WWE Raw & Smackdown Recap (4th & 5th September 2017)

Unfortunately I was too buy to do the Raw Recap this week so we have another Raw & Smackdown SuperRecap. 



John Cena vs Jason Jordan - We start off with a match and it was a pretty good one too. Jordan looked pretty good here. The crowd doesn't really care though as he is currently more gimmick than man. Cena wins with the AA.

Following the match Roman Reigns turns up. He asks why it took Cena 20 minutes to beat a rookie (it was more like 12 minutes, Roman hasn't learnt how to tell the time yet), and accuses his him of dragging it out for longer than he needed. He says that Cena isn't as strong or fast as he was and calls him a lying, fake ass bitch. Clever. Cena says that Reigns should stop trying to use his brain, which was funny. Cena says he will beat Reigns at No Mercy. He says that he has respect for people like Miz, who bust their ass every week, but he doesn't respect Reigns. He says that nobody is buying him as the guy. Reigns dares Cena to try and do something but Cena decides against it. Decent segment with Reigns getting more in than last week but it was still clear that Cena is leagues ahead on the mic.

Sheamus & Cesaro vs Heath Slater & Rhyno - Ambrose & Rollins are on commentary. This was a quick and easy win for Shesaro, which keeps them on track for their rematch at No Mercy.

The Miz vs Jeff Hardy (IC Title) - This was another good match. The Miz won after interference by Mayse. The finish may have been slightly predictable but it was fun getting there.

Nia Jax asks Kurt Angle why Sasha has a title match at No Mercy but she doesn't. He should have just replied with 'She has her contractually obligated rematch' but instead he books a tag match of Jax & Emma vs Sasha & Alexa where Jax & Emma will be added to the title match if they win.

They show a highlight from the last Braun vs Show match. That ring implosion spot is always good.

Drew Gulak, Tony Nese & Noam Dar vs Enzo Amore, Cedric Alexander & Gran Metalik - This was a rematch from 205 Live where Enzo cheated to win. He did exactly the same thing here. They appear to be trying to make him into an Eddie Guerrero type cheating babyface. That is not a good plan as Enzo is shit.

Sasha Banks & Alexa Bliss have a chat about strategy but end up shouting at each other. As is customary for all of WWE's women's segments these days.

Finn Balor say that the IC Title would have looked good on him but Bray Wyatt cost him that opportunity. Wyatt appears on the Titantron and.......I don't care. My brain shut off immediately. They will fight again at No Mercy.

Nia Jax & Emma vs Sasha Banks & Alexa Bliss - This was a decent match. Jax and Emma won meaning that the title match will be a 4-way. It's a new matchup, and it's good to see Emma get in the title picture, but it's roughly the 67th multi person match this year.

Braun says that he will destroy Big Show in tonight's main event.

Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins vs The Good Brothers - It was nice to see Anderson & Gallows get some ring time as I'm used to seeing them be involved in 5 minute matches. They lose after failed interference by Shesaro allows Rollins to get the roll up. 

Enzo meets with his partners from earlier in the night. Neville turns up and looks bemused by the entire situation.

Braun Strowman vs Big Show (Steel Cage) - These two had a really good match on Raw some months ago. They delivered again. They don't do anything outlandish, they just beat the shit out of each other. You can't really ask for more than that. Braun won after a superplex and big powerslam. 

Following the match, Braun picked up Show and threw him through the side of the cage. It looked great and is another highlight for the Strowman show reel. 


Overall Thoughts

Not a bad show at all. The wrestling was good for the most part and they furthered storylines. That's what TV is for. The only bad parts were Enzo and Wyatt.



Tom Phillips introduces Corey Graves as the new Smackdown commentator. Graves and Phillips, together again. Happy days.

Orton says that he has seen stars come and go and Nakamura won't stop him from getting his title back. Nakamura says that he respects Orton but the WWE Title is his destiny.

Carmella and James Ellsworth are in the ring but they are quickly interrupted by Kevin Owens. Owens says that he is going to be the referee for Carmella's match with Natalya. Shane comes out and says that he is definitely not the referee. He tells Owens to stop blaming him for his losses. Owens says that he knows that Shane didn't want him on Smackdown and he doesn't want to be here. He says that Shane has daddy issues and that's why he parades his kids around jumps off everything he can find. He says that everyone would be better off if Shane hadn't survived that helicopter crash. Shane attacked Owens and Daniel Bryan had to come down to break it up.

Bryan apologises to Owens. Owens says that he will sue everybody. Bryan says he will fix the situation. 

Natalya vs Carmella - This is a non title match as Natalya is defending against Naomi next week. It was alright. Ellsworth slid the MITB briefcase into the ring but Carmella refused to use it, allowing Natalya to get the roll up victory.

Following the match Carmella rips into Ellsworth. She tells him that he isn't even human, he is in fact a genetic defect. She also says that his mother should have given him away at birth. There is some savagery going on on this show. She says that they are through. 

Dolph Ziggler turns up and says that the fans don't appreciate the best wrestler in WWE history. I think they admire Stone Cold just fine. He says they want stupid gimmicks. He comes back out as John Cena. He says that the crowd see through that, they want nostalgia. He comes back out to Macho Man's music, wearing the shittiest robe ever with a generic valet on his arm. That isn't working either so he comes out to Naomi's entrance. He says that the fans don't care about him and they make him sick. This whole thing was spectacularly stupid.

Sami Zayn vs Aiden English - Sami misses a cross body and English cradles him for the win in just over a minute. I'm not annoyed that Sami is losing, I'm annoyed that he isn't allowed to have a good match before losing.

New Day and the Usos meet with Daniel Bryan and the Usos say that next week's title match will be a Sin City Street Fight. Why do they feel the need to add city specific names to street fights.

Daniel Bryan makes his way to the ring to address the Shane/Owens situation. Shane comes out and Bryan tells him that last year when The Miz was winding him up he wanted to do what Shane did, but he didn't because he knew it was bad for business. Shane says that he will smooth things over but Bryan tells him that it's too late for that. He received a call from Vince McMahon and Shane is suspended indefinitely. It was fine.

Jinder Mahal says that it doesn't matter who wins tonight as he has beaten them both and he will again. He says that he represents Asia better than Nakamura. The thing is, not all of Asia is the same. Japan and India bear no similarities,

Baron Corbin vs Tye Dillinger - The match was decent enough, it followed on from last week. Corbin won with the End of Days. Not much else to say.

AJ Styles met with Dillinger and agreed to give him a title match, for some reason. 

Bobby Roode gets a video package. 

Ellsworth apologises to Carmella. He asks for another chance and Carmella agrees. She then kisses him and slaps him. Ellsworth looks confused and aroused, like he just accidentally flicked on some hentai.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs Randy Orton (Number 1 Contenders Match) - Well, this was comfortably the best thing on this show. I had forgotten that these two were actually capable of putting on good matches. Why can't this be the WWE Title feud going forward? This match lasted just over 13 minutes, which was nearly as long as the rest of the matches combined. Nakamura won with the Kinshasa. Good clean victory for him.

Kevin Owens meets Daniel Bryan and says that nobody can stop him next week. Bryan says that Vince McMahon will be here to sort the situation out. 

Overall Thoughts

This was not a very good show but was redeemed a bit by the main event. Just watch that. Nothing else is really worth your time. There was a total of 7 minutes of wrestling in the first hour and 15 minutes, which would be fine if the promos were particularly memorable but they weren't.

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