a matter of fact, the match could have passed for a SmackDown match had it not been for the Carlito run-in. I’m surprised they had Lashley and the Street Profits and Bobby lose their first official match as a trio together. I don’t think it necessarily hurts them, and maybe it perpetuates the story of Bobby trying to light a fire under them and solidify their turn, but otherwise, the match wasn’t really much to talk about and really just served to burn some time. Pretty decent overall though. ***
IYO SKY (C) def. Charlotte Flair and Asuka – WWE Women’s Championship
This match kind of shared a similar pace to the Summerslam women’s triple threat, which makes sense considering it’s pretty much the same competitors. There were some pretty neat sequences between IYO and Asuka, and while the crowd chanted awesome, I was just left feeling like it was just okay. I think Asuka’s technical prowess, IYO’s highflying maneuvering and Charlotte’s opportunistic nature made for a good triple threat, but I don’t think it quite reached that second gear that I believe it was capable of doing. Perhaps a part of it is having the same competitors here, but I think it’s more than that. The singles match between Asuka and IYO a few weeks ago I believe would have been much better suited here. So it’s a good triple threat with the right person winning, but it was nothing overly special either in my opinion. ***1/4
John Cena and LA Knight def. The Bloodline
This match certainly had a lot of energy, even though most of it was John Cena getting his ass kicked, but it also goes to show how over LA knight is at the moment. Becuase now it’s the crowd waiting in anticipation for him to get the hot tag and for him to run wild. Once the hot tag was made to Knight, we did get some hot action and the pace picked up quite a bit. With Cena matches these days, whether it’s a singles match or tag match, it’s often a simple formula. But simple can be fine at times, and it was certainly here.
How this translates into Roman’s appearance next week is anyone’s guess, but the match accomplished its purpose. Cena was able to hit his greatest hits, and LA Knight got the decisive pinfall. So a solid tag match overall that got pretty good towards the end. ***1/2
Seth Rollins (C) def. Shinsuke Nakamura – World Heavyweight Championship (Last Man Standing Match)
I thought this was a very good main event that hit a lot of the notes a Last Man Standing match was supposed to hit. Although I must say in spite of the drama surrounding Seth’s back, I never felt that there was a moment where I thought he might lose. It wasn’t because of the lack of spots or any lack of violence. It just always felt like Seth was going to get up regardless of what Shinsuke was doing. I certainly can’t say there was no effort here, because there were some creative shots, and even some weapons that we don’t typically see being used.
I will say that I am a tad conflicted on this match, however. Because I definitely feel like it was a great main event that delivered, but was left feeling a bit underwhelmed. I think it may have been a result of the finish. Kudos to WWE for having the Falcon Arrow be the finisher for a match for once. But I think a lot of people were expecting a bit more anticlimatic than a spot through a table from not that high an elevation. It was fine, I suppose. But based on what these two were doing to each other for over 25 minutes, that finish just kind of felt like it was supposed to lead to something more. Guess we’ll take what we can. So far all the talk of Seth’s back and for all the talk of how much pain he’s in, Shinsuke sure didn’t do much to expose him at all. But a pretty good effort here, in spite of the slow-paced start. ****
Conclusion:
I don’t really know about this one. I didn’t see any matches that were terrible or even bad tonight. But it also just felt pretty uneventful, even with the tag team championship change. It’s as if you didn’t know there was a PPV tonight and decided to watch the Dodgers game, I wouldn’t tell you that you missed much. And I feel comfortable in that. This show I believe is a definition of thumbs in the middle. There’s quality on this show, just not of the highest variety. And you won’t feel left out the loop of much if you didn’t see it. That is unless of course, you really love Carlito.
