Scotiabank Arena, Toronto
DREW McINTYRE vs. ANDRADE vs. CARMELO HAYES vs. CHAD GABLE vs. JEY USO vs. LA KNIGHT "LADDER MATCH" (16:30): I always mention that this is my favorite WWE PPV of the year. The reason is because I love ladder matches, and you always get two ladder matches plus a title match or two on the show. While I thought that this was an entertaining show, most fans online ripped this show apart. That's amusing to me, as I haven't been a huge WWE fan for years so I pretty much got what I expected with this show. What the heck were these fans thinking they were going to get? The WWE is mildly entertaining these days, nothing more. If you want four star matches and visceral excitement, go watch an AEW PPV. Some of the things people complained about were the botches throughout the night and the way they screwed McIntyre yet again. People were also apparently mad that Roman Reigns, AJ Lee, and Jimmy Uso didn't return. I mean...Roman Reigns' father died last week so I'm guessing that was a pretty big reason he wasn't on the show. His dad was in the WWF tag team from the 80's, The Wild Samoans. It's funny, but I don't remember that team at all. I guess I started watching the WWF after they had left. As for this match, it was an entertaining ladder match. The packed crowd seemed to be fairly decent tonight, though nothing special. The biggest crazy move in this match was Andrade doing a Sunset Flip Powerbomb on Carmelo Hayes off the top of a ladder onto a ladder bridge in the ring. They didn't show a replay of it, though, for some reason. I thought Chad Gable looked fantastic in this match. It's kind of a shame they're putting him into a feud with that stupid Bray Wyatt group, though. If the WWE was smarter, they would have had Gable beat Gunther at Wrestlemania instead of putting Sami Zayn in that slot. And they should just turn Gable babyface and reunite him with Otis, since the fans seemed to be very invested in that Oits/Gable storyline. Oh, well. Gable did a German suplex on LA Knight over the top rope and down onto a ringside ladder bridge. That was cool. Drew won and the fans seemed to really like that even though he's a heel. I wonder if that means they'll eventually start booing CM Punk. ***
SAMI ZAYN vs. BRON BREAKER (13:15): This match was pretty pedestrian even though at one point the fans chanted, "This is awesome!" It wasn't. They also chanted, "We want tables!" in the first match but didn't get them. This is different to the bloodthirsty AEW fans who now don't even bother with "tables" chants but go straight to, "We want fire!" While Sami Zayn was fine in this match and is one of WWE's better wrestlers, Bron Breaker is a stone-cold bore. I never really liked him in NXT, either. He has the personality of a rock. And he's supposed to be this big, strong monster but doesn't exactly wrestle that way. His one move that got the crowd fired up was a top rope Hurricanrana. I don't think monster heels would do a frigging luchador move to get a pop, right? Match was just kind of dull. Zayn retained the U.S. title. Even though he's Canadian. And the match was in Canada. *1/2
DAMIAN PRIEST vs. SETH ROLLINS vs. DREW McINTYRE (15:48): There's two main women's champs and two main men's champs and this was the only main title match on the show. Kind of lame. Gunther won the King of the Ring so he would face the champ at Summerslam. I think having Priest retain here kind of made it obvious that Gunther is going to win the title. For whatever reason, there were a ton of botches on this show. Maybe July 4th had something to do with it? The wrestlers were with their families last week for the holiday and were either discombobulated or didn't have enough time to train. Maybe? Either way, Priest and Rollins were completely off in a bunch of spots early. They both tried to kick each other at the same time at one point and then Damian had to sell it like it wasn't a botch by just kicking Seth in the ass after that because Seth was out of position. Ugh. That was awkward. The production truck guys were also out of whack, as it seemed like Seth was supposed to be pinning Damian when Drew's music was going to hit. Drew's music didn't hit, though, and Damian didn't kick out but the ref just stopped at 2 for no reason. The fans were all shouting and in confusion. Finally Drew's music did hit and he came out to cash in his briefcase. That botch cost the excitement of Drew coming out to be a big deal. Drew cashed in his briefcase but then CM Punk came out to a big pop to beat up Drew, costing him to fail at his cash in. CM Punk cost Drew the title at Wrestlemania. And then CM Punk cost Drew the title again at Clash of the Castle. This all makes Drew look like the biggest idiot ever, especially considering he just signed a new WWE contract. Did they put in that contract that, hey, you're going to get screwed out of the title every week like a goof and look like a moron. Damian pinned Drew to retain the title. The other thing that someone online mentioned that makes no sense is that if CM Punk is going to eventually wrestle McIntyre, wouldn't he want it to be for the title? So why cost McIntyre the title? Also, they could have just had CM Punk interfere in the ladder match to prevent Drew from winning, thus letting someone else win the briefcase. Now there won't be a men's cash in until, at the earliest, next July. That's not good business sense. The drama of a cash-in is a great, year long storyline. Now we won't have it because CM Punk interfered again. He already interfered in Drew's title matches twice! You're going to do it a third time? And will Drew actually beat CM Punk at Summerslam? CM Punk hasn't been in a match yet in WWE since re-joining. They're really going to have CM Punk lose in his first match? It makes no sense to have Drew get screwed a 4th time by CM Punk. Well at least all this ridiculousness made the match interesting. They also noted that this was Seth Rollins' first match since Wrestlemania. Really? I feel like he's been around for awhile since then. So this means Summerslam will have great title matches like Damian Priest vs. Gunther, Nia Jax vs. Bayley and Solo Sikoa vs. Cody. Jesus Christ. **1/2
TIFFANY STRATTON vs. CHELSEA GREEN vs. IYO SKY vs. LYRA VALKYRIA vs. NAOMI vs. ZOEY STARK "LADDER MATCH" (16:52): My God was this match a trainwreck. I guess it's a good thing that Jade Cargill wasn't in this match or it would've turned into a literal Casket Match. Lyra tried to do something off the ropes like a DDT but got caught in the ropes. Zoey slammed Lyra onto a ladder but missed and Lyra's arm only landed on the ladder. Zoey tried to do a leap over the top rope into a Senton Bomb on Lyra on a ladder but completely missed everything. You know...maybe Lyra and Zoey shouldn't have been in this match. They're obvious not ready for prime time. There were some really cool spots in this. First off, the crowd loved Chelsea Green. She's like the Yano of the WWE. Her gimmick is she's afraid of heights so it's funny. She did take the crazy spot of having to fall off a ladder backwards onto two tables at ringside. Yikes. Iyo power bombed Zoey off a ladder onto a ladder bridge. Now they're copying from the men's ladder match. Another cool spot was Lyra was hanging from a ladder with her feet trapped and did a German Suplex on Iyo down onto the mat. Eventually Tiffany won the briefcase. That's a good choice, as she's a good athlete and a Barbie Doll and the crowds seem to like her. **1/2
THE BLOODLINE (JACOB FATU, SOLO SIKOA & TAMA TONGA) vs. CODY RHODES, KEVIN OWENS & RANDY ORTON (24:40): The WWE has trained their fans to not expect anything exciting or dramatic until the ref bump. So this match was just a typical, regular, so-so match until the ref bump and then they did the announce table spot and a low blow and all the usual things they always do. Until the ref bump and the interference and table spot, this match was pretty dull. After the ref bump it was pretty fun and exciting. Jacob Fatu was the star here. The reason is he's from MLW and thus he hasn't yet been watered down by doing the WWE style. Tonga Loa botched a lowblow in this match if you can believe that. Night of botches! I guess New Japan didn't train him to do low blows. He wasn't in The House of Torture, after all. He did a low blow on Kevin Owens but it was so pathetic that Owens didn't even notice it so Tonga Loa had to do it again. Awkward. Eventually, Solo pinned Cody to set up their Summerslam match. As much as I was bored to tears with Roman and The Bloodline...at least Roman Reigns was fairly entertaining in the ring. Solo is a fucking bore. His finisher, The Somoan Spike, has to be the stupidest finisher in all of wrestling. I guess it's supposed to be his thumb is hitting your neck and thus killing you? What, is his thumb made of granite or something? Or is his nail super long and thus like a knife? At least this new crew of The Bloodline without Heyman is something different. So I'm not as tired of The Bloodline as I was a few month's ago. Solo vs. Cody and, eventually, Solo vs. Roman does nothing for me. Who the hell even wants to see those matches? They'd have to break a lot of tables and have a lot of interference to make those matches even somewhat watchable. I actually thought this show was pretty entertaining, though. But, c'mon, let's face it: Ospreay vs. Swerve from last week was on another level, another plain of existence than this WWE stuff. *1/2
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