WWE CLASH OF CHAMPIONS

from Indianapolis

NIA JAX vs. ALICIA FOX (4:55): While this show was average at best, at least the card resembled a real WWE ppv card as opposed to Smackdown's Backlash two weeks ago. RAW tied it's worst rating ever last week which means I'm not the only soul who hates this split. But, if you love content, here was another extra long show for you. It ended at 11:07 PM and this pre-show match started around 7:40. It was another forgettable women's match. I thought they got rid of those? -No Stars-

THE NEW DAY vs. LUKE GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON (6:45): Maybe Gallows and Anderson should, like, come up with a team name. The Ex-Japs? The Thugs? The Bores? The New Day kept their titles again. Yawn. Their act, sadly, has grown stale. *

T.J. PERKINS vs. BRIAN KENDRICK (10:31): The WWE had a terrific cruiserweight tournament on the Network over the summer that finished with Perkins as the champ. The problem was making his first defense against the worst cruiserweight out there; Kendrick. Perkins is young and fast and awesome. So there's that. This was half as good as the three matches on the cruiserweight finale show, though. **1/2

CESARO vs. SHEAMUS (16:36): The final match of the Best of 7 series ended in a no contest. I guess let's forget it ever happened (good) or have another last match (bad). Cesaro did a through the ropes dive and landed on his head. It made me cringe. He's lucky he's not paralyzed. A lot of it was brutal and entertaining...but this whole series was utterly pointless (the winner gets nothing!). **1/2

CHRIS JERICHO vs. SAMI ZAYN (15:22): Why Jericho won is just about as baffling as why he beat AJ Styles at Wrestlemania. Does the WWE not believe in creating new, winning stars? Add that to the fact that Jericho hasn't been in good matches since the 90's and you got a fairly uneventful slog. At least Zayn is excellent. Why not...I don't know? Give him a better opponent? *1/2

CHARLOTTE vs. BAYLEY vs. SASHA BANKS (15:28): Good match but not as good as either one of their single's matches. The chemistry didn't really mesh. Charlotte's perfect moonsault on both of them was great, though. Charlotte pinned Bayley. It was light year's better than the women's matches of old. Which is a good thing. But lately they've hit a peak that's hard to reach again. **1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. RUSEV (17:07): Reigns won the U.S. title here. It was average stuff. Did I mention the split sucks? *1/2

KEVIN OWENS vs. SETH ROLLINS (25:07): Mediocre. The end, with Jericho showing up and a ref bump, was good, but so much of this was pedestrian and these two just don't work well together. Rollins has a great move set and arsenal but, man, he's rarely in great matches. Perhaps he's the problem? **

WWE BACKLASH

Richmond, VA

APOLLO CREWS vs. BARON CORBIN (9:55): Corbin, the king of the pre-show. I was watching the U.S. Open final so I didn't see this (Wawrinka beat Djokovich in 4). Since the ppv ended at 10:38...why did they even have a match on the pre-show?

BECKY LYNCH vs. ALEXA BLISS vs. CARMELLA vs. NAOMI vs. NATALYA vs. NIKKI BELLA (14:40): Well, this is the Smackdown women's division. So...get used to being sick of seeing the same six women wrestle each other every week. If you weren't sure if splitting the company again was good or bad just look at this card and you're mind will be decided. Seriously, the split has made both shows worse and we're stuck with lame B-level ppv's like this. RAW is already worse and the ratings are low. I never even watch Smackdown (they did the split because USA was unhappy with the Smackdown ratings). This match was fast paced and entertaining but a bit too sloppy (Naomi, I'm looking at you). Lynch won the title. **1/2

THE USO'S vs. THE HYPE BROTHERS (10:11): This was the first match in the tag team tournament, a tournament that wasn't helped when Chad Gable was injured last week and his team, American Ultra, wouldn't be competing on this show. The split would work if one show had all the women and one show had all the tag teams. I guess the WWE isn't interested in logic so we're stuck with weak women and tag divisions on both shows. This match was forgettable. *

THE MIZ vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER (18:22): The Miz had his best moment in years when he confronted Daniel Bryan on the post-Smackdown show, Talking Smack, a few weeks ago and said that if Bryan cared so much about wrestling then he should quit and go wrestle in bingo halls. The Miz was on fire in that promo. The problem? Bryan is retired...so any heat or great story line will never result in a match, so what's the point? And as for Ziggler...the new split seemed to bring up the idea that lower-card workers would get their deserved pushes. Ziggler was immediately put in the title match at Summerslam. The problem is that this Ziggler push so far has resulted in him losing to Ambrose for the title at SS and now losing to The Miz for the IC title. More like an anti-push. A burying push. And why was Smackdown's biggest star, Cena, not even on their first ppv? Questions, questions. Ziggler, anyway, was energetic. This was semi-entertaining. It didn't help that the WWE obviously added fake crowd noise to this ppv like the Yankees do on their Yes network. Lame. **

KANE vs. BRAY WYATT (10:55): Randy Orton was supposed to wrestle Bray. Instead we got a No DQ match with Kane and Bray. They used a chair and Wyatt jumped onto Kane through the Spanish announce table. Orton came out at the end to give Wyatt an RKO. *

HEATH SLATER & RHYNO vs. THE USO'S (10:02): So you want a reason why this split sucks? Your new Smackdown tag team champs are Heath Slater and Rhyno. Why they're even a team boggles my mind. And does Rhyno age? He's like the Jonas brothers in that classic SNL skit where they had a wizard that gave them the secret to youth. I swear if I go on youtube I'll find Rhyno matches from the 70's where he looks the same. *1/2

AJ STYLES vs. DEAN AMBROSE (25:01): Excellent match. It started slow but built up to a frenzy of big and sick moves culminating in a ref bump, an AJ low blow on Dean, and an AJ victory. He's the champ! Of Smackdown...which isn't all that great, is it? I remember two years ago when the WWE finally condensed the titles into one main title. I was so happy. Now we're back to two lesser titles. How far are we from them going back to Super Smackdowns and Cena showing up on RAW for no reason? I guess amidst the suck we did this great match...so there's that. ***1/2