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Add FightsATW on GoogleThis weekend, WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event will be live at Madison Square Garden, the Mecca, and will feature a handful of matches, with Danhausen and JD McDonagh attracting the most buzz online. Aside from the SNME show, SummerSlam is officially two weeks away this Saturday, as the two-night event features the two main title matches: 1) Roman Reigns defending his heavyweight title against longtime rival Seth Rollins and 2) CM Punk defending his world title versus Cody Rhodes.
Punk won the world title from Sami Zayn last Monday, making his transition to SmackDown both immediate and permanent. So, tonight’s focus at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, will be to establish the Roman-Rollins feud further after the challenger was forced to promote without the champ last week.
ROMAN AND SETH… SIGNED AND SET
The contract signing was scheduled to take place tonight on WWE RAW, so certain expectations were placed on the night’s final segment—nothing is unbreakable in a wrestling contract signing featured on TV. It was announced earlier in the day and, during commentary following the opening segment, that Roman Reigns and Jalen Brunson of the newly crowned NBA champs, the NY Knicks, will feature together at this Saturday’s show at MSG.
In a very unceremonious scene, Rollins came down to the ring and signed the contract immediately without any build to the moment—it was very refreshing actually for a wrestling spot that typically follows the same blueprint.
Roman was on fire from the beginning, asking the Dallas crowd where they were last week when Seth was ‘boring us to death.’ It was very on-brand for Roman to no-show TV only to criticize his opponent for being ‘dull,’ but Seth got him back when he said he’d see Roman when he decides to ‘come back to work.’
The segment seemed to be finished as Rollins walked out after getting both signatures on the paper, but Roman refused to let him off the hook. He challenged Seth’s narrative and asked what would happen if the challenger left SummerSlam with the title, alluding to the idea that Seth has never had what it takes to carry the ship.
“You wanna know how I know you’re number two because after all these years [Seth] still needs a Money in the Bank briefcase to become champion,” Roman said before reminding the crowd that he ‘faked an injury’ to be able to use it. Rollins squinted in either anger or embarrassment.
Then, Roman referred to Triple H as the ‘work daddy’ of Rollins as they tried to make him the top guy by giving him all of ‘Roman’s stuff.’ Rollins stared blankly before asking Roman if ‘that was all he had,’ and after nearly leaving the contract signing intact, the peace fell apart. Both men fought back and forth until Rollins hit the curb stomp to leave Dallas standing tall over the champ.
HEYMAN IS LAME, MAN
Paul Heyman took over the promo duties for Brock Lesnar after “The Beast” had been manning the mic duties as of late. The duo kicked off RAW as Lesnar occupied the ring with his black cowboy hat on his head and a smile on his face. Heyman is always amazing, even when the script leaves something to be desired, but this was a giant nothingburger until he brought up ‘law and order.’
He said that his big 4D chess move was getting a restraining order against Oba Femi, a complete crib of the exact move he pulled on Seth Rollins upon his return from the injury caused by Breakker in kayfabe. The ‘restraining order’ apparently went both ways, but Heyman assured everyone that Brock would adhere to the distance restrictions because he is a ‘law-abiding Beast.’ Oba Femi called Heyman’s bluff and walked down to the ring, followed by an assortment of police officers.
Heyman gave orders to the police to arrest the ‘unrestrained’ Oba Femi. Oba, seemingly making his case worse, beat up the police as Brock and Paul made their way to the backstage area. Oba was able to cut his promo after all, albeit slightly out of breath from the 10-13/10-33 he pulled (police code for putting the SmackDown on a cop), though all he accomplished was to reiterate the stakes at SummerSlam from within a Hell in a Cell.
THE VISION’S QUEEN—MAXXINE DUPRI
The Vision started their segment in the ring already, without Paul Heyman, despite being in the building. Last week was a huge night for The Vision as they reclaimed the tag titles thanks to their newest member Maxxine Dupri, who hit Dawkins with a low blow that set up Theory to pick up the pinfall.
Before that match, Heyman made it clear that he did not have much faith in the faction, and if they failed to bring the titles back that night, they should ‘not come back’ to him at all. They won the match, but it was not clear in the aftermath if they’d done enough to win back his respect—though he made it clear that he was a fan of Maxxine.
Tonight, the faction was in all black as Logan kicked it off on the mic, but not long after Otis and Tazawa came down to ringside asking to speak with Dupri. Dupri asked the fellas to hit the road so she could speak to her former friends, and, with them at ringside, Tazawa made it clear that Theory is not good enough for her.
The crowd chanted ‘you sold out’ as Maxxine offered up her reasoning while still claiming to love them. Theory began clowning them by laughing at the emotional moment for the former Alpha Academy, and Otis eventually had enough and picked up Theory like nothing. That prompted the rest of The Vision to jump in, but Otis took care of them all, including Bron Breakker, by squashing him and Theory.
Then, the diabolical Dupri pretended to lean in for a romantic kiss with Otis only to distract him long enough for Theory to hit the low-blow. Breakker and the group finished off Otis with a debuting tag team finisher—Theory holds the opponent in a ‘side Russian leg sweep’ as Breakker landed a charged-up spear off the ropes.
Heyman seemed pleased with the group’s effort and then claimed that Dupri was doing so well that he no longer sees a reason that they need him—the relationship tactic of ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’
GAUNTLET MATCH—IC Title #1 Contender’s Match
Chad Gable V Rusev V Dragon Lee V Je’Von Evans V Ethan Page V Joe Hendry V Dom Mysterio
The match was announced last week, and though the match was stacked with talent, the night belonged to Chad Gable in front of his hometown crowd. Evans was again the standout of this format as he worked his way through the match.
Evans and Dragon Lee put on one of the better matchups, the kind you wouldn’t mind seeing again in a developed singles program. Evans secured the win over Lee, which prompted his next opponent, Rusev, to attempt a blindside attack that gave him the momentum at that moment in the match.
Rusev ended Je’Von’s night, and Chad Gavel was next up. Rusev and Gable have been feuding for the last several weeks, but even after being placed in the CobraClutch, Gable was able to earn a victory roll win.
Rusev attacked Gable following the pinfall, and he slapped the Cobra Clutch on Gable until Ethan Page was able to make his way to the ring.
The leg up in the match would not be enough as Gable sunk in the ankle lock to win the gauntlet match and challenge Penta for the IC title.
BLOODLINE MIDCARD CONFUSION
The last several weeks have offered a confusing ride for the likes of Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, LA Knight, Royce Keys, and Solo Sikoa. In fact, last Friday’s episode of SD set off a version of this program that split sides in a way that makes little sense. Jimmy faced off against Royce on Friday after Jacob refused to ‘inherit the beef,’ only to return and hit his old friend Royce with a super kick.
Jimmy and Keys ran it back tonight only for Jacob to run in for the DQ interference finish, but things became much clearer at the end of this segment. Solo pretended to rejoin The Bloodline, even going as far as to ‘acknowledge’ the Tribal Chief, but it was all a ruse to get the drop on both Jimmy and Jacob.
The Bloodline regained momentum, and that brought out LA Knight to ‘help’ Solo and Royce. That split the program, putting Knight, Solo, and Royce on the same side, and LA made it clear that he is willing to partner with the enemy of his enemies. After weeks of hinting at it, Solo and Knight find themselves as allies, with a challenge thrown down at The Bloodline.
Other Tidbits
– Iyo Sky defeated Roxanne Perez in singles action in a match that was intertwined with storylines and programs galore. First, The Judgment Day started the beatdown as the IC champion Sol Ruca attempted to help out, only to end up on the bad end of Raquel’s offense. The segment ended when Liv struck Iyo with Ruca’s IC title ahead of their world title showdown at SummerSlam.
– Lyra attacked Bayley in their segment, setting up their singles match yet to be booked.
– It was announced that Tom Brady will be the next guest on “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast hosted by Cody Rhodes.
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