attendance: 11,769
KALISTO vs. APOLLO CREWS (9:40): This was the best match on the show...and it was on the frigging pre-show (and a WWE commercial aired halfway through it). Kalisto should be on 205 Live and in the cruiserweight division. It helped here that Crews does a lot of flips and high flying so the two meshed well. I'm going to take a wild guess that Kalisto watched the superb Will Ospreay vs. Kushida Best of the Super Juniors finals match in NJPW on Saturday night because Kalisto did some insane stuff here. He did a flip to the floor after bouncing off the top rope ass first from the corner. I don't even know what the fuck that's called...dangerous? These two were back and forth with leaps and dives and 2 counts and it just made you wonder why they're mired in the WWE's forgotten low-card wasteland. These two would have been stars in the BOTSJ tournament. Here, in Baltimore, they were at least crowd favorites while it lasted. *** (out of ****)
THE MIZ vs. DEAN AMBROSE (20:00): The Miz is a star now thanks to the brand split. He's still not in the main event title picture, probably because no one can fathom a Brock Lesnar vs. Miz match. Having his model/bimbo wife at ringside certainly helped his recent surge because his wrestling ability has never been as good as his mic work. This heated up at the end when The Miz attempted to get Ambrose DQ'd (the stip was that Ambrose could lose the title if he was DQ'd...such an extreme rule). The Miz got Maryse to slap him to get a DQ...then pushed the ref from behind and blamed it on Ambrose. Eventually, Ambrose was distracted and The Miz hit is finisher and won the coveted IC title. This was mostly boring and same-old. *1/2
RICH SWANN & SASHA BANKS vs. ALICIA FOX & NOAM DAR (6:20): The WWE did a mixed tag-team match at 'Mania...so why not another one? Unfortunately, this was too short to ever really turn into much of anything. The women's revolution has apparently died prematurely. 1/2*
ALEXA BLISS vs. BAYLEY "SINGAPORE CANE ON A POLE MATCH" (5:20): Bliss is cute...if you like caked on makeup, giant fake eyelashes that look like praying mantis' legs, and the look of a 17 year old cheerleader. But like any oasis, there isn't anything there besides looks. This was super short for a title match. Bliss pretty much won easily after hitting Bayley with the cane and then tossing her head first into the cane lodged against the turnbuckles. I'm baffled at why there wasn't any drama or near-falls. But, let's be honest; how great can anything on a pole match be? 1/2*
CESARO & SHEAMUS vs. THE HARDY BOYZ "STEEL CAGE MATCH" (15:00): Yawn. The only way to win was for both guys on each team to escape the cage. That meant that this was all people climbing up the cage only to be thwarted. That gets stale. Jeff did a twist/flip off the top of the cage, the lone highlight. Cesaro & Sheamus won the titles. *
NEVILLE vs. AUSTIN ARIES "SUBMISSION MATCH" (17:35): These two are great but have yet to have a great match against one another. This was mostly average stuff. And since when is a submission match extreme? **
SOMOA JOE vs. ROMAN REIGNS vs. FINN BALOR vs. SETH ROLLINS vs. BRAY WYATT "EXTREME RULES MATCH" (29:15): This wasn't very good for twenty minutes. The last ten minutes had a table spot and a broken barricade spot and some high drama that saved it. Joe was the favorite and won by putting Finn in the sleeper hold. So the next RAW ppv has Joe, a heel, vs. Brock Lesnar, a heel, for the title. Huh. That match will probably suck. Joe is past his prime and doesn't have a chance. They're saving Roman vs. Brock for Summerslam. I'd have rather seen a Finn vs. Brock match. But I was glad to see Seth Rollins jumping off the top rope and through Bray Wyatt on the announcer's table. That was the best moment of this not-so-great show. **1/2
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