We kick off the show with all of the women. Alexa cuts a promo about about being a goddess. She runs down Mickie James for being old & Sasha for being worse than her before getting to Nia Jax. She is good with Nia. Bayley gets the home town pop again but Alexa shuts that shit down. Alexa tells Bayley that her nephews were crying at her loss but at least they can now look up to Alexa Bliss. Bayley decides enough is enough and a brawl breaks out. Decent open to the show, Alexa is an excellent heel.
Back from the break we get straight into an 8-woman tag. Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax, Emma & Alicia Fox vs Bayley, Sasha Banks, Mickie James & Dana Brooke. Alicia Fox spent most of the early part of the match in ring for her team. It breaks down later on with everybody ending up outside the ring except for Bayley and Alexa. Alexa gets a sneaky eye rake in and follows that up with a DDT for the win. This was a pretty fun match as there was always something happening. They got given the time too. The promo and the match took up the first 30 minutes of the show.
Enzo & Cass are out to do their schtick. Thankfully Gallows & Anderson attack them. Enzo is wearing on my last nerve. It's Enzo vs Gallows tonight. Booker T describes Enzo as the Flava Flav of Chuck D Public Enemy, which clearly makes no sense at all. Enzo throws some punches that are hilarious. Gallows picked up the win in a match that was entirely forgettable.
We are backstage with TJP questioning Neville's actions from Payback. Neville said the referee was unprofessional and tells TJP to make the most of his match with Aries later tonight.
Back from the break with Seth Rollins. He says that sometimes you have to look at yourself in the mirror and if you don't like what you see, do something about it. He has beaten HHH and Samoa Joe and now he wants Lesnar. That brings out Finn Balor. He also wants a shot at Lesnar. Ambrose comes out to tell them that Lesnar rarely shows up so they might as well fight him for the IC Title. Miz comes out and runs them all down. He says Ambrose is a disgrace, Balor is a coward and Rollins is a gimp. Ambrose then phones up Kurt Angle to set up a triple threat match for the number 1 contendership for the IC Title.
We get a recap video for Reigns and Strowman at Payback.
It's time for some cruiserweights. It's Tony Nese, Brian Kendrick & Noam Dar vs Rich Swann, Akira Tozawa & Jack Gallagher. Michael Cole takes a cheap shot at 205 Live for some reason. This was a fun match but it wasn't really any different from many cruiserweight matches on Raw. Tozawa is solid gold though.
Sheamus and Cesaro are out complete with new heel attire. It looks good. They cut a good promo about fans always looking to the past or future and ignoring the present. They don't set the bar, they are the bar. The Hardys come out and Matt does a little bit of the Broken gimmick mixed in to his promo. He gives it a full on Delete arm movement too. It's coming at some point.
It's Apollo Crews vs Heath Slater up next. Apollo picks up the win in a relatively short match to continue his run of victories under the Titus Brand umbrella.
Kurt Angle is out to explain the situation with Reigns and Strowman. He says they have both injured or reinjured themselves. He is then interrupted by Bray Wyatt, who gets a much better pop than yesterday. Which isn't difficult. Wyatt cuts a very Wyatt promo and asks Angle if he will let him do his thing. Angle says it's his show. Wyatt says it's his world. A bit pointless really.
Ambrose interviews Seth Rollins backstage. I forgot to mention he did the same to Miz earlier in the show. They refer to themselves in the third person a lot.
Austin Aries vs TJP is next up. These two might as well wrestle each other every week for how often it happens. The match has some good leg work from TJP that looked like it might pay off but Aries picked up the win with a counter in to the Last Chancery. Following the match TJP continues to attack the injured leg. It was pretty good all round.
Ambrose interviews Finn Balor. The Drifter makes an appearance. Ambrose is a fan.
Golden Truth are trying to convince Angle to give them a title shot. It's a strangely sincere promo by Golden Truth. Angle says they will have to win a tag team turmoil match.
It's main event time Balor vs Rollins vs Miz. The match starts with Rollins and Balor keeping Miz out of the ring. There is a bad looking landing by Rollins off a high cross body. They get it together well though and they put on an excellent main event. It is a **** level match. The crowd is fully invested and they kept them guessing right til the double swerve finish. First Samoa Joe ran in to take own Rollins and then Wyatt materialised to take out Balor. This left Miz to pick up the win. It set up 3 matches for the next PPV so that is to be commended.
Thoughts
It was certainly a mixed bag but this had enough good to make it worthwhile, especially if you can skip through the more pointless bits. The opening half hour and the main event were both really good and they established feuds going forward.
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