I really enjoyed the main event feud of this show. It was intriguing, has plenty of variables at play, and nicely summarized by Bray Wyatt on his Twitter the other day.
Rattlesnakes.
The discussion of rattlesnakes, of course, alludes to Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin moderated the contract signing for Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman’s Universal Championship match at Clash of Champions – which went off without too much trouble, funnily enough.
But rattlesnakes also refer to something else, something Wyatt expounded upon in the Firefly Funhouse. It’s in a rattlesnake’s nature to defend its territory. And just like the puppets screaming “stranger danger!” and the voices in Wyatt’s head, Strowman, Rollins, The OC, and Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode are all infringing upon each other’s territory.
So...who’s going to be the rattlesnake?
The main event of the show was a 10-man tag match involving many of the men I mentioned. The teams were Rollins, Strowman, Cedric Alexander, and the Viking Raiders vs. The OC, Roode, and Ziggler. After the OC got spanked early in the show by all the good guys plus Austin, the heels approached them asking for an alliance. Styles was quick to agree.
And what that gave us was a really fun match with interwoven storylines and relationships, all with Bray Wyatt lurking among the leaves waiting to strike. I could see just about anyone turning on anyone on Sunday, and it feels like the only guarantee is someone is going to make a move.
...This actually came together quite well, didn’t it? And Cedric Alexander got the pin on AJ Styles, as well as the first celebratory beer from Austin! What a night for that dude!
Breaking: The Four Horsewomen still rock
There aren’t many times where I’d call a tag match that mixes two PPV matches as the optimal way to sell those matches. But with Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Bayley, what other way would you do it?
This was a match to reacquaint ourselves with the reason why these four have made so much history in the past few years. In short: they rock. Throw ‘em all together in a 20-minute match and you get a really, really fun time.
And that’s exactly what WWE did! It took a sixth of the show off their hands and was better than anything else they could have done with that time. I really liked how Corey Graves framed Bayley’s loyalty to Sasha Banks, too. You can admire the loyalty (maybe), but her decision-making is questionable at best.
And that was the story here to me. The moment Bayley has chosen loyalty and friendship over her personal success, look what happens. She eats the pin from Charlotte.
She’s still hanging on a razor’s edge, here. I think she needs to go fully heel, and it may not happen until she loses that championship.
Corbin wins, we groan
Well I groaned, at least. And then I grinned because of course Baron Corbin would win.
The semifinals of the Raw side of the King of the Ring tournament came down to Corbin, Ricochet, and Samoa Joe. And it was another fun match – a consistent trend on this show – but the story, of course, is that Corbin won.
I honestly don’t mind the decision, so long as Chad Gable wins in the finals. If Gable wins, then this is perfectly fine. It ensures Gable a strong, babyface reaction while also giving him the tallest opponent to defeat to put those short jokes out to pasture for good.
This also looks pretty good for Ricochet and Samoa Joe in defeat. Ricochet got screwed over, and Joe lost to the 630. I reckon there’s no shame in losing to a dude double front-flipping onto you.
The Rest
Cedric Alexander def. AJ Styles via DQ – This was our first match on a night where we got tons of good wrestling. The story’s good, too! Alexander picked his spot to even the score with the OC after they cost him his King of the Ring match last week. He had Styles right where he wanted him before Gallows and Anderson had to run in to make the save.
But then...the Viking Raiders! Doing something that’s not squashing people you’ve never heard of! It was super fun too!
Rey Mysterio def. Gran Metalik – Y’all, I was so excited for this one as soon as it was announced. I knew what we were in for.
This match got time, too! It wasn’t 20 minutes or anything, but they got a solid 10 minutes to go and show a style we don’t normally get to see. This is the start of Mysterio’s redemption arc so it was pretty apparent that he was going to win, but it also got him a match with an extremely talented wrestler that we don’t usually get to see. More – many more – matches like this, please.
Natalya def. Lacey Evans – New York City, you don’t get to chant CM Punk after the matches WWE put on for you with this show.
I actually like how mean these two are getting. It’s fun lower card stuff.
Wyatt’s ominous Firefly Fun House – I wanted to cover this a bit more in depth. The way he dealt with Austin encroaching upon his territory was really interesting to me. The puppets were all howling about a stranger and it made him snap at them for a moment. And then he brought the ol’ “Hurt” glove to his ear.
Pain’s coming for someone on Sunday.
Roman Reigns discusses fighting cancer – Man, this guy is so good at his job. I’m sure you all see and talk to people championing causes all throughout your daily life. But it’s different when you see someone talk who’s experienced something awful like Roman, and it’s even more different when he’s introducing children fighting that fight.
This cut way more deeply than WWE’s usual charitable segments. And it was a welcome change from all the wrestling in the first hour.
This show had less clutter and more big matches. That’s a winning formula for sure. My only criticism is the fact that nothing surprising really happened. They didn’t take any risks in the Garden – but then again, they didn’t really need to.
Grade: B+
Agree or disagree, Cageside?