ATGMBR- Love what they did with Bray. They screwed his character up unfortunately so time to reset. Face run with Woken Hardy and Brother Nero will be fun to watch.
Cruiserweight championship- Great match but was hoping to see Ali win, Cedric turn, and them continue their feud through Summerslam. Suppose they could still do that with the title on Cedric.
WBR- Have to start with a Bianca Belair shout out. That 450 splash had me like WHAAAAAAAAAA!?!?! No problem with Naomi winning and like how Bayley screwed Sasha for nothing. Now please for the love of god turn Sasha back to her Boss ***** NXT character. She's at her best when she's treating people, specifically Bayley, like ****.
IC triple threat- Knew Miz would drop but wasn't sure which way they would go. I was thinking Seth would be making the jump to SD soon but now I'm not so sure about that. Might just have him drop the title here in the next few weeks but I would like to see him hold it for a while. As for Miz, I think he'll be making the jump up to the Universal title picture. Not sure if he'll win it at any point but he deserves to be up there in the mix. Balor I was thinking would feud with Styles with a leader of the Club story line but I was also convinced AJ would drop to Shinsuke so now I have no clue what Finn will be doing.
SD Women's championship- Great match surprise surprise I know. What made it even better was WWE rarely surprises me and this was one of those times. I have no idea where they will go from here and I have absolutely no problem with that.
US championship- Aiden as Rusev's hype man is awesome but I don't like the borderline rap that he's doing. Just sing it like you did to get it over in the first place. Match was fine and while I think Rusev should have won, I'm not even slightly surprised that Jinder did. They're going to be in Saudi Arabia soon so you almost have to expect it from Vince. I know Jinder is billed as being from Punjab but I'm sure Vince thinks Saudi Arabia and India are close enough.
Rousey/Angle vs Triple H/Steph- Call her Rowdy for all I care but stop using Roddy Piper. It's dumb and pointless. Other than that, I have no complaints about this match and I was convinced going in that it would be terrible. Ronda and Steph were both legit in the ring and I was entertained the entire match. Way, way better than it had any business being. Ronda still has a long way to go on the mic and not being awkward but at least she can pull it off in the ring.
SD Tag triple threat- I was hoping the Bludgeon Bros would win but I didn't expect to see that level of domination. Not really much else to say about that one.
Taker/Cena- Having Elias pull the ultimate troll was perfect. He needed something big and important to be a part of at Mania and this worked really well. I was pulling for Kid Rock to play in American Badass Taker but then the gong hit, the organ started, and I reverted back to a 6 year old kid. That entrance never gets old. The match went exactly how it should have imo and I respect Cena for being willing to lay down to let Taker go out on top.
Bryan/Shane vs Yep Movement- I'll be honest I think I was starting to feel the effects of working long days and not sleeping for **** throughout the weekend at this point. I had to think really hard about this one and I remember it being awesome to see Daniel Bryan doing his thing again and Shane hit a nice coast to coast. Of course Bryan and Shane won.....wait...they did win right? Yeah.....yeah they won. Apparently Sami tapped out to the Yes Lock but I can't recall watching it happen.
Raw Women's championship- I really liked the build for this one but didn't expect too great of a match. It was probably better than I expected but not by a whole lot. Alexa is great and I don't think Nia is bad but if she's not just squashing the **** out of locals, I'd like to see her going up against somebody who can somewhat match up with her physically. Watching high impact matches with guys like Brock, Braun, Joe, Reigns, etc is always fun and I want to see the women's division version of that.
WWE championship- Not the 5 star dream match that it could have been but I wouldn't say I was disappointed. Definitely thought Shinsuke was taking it and AJ was heading to Raw so yet again, WWE managed to surprise me. I started calling for Nakamura to turn the second they stood face to face and knew it was going to happen when he knelt down in front of AJ. The hug it out, mad respect angle had been done a couple times already and Shinsuke will be a great heel. Top notch heels typically tear it up on the mic but I think his persona and swagger can easily play both ways. Watching him kick Styles in the head already had me loving to hate him.
Raw Tag Team championship- Either Nicholas was actually completely petrified to be in front of all those people (I definitely would be) or he sold that like a pro. He stood there like a statue with a deer in headlights look while visibly shaking but seemed pretty relaxed and somewhat confident celebrating after the win. The look on that kid's face while walking up the ramp with Braun was priceless. I was cringing at first watching him stand there but I changed my mind when it was all said and done. Now as for the belts, they obviously don't stay on Braun and Nicholas but who knows what they will do. I could see AOP coming in and taking them but I'd rather they establish themselves a little bit before winning the belts. Wouldn't be surprised to see a tournament for the vacant titles and I would be cool with it.
Universal championship- "This is awful.....this is awful.....this is awful....." Did you hear that Vince? This forced superhero ******** you keep pushing is ridiculous and you ruined Roman. Reigns is a guy who shows up consistently, works his ass off, and takes a lot of hard bumps so in many ways, he doesn't deserve to get **** on. Unfortunately, he's stuck in the middle of Vince and the WWE universe. Deep down, nobody hates Reigns personally but they have to boo him to spite McMahon. How the hell does he think having him kick out of 5 F-5's will help? All they had to do with this one was let them go back and forth and have Reigns win in a normal fashion but nooooooooo that would just be too easy. It was bad enough we had to sit through that ridiculousness but then they keep the belt on Lesnar. He damn well better drop it tonight and I don't care who takes it as long as they will show up every week and defend it more than 4 times a year. I guess this one also technically surprised me but not in a good way.
Looking forward to Raw tonight to see where they're going with everything. Hoping to see at least a few debuts/comebacks and expecting Lashley to be one for sure. Other than that, I really want to see Brother Nero with Matt and Bray, Miz jumping up to the Universal title picture, Cedric going heel to keep the feud with Ali interesting, and Sasha finally show off the real Boss. Whatever they do, the Raw after Mania is always fun and exciting!
