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As usual the 205 Live guys get the pre-show as Buddy Murphy defended his Title against former champ Cedric Alexander. I guess they can say, “Hey, you are the tease to get people to buy the PPV” but let’s be real, people don’t buy the PPVs anymore. And just as I typed that, they went to a commercial. During the match. Sigh.
They are both fantastic in the ring and like 205 on the whole, they deserve more than they get as far as prestige and exposure are concerned.
As usual, these two had an excellent match. The work was amazing, again as usual. It could have gone either way, as usual. But, it was relegated to the pre-show. The fans that were there enjoyed it and showed them the respect that they deserved. I didn’t expect a Title change since this is kind of a placeholder show but these guys gave it all they had. Good stuff.
On the plus side, The Man just said that her match is main eventing the PPV. Well dammit, it should. It’s the thing I am most excited to watch on the show. Great promo by The Man.
Elias and Bobby Lashley also got the pre-show treatment. Given that is the case, Elias needs a big win. I love Lashley’s work but (stop me if you heard this before) Creative has done Lashley no favors since his return to the company.
These guys took some stiff bumps on and with the ladders, and as predicted Elias laid Lashley out and went up for the guitar. Lio Rush tried to stop him. Epic fail. Elias went to kabong Elias after the match but Lio jumped on his back. That let Lashley chokeslam him and then hit him with the guitar. This feud isn’t over. Good, solid match.
Oh no, Coach just called The Man’s match the Smackdown main event. It had better be THE main event.
I hope it’s a good sign that Becky Lynch is the one who they chose to be the first thing that we saw on the opening vignette.
Cole said we have 13,408 fans here. I remember when they used to have more than that announced.
Carmella and R Truth will take on Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox in the finals of the Mixed Match Challenge. If you called that before the tournament go to Vegas. You are clairvoyant. Whoever wins here gets the 30th position in their Royal Rumble. Great pop for them after they did What’s Up.
Oh yeah, the winners get an all expenses paid vacation to anywhere in the world! Provided that they want to go to Saudi Arabia….
Once the faces got the upper hand, they did a dance break. The Singh Brothers came in and showed they could dance too. Truth tossed them. And now we are back to the match. Fox is the captain because she says she is the veteran.
Not for nothing but Truth is really good. They have totally wasted him on the main roster. OK, I am redundant.
Speaking of which when Truth was in control Fox came in with her hat and said she is the Captain. Truth put it on and she kicked him. Carmella went for the win and Jinder pulled her off. But Mella made Fox submit for her team to win. So they get in the Rumble at 30 and get to go to Saudi Arabia! I hope one of them at least gets a shot in the Rumble.
They were interviewed afterward. They were excited to go into the Rumble at 30. Before the match they were supposed to submit where they wanted to go. News to Carmella. Truth said he handled it. Mella thinks they are going somewhere great. They aren’t. They are going to WWE Headquarters in Stamford, CT. Uh, OK. Mella isn’t happy.
The Bar are defending the Tag Titles against The Usos and The New Day. Xavier and Kofi are the New Day team tonight. Two men in the ring at one time.
These guys worked really hard and took a lot of abuse. It came down to Sheamus pinning Woods after a Brogue Kick. Good stuff to start the show.
Now it’s time for Baron Corbin to get his easy win and become the GM of Raw full time. He made Heath Slater be the one to call the win. Beefore the ten count, well, you know what happened. Out came Strowman. His arm is in a sling. So he will fight one-armed. The only question is whether they will have Corbin win and Vince reverse it tomorrow. That would be really stupid so there’s a chance they would book it that way.
Braun said Corbin is a dope and doesn’t realize that there are no DQs in their match. So if someone wanted to help him……it would be legal. Here comes Apollo Crews. He will be fighting for Strowman. Oh wait, here are Roode and Gable. They all have chairs. Corbin went to leave when he said Finn Balor with a chair. They all went in the ring. Corbin is about to die. He told Heath to get them out. Heath took his shirt off instead. He threw it at Corbin and the beating is on.
He rolled to the floor and went to leave when Kurt Angle’s music hit. He came out and grabbed a chair of his own. He beat Corbin with it. Took him to the ring. The beating is back on. All of those who were wronged by Corbin are destroying him. Heath has his shirt and after much abuse of Corbin, Heath put it back on and in came Braun. Foot on his chest. 1-2-3. Corbin is out as GM. The crowd loved it and it was well done.
And Braun will get a shot at Brock “I don’t often actually wrestle much” Lesnar at the Royal Rumble!
Natalya took on Ruby Riott in a Tables match. The angle has been, well, tasteless. The story early was Liv took a spot through a table for Ruby, and then Sarah got put through one too. But Ruby attacked and then set up the Anvil Table in the ring and went to through Natalya through it. I can’t believe I just typed that. And some people think wrestling is low brow!
Ruby tried to throw her through the table but Natty stopped her and locked on the Sharpshooter. Ruby used the table to break the hold.
So then Natty got on her feet. She went under the ring and got a table with Ruby’s picture on it. She put on her Dad’s jacket and went to put Ruby through the table. They sold it like Ruby would be freaked to see herself on a table, even though she did the picture on the table thing first. They fought over who would put the other through the Ruby table. That would be Natty, with a power bomb from the top rope.
The worked hard and had a solid match but I don’t ever need to see an issue like this again. I know some people in the business think they are immortalized when their death is made into an angle. I just find it creepy. And Natty beating all three by herself? Well that is why ratings are down. She needed to win in the end, but not in Cena fashion.
Please click to Page 2 for more thoughts from tonight's show!
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