Dolph Ziggler Interrupted The New DayKofi Kingston continues to cut pretty good promos, but as I've said before, he's in desperate need of a rival he can bounce off of. Ziggler is not that guy. He said the same things here that he has for the past month and I don't understand why he was even granted another opportunity to wrestle Kingston coming off his back-to-back losses at Super ShowDown and Stomping Grounds. You also don't need me to tell how formulaic these segments on SmackDown Live and Raw have become with the champion coming out to open the show every single week. It just feels so lazy. The New Day def. SmackDown Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan and Rowan (Non-title); Heavy Machinery and New Day def. Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Bryan and RowanNew Day beat Bryan and Rowan on Raw this week and again here, and while it makes total sense for them to re-enter the SmackDown Tag Team Championship picture, why not have them win a number one contender's match instead of pinning the champions? WWE does that way more often than they should and it makes the titles feel meaningless as a result. Both of these bouts were entertaining and it was interesting to see Owens walk out on Zayn. I wonder if it will lead to the two going their separate ways at long last, or if it will be forgotten about by next week.
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Dana Brooke def. Sarah LoganBrooke was accidentally injured after being smashed into the turnbuckle post by Logan in their match last week on Main Event and got busted open as a result, causing the contest to be stopped abruptly by the referee. I'm glad they went back to the rematch here and even revisited that same spot to show that Brooke was smarter this time around and avoided it. The actual match was better than expected and I appreciated the intensity from Brooke early on. I never thought I'd say this, but it's been cool to see her improve over the last few months on Main Event. It's just a shame she never sniffs television time. Cesaro, Robert Roode and EC3 def. The Lucha House PartyI was actually intrigued by this match when I saw it advertised at the start of the show. Yes, the trio of Cesaro, Roode and EC3 is incredibly random, but I was curious what kind of chemistry they'd have together. This could have been a lot of fun from an in-ring standpoint but ended up getting all of two minutes due to a commercial break halfway through. In other words, it was a complete waste of time. The finish was well done and I was glad the heels won, but I guess WWE would rather throw these guys in a meaningless six-man tag team match on Main Event than do something of note with them on Raw. Ugh.
Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans Challenged Universal Champion Seth Rollins and Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch to a Winners Take All Match at Extreme RulesAnother week, another talking segment to open Raw. Ugh. I like Rollins, but I'm so sick of seeing him in this spot every Monday night. Everyone's mic work was decent, but this played out in predictable fashion with Corbin and Evans challenging Rollins and Evans for their respective titles at Extreme Rules and the babyfaces accepting for some reason. I was ready for Rollins and Lynch to start new storylines on this show, but apparently WWE needs a filler main event for Extreme Rules before they get to the good stuff at SummerSlam. It makes sense I suppose, but that doesn't mean I have to care. The Usos and The New Day def. Raw Tag Team Champions The Revival and SmackDown Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan & Rowan in an Elimination MatchWhen one member of a team was eliminated, the whole tandem was gone. I don't know what WWE's recent obsession is with elimination and 2-out-of-3 Falls stipulations, but they aren't making these matches any more compelling. If anything, they feel like a desperate attempt to kill television time. Michael Cole called New Day "top contenders" to Bryan and Rowan despite losing Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn at Stomping Grounds. The match itself was entertaining and I assume both babyface teams will receive tag title shots coming out of this.
Drew Gulak def. Akira Tozawa and Tony Nese in a Triple Threat Match to Win the WWE Cruiserweight ChampionshipAs much as I'd like to see the Cruiserweights make the main card on these pay-per-views (like they did at Money in the Bank), they probably benefited from being on the Kickoff show because the crowd was at its hottest. This was all action from bell to bell and the audience ate up everything they did. It was perfectly paced and while I would have preferred to see Nese's title reign continue, it was cool to see Gulak get his moment after all these years. Nese was protected in that Gulak pinned Tozawa to win the title, meaning Nese vs. Gulak is only inevitable. Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch def. Lacey EvansI doubt many people were looking forward to this match coming into the pay-per-view because of how it was an unnecessary rematch from Money in the Bank, so it was smart to open the event with it to get it out of the way early. To their credit, it was a significant improvement over their original encounter as it was much smoother and it was easily Evans' best showing to date. Hopefully we can move on from this feud now that Lynch has beaten Evans clean twice now.
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