WWE Raw & Smackdown Recap (14th & 15th August 2017)

Due to work I was unable to watch and therefore review Raw yesterday so I will be doing both Raw and Smackdown today, Supershow style.


We start the show with Dean Ambrose. He wants to address the Rollins situation. Rollins comes out. Ambrose says Rollins is playing games. Rollins says Ambrose is the one playing games and is lying to himself. Rollins says that they can run the place if they reunite. Rollins looks for the fist bump, Ambrose refuses. Rollins tells him that they can do anything together and so Ambrose offers the fist bump, Rollins refuses. This causes them to have a bit of a scuffle. Sheamus & Cesaro arrive and they attack Rollins but Ambrose makes the save. They fight off the tag champs and the crowd finally gets the fisting they have been waiting for. I know how that sounds and I'm sticking with it. Good opening segment, if a touch melodramatic at times . The crowd was hot for it too. 

Commentary gives an update on the health of Ric Flair, Get well soon Naitch.

Sasha Banks vs Nia Jax (Number 1 Contendership) - Alexa Bliss is at ringside on a big silver lifeguard chair looking thing. This was one of Nia's best matches on the main roster. There were really well done spots in it, including Jax reversing a hurricanrana by swinging Banks into the barrier. Banks won with the Banks Statement following a good submission sequence.

Kurt Angle informs the Hardys that the Revival won't be at Summerslam due to injury. The Miz conglomerate arrives to complain about being massacred by Brock last week. Miz will face Jason Jordan tonight. 

Bray Wyatt and Finn Balor are having a ruck so Angle books their match for tonight instead of Summerslam because wrestling.

Elias is out to treat us to a song but R-Truth interrupts. Elias thankfully murders him. 

Cass is out to talk about his match this Sunday, with the shark cage in the ring. The crowd give him some heat. Some people think that he let the crowd get to him, others think that he played the crowd well. I don't care enough to have paid that much attention. He says that Enzo needed him because he pisses people off in the ring and backstage. It's a nice nod to real life issues. He claims that he is the new 7-footer in town. Enzo comes out and talks some shit and brings out the Big Show. There is a rumble between them and the Good Brothers come out to attack the Big Show. They subdue Show and crush his hand in the shark cage door. This turned into an alright segment but I still don't give a shit about the match.

Neville vs Akira Tozawa (Cruiserweight Title) - This appears to be on Raw instead of Summerslam. Maybe it will be on both, who knows. This was a really good match. It probably got a bit more chance to breathe here than it would have on the Summerslam kickoff. Also Raw has about 3.2 million viewers and the PPV kickoff probably has a few hundred thousand, maybe. This ends when Neville misses the Red Arrow and Tozawa hits the senton for the massive win. Neville's 8 month title reign came to an end on this night. A big moment for Tozawa. I am intrigued to see where they go from here.

We are backstage and the trainer tells Big Show that his hand is broken. Big Show doesn't care and will wrestle at Summerslam regardless.

Emma and Mickie James run into each other backstage and they arrange a match for later in the show.

Bray Wyatt vs Finn Balor - I couldn't really get invested in this. My tolerance level for Wyatt is at an all-time low. This was fine I suppose. Wyatt won with the Sister Abigail. Following the match Wyatt pours a bucket of what I assume they meant to be blood onto Balor. It looked like Gak

Mickie James vs Emma - This was pretty terrible. Mickie won. 

Balor will get his rematch with Wyatt at Summerslam and he's bringing the demon. What I got out of this is that Balor is only a top level performer when the demon is involved, so why doesn't he use it all the time? They haven't established that there is a downside to it so it makes no sense. 

The Miz vs Jason Jordan - This was non-title. It barely started. Dallas and Axel run in for a DQ finish. Following the match the Hardys run in to help Jordan. Does this set up a 6-man for Summerslam?

The Miz, Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel vs Jason Jordan & The Hardys - Nope, they are going to have it now. This was average. They tried to get Jordan over but it really isn't working. The faces win. 

Neville and Tozawa will have another match at Summerslam. Alright.

Lesnar and Heyman are out. Heyman says that either Brock loses at Summerslam and they both leave or Brock wins and proves what he has always known, that Lesnar is a once in history wrestler. Joe comes out and says he will put Lesnar to sleep. Braun comes out and says that he is the last man standing but Joe says Braun only won last week because he choked out Reigns. This brings out Reigns who takes out Joe immediately but is then taken out by Braun. This leaves Braun and Brock in the ring together. The impending devastation is stopped by a bunch of security guards and then most of the locker room. Brock does manage to get a few licks in though. Good way to close the show. I'm pumped for Sunday's match. 


Overall Thoughts

This was a pretty good show for the most part. It contained some good wrestling and had some good non-wrestling segments. It was a bit weird that on a couple of occasions they built matches for Summerslam by having that match on this show though. 



Jinder Mahal starts the show with one of his 'You hate me because I'm Indian' promos. He says that it's Indian Independence Day and asks for respect while someone sings the Indian national anthem. He doesn't get it. He says that he will beat Cena tonight and will beat Nakamura at Summerslam. Nakamura interrupts Mahal's Punjabi spiel, which the crowd is happy about. Nakamura says on Sunday he will be the next WWE champion. It was a decent enough opening segment. It did it's job.

Commentary gives another update on Ric Flair. 

Natalya vs Becky Lynch - Naomi is on commentary for this. It was a solid, if unspectacular, match. It was obvious that Natalya had to win and she did, making Lynch tap to the sharpshooter. After the match she reapplied the sharpshooter and Naomi ran in for the save. Carmella then turns up to remind everyone that she still has the MITB briefcase.

Tamina is annoyed at Lana because she doesn't have a match tonight. Lana tells her that she isn't ready and nobody fears her but with Lana's tutelage they will. Tamina's acting is woeful.

Daniel Bryan meets with the Usos. They want to know which members of the New Day they will be facing at Summerslam. It's Big E and Xavier Woods, which is the best team in my opinion. Tonight they will face Kingston and Woods.

Rusev vs Chad Gable - We didn't get a repeat of their previous, good match as they brawl on the outside and it ends in a double countout. After the match Rusev applies the Accolade. He then grabs the mic but Orton hits the RKO.

Styles is out to apologise to Shane for kicking him last week. Shane says that there is nothing to apologise for. Shane says that if Styles lays his hands on him at Summerslam he will 'put his hands all over him' which is a really weird, sexual way to put it. As long as Styles is game do what makes you happy. Owens comes out and he and Styles get into a shoving match and Owens accidentally superkicks Shane. It was a decent segment to set up their match at Summerslam.

The Usos vs New Day - Good match. I'm not sure why they felt the need to have a version of this match here though. It seems to be the done thing this week. The Usos won here so they will almost certainly lose at Summerslam. 

Fashion Files - This is the finale of Fashion Peaks. I wonder what show they will do next. It was funny but there wasn't a great deal to this week's episode. The Ascension return the pie they stole. It had a bunch of stuff in it including a note that says 'Two B' on it. 

John Cena vs Jinder Mahal - This was not a good main event. It had no intrigue whatsoever. Mahal kicked out of the AA but so has everyone else. Cena hit the super AA and Corbin ran in to cause a DQ. 

Following the match Corbin attacks Cena with the briefcase and decides to cash in on the prone Mahal.

Baron Corbin vs Jinder Mahal (WWE Title) - For some reason the ref makes Corbin wait for Jinder to get up before ringing the bell. That's not how it goes. This was enough time to allow Cena to distract Corbin and Jinder hit him with a roll up and that was that. Corbin lost his MITB cash-in in 5 seconds. I have no idea what the point of that was. It was for one reason or another the worst MITB cash-in ever. They had 10 more months to build up Corbin to be something better than he is. It will be a struggle to get Corbin back on track here. He has to beat Cena convincingly at Summerslam, but he probably won't.

Overall Thoughts

I'm not going to say that this was a worthless episode because some of it was good. A lot of it was middling though and that cash-in seemed misguided to me. I hope I am proven wrong though. 

Comments