WWE United States Title Match: Austin Theory (c) vs. John Cena
Without being a great opener, I thought this was pretty much fine. Theory did most of the heavy lifting while Cena sold for him and worked to a brief comeback that led to a finish. A very basic structure but given Cena’s conditioning and Theory being less than a stellar worker, it feels like the correct route to take. What was disappointing was Theory needing to cheat to win. What is the biggest win of his career is a cheap win. If there was time for a clean win, it’s at WM and now the win doesn’t have the impact that whoever is in charge will want it to have.. **3/4
Fatal Four Way Tag Team Match: Braun Strowman & Ricochet vs. The Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar) vs. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) vs. Alpha Academy (Chad Gable & Otis)
A lovely treat of a match. What is normally the most forgettable part of the show, produced a worthwhile match. They quickly abandoned any match structure for a spot heavy match but they delivered on that front. Even Braun Strowman went to the air, which was insane to witness. And the finish was clever as well with both Street Profits hitting dives on Ricochet to win the match. Plus this allowed Gable to shine, which makes it a pretty cool match in my eyes. ***1/4
Seth Rollins vs. Logan Paul
While I didn’t think this was terrible, as it did hit the big notes well enough, the nuts and bolts of the match weren’t really there. Logan Paul can do a gutwrench suplex smoothly but really whiffs on his strikes, despite having boxing training. And that’s really just an example of where the match disconnected with me. At one point, Seth stomped Logan Paul’s hand, which had screws put in it and proceeded to never attack it again, prefering to do generic pin reversals. Where is the logic behind that? Nothing terrible but it wasn’t good either. KSI making an appearance as a mascot for the prime drink was a shock, and I didn’t expect him to take a bump, which he did after a mistimed (a real one and in story) jump by Logan Paul. ***
Becky Lynch, Lita & Trish Stratus vs. Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai & IYO SKY)
This wasn’t very good. This was basically what I thought the 4-way tag would be. Just generic and bland. Only much longer. Lita looked very slow and sluggish. She wasn’t a good wrestler in her prime, let alone 20 years later. Trish was a bit better, as she was back then. But nothing really came together in this match. Plus Damage CTRL lost again. Ice cold and only getting colder. **
Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio
This was decent in its own way. Dominik did very little except taunt the crowd while Rey led him through all the spots of the match. Proof that Rey Mysterio is one of the greatest of all time. ***
WWE SmackDown Women's Title Match: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Rhea Ripley
While at times, this fed into some bad WWE tendencies, like their shocked faces after false finishes. But I can’t deny that I thought this match delivered in a lot of ways. It’s been in the news cycle that they were unhappy about being the main event, so they just went out and tried their best instead of sulking, which Charlotte is prone to doing. And there were some hints of that but that was overshadowed by the rest of it. Both worked fairly snug and always worked to a purpose, working effectively to the big nearfalls of the match. And then sticking the landing by having Rhea beat Charlotte and get fireworks during the celebrations. Awesome match. ****
WWE RAW Tag Team Title / WWE SmackDown Tag Team Title Match: The Usos (Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso) (c) vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
Considering the history of the KO/Sami Zayn pairing (feuding or team), it’s incredible that they were able to get this far. And while they definitely wouldn’t main event on a one day show, it’s an achievement, nonetheless. The match was different in certain ways. It played on the traditional tag team structure that WWE does, forgoing it in favour of a very quick and urgent start where both teams were trying to get the win, skipping the “start” of the match entirely. This seemed to confuse the crowd somewhat, which proved to me that they should do this more often to condition the fans better, but the crowd was able to catch on and get used to it, especially during the second heat section with KO being practically knocked out. Then there were the portions of the match where the Uso did the Roman Reign soliloquies speeches but they were really short by comparison and transitioned nicely into a Sami Zayn comeback. And the finish was really good. A little excessive use of the nearfalls but not too much. The 3 helluva kicks with the tease that Jimmy would make the save made for an awesome finish to the show. A quality main event. One of the better ones in years. ****
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