The last show before SummerSlam was just okay.
Well, except for Roman, that is! He was great!
Find out more by reading on!
Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Wrestling is so ridiculous.
I love that “Woooooooooooooooooo” can be a catchphrase.
Flair opened and she thought that Trish was jealous of her because she knew that the newer women were much, much, much, much better wrestlers than the old diva-type ladies.
Especially Charlotte!
Wooooooo!
I love saying that, sorry.
And she wanted to highlight her highlights in a video, but they were Trish Stratus‘s‘s‘s‘s‘s‘s‘s (seriously that‘s a grammar rule of your language I never understood) highlights instead.
Trish came and thought she had been really clever for switching out the VHS tape like that.
Get it, VHS, cause she‘s old.
That‘s my joke, not theirs, they aren‘t responsible for this lunacy.
She reminded Charlotte that the old ladies paved the way for the new and admitted that she wanted one last match and then she quoted Harley Race.
Flair said welcome to your nightmare, you‘ll bow to the queen.
Wooooooooooooooooo!
And then Trish slapped her and Flair left, looking a tiny bit angry.
Alright, this was all right.
Flair was great, woooo…
But Trish, I just don‘t get why people like her.
It‘s one of those things where you had to be there, I guess.
Just like Tamagotchi and the Pet Rock.
This made sense as an opener because it featured the daughter of a Legend and a Legend.
It‘ll be a marquee match, so it just made sense that it was here.
Didn‘t rock my world or anything, but it made sense.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Rey Mysterio:
Dolph came out to Goldberg‘s theme and entrance shenanigans, which cracked me up.
I love that they recycled that bit from one of his earlier gimmicks.
He beat up Rey until he was unable to fight and then he said that on Sunday it will be him and then Ali came out and, well, just guess what happened next.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Ali:
Is it just me or are they doing this way too often lately?
One match is scheduled, it ends in a screwy way and then another person runs out (usually a face) and then a second match is made.
In theory that‘s cool, but when they use it this often it just feels cheap.
And this match in particular didn‘t even add anything.
Just another opponent for Dolph to beat before SummerSlam.
Yeah, Dolph won, shocker.
Oh, and I wanna talk about Rey for a bit as well.
Seems like he‘s hit the stage of his career where he‘s losing to put people over.
That‘s one aspect of wrestling culture I never got behind.
So, yeah, this actually did nothing for me, moving on.
Roman said in an interview that he‘s been through a lot over the past year.
Tut nothing like this cowardly attack!
He owes Joe an apology because it was clearly not him who did it.
But he‘ll find out who did by the end of the night.
And I kinda hate saying this, but Roman was amazing.
Really great speech he had.
this story is just so intriguing.
It‘s weird, who would‘ve thought, right?
Natalya vs. Ember Moon:
I guess Becky is too over to be a heel, so that role has to be filled by Natty.
She was relentless again.
She had Ember in the Sharp-Shooter on the outside, wouldn‘t let go and then the ref counted them both out, ending the match in a double count-out.
And yes, that‘s a little redundant, I realize.
Bayley came out to help Ember and that was that.
Natty is bad and neither Ember nor Bayley are heels…
That‘s the takeaway from this?
Weird.
But it did built towards two matches at once, so that was nice, I guess.
Okay, yeet!
What does yeet mean?
Well, yeet is yeet.
In a very special edition of the Kevin Owens Show he wanted Shane McMahon to put his career on the line as well.
Well, he refused and attacked him with the help of Elias instead.
They stunnered him on the announce desk, buried him under it and then Shane slid into him.
Even though I don‘t have that much to say about this segment I thought it was okay.
I‘m actually a bit surprised they had Kev demand this.
It‘s only logical, which is rare in wrestling.
So, yeah, okay segment, good last stop for their feud.
Aleister Black vs. Sami Zayn:
Yeah, sadly you read this correctly.
I was looking forward to this happening at SummerSlam, but I guess they ran out of show space.
Sami shot a ranty promo on Black in the ring and then Aleister informed him via Titantron that their match wasn‘t happening at SummerSlam, it was happening now.
And what can I say but that this was anti-climactic.
It was fairly short and black ended Sami with the Black Mass.
Bummer, I was really looking forward to seeing this one done right.
Too bad it wasn‘t.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Grr, I still hate the Firefly Fun House.
Yeah, the Fiend is growing on my one tiny little bit, but overall I still hate the gimmick and everything surrounding it.
On this stupid episode the pig puppet ate a bunch of candy and somehow that related to Finn.
I don‘t care.
Moving on.
This has nothing to do with the episode really, but they showed Roman and Becky being on the cover of WWE 2K20 together.
I get that Seth was on it last year, but wouldn‘t him and Becky have made more sense?
I don‘t know, it just screams missed opportunity for me.
Whatever, back to the regularly scheduled programming.
Which is the miscellaneous stuff, actually.
The first thing happened before the Firefly Fun House, but it was so uneventful that it doesn‘t warrant a separate section in this review.
Shelton Benjamin was asked if he wanted to try to get the 24/7 title and he just stared dementedly at the poor interview lady and said “well…”
Okay…
This is dumb.
Also dumb was that Elias made fun of Chad Gable for being small, and that I didn‘t recognize Chad at first because he‘s got a new look (again) with trimmed hair and everything.
It‘s so obvious that they‘ve got no ideas what to do with these people.
Look, just throwing gimmicks on them won‘t make them interesting.
The last none essential thing was a promo for Randy versus Kofi.
Wow, once again the biggest match only got a promo.
Am I the only one who finds that weird and wrong?
Anyway, these things did nothing for me.
Let‘s see if the main event could.
New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) vs. Daniel Bryan and Rowan:
No.
Judging by my really sparse notes it couldn‘t.
Look, we‘ve just seen New Day too often.
Or at least I have.
And something about Daniel and Rowan as a team has never clicked with me.
Yeah, yeah, sure.
I find it as interesting as the next guy that Rowan‘s wearing a different band-shirt each show.
On this occasion it was Blind Guardian, btw.
But that doesn‘t justify them being one of the top teams in the company.
Rowan used the steel steps and then the ref ruled it as a disqualification.
So why was this here?
Why was this closing out the last show before SummerSlam?
Well…
…because it wasn‘t, actually!
They cut to Roman invading the locker room.
He chased everyone but Buddy Murphy out.
He had seen him on the footage of his assault and he wanted answers, so he threw him around the room a bit until he talked.
This was awesome!
Roman is becoming a really good character and that still amazes me.
Buddy finally cracked and here‘s how the main event made sense.
It was Rowan!
Dan, dan dan!
They cut back to Rowan and Daniel in the ring after Buddy specified he had only seen Rowan.
So, Rowan vs. Rowan, Daniel will interfere and then Joe‘ll help Reigns.
You dig?
No, actually.
I don‘t think I do.
It‘s a weird twist.
I gotta think about it some more because I actually have no idea how I feel about it.
Hm, and that‘s our show…
Weird.
And that‘s the last SmackDown before SummerSlam.
All in all it was just one of those usual go-home shows.
They hit all of the notes they had to hit and continued the trend of only having a promo video for the big title match.
While nothing really stood out as unwatchable there was also nothing that stood out as great, either.
It was simply one of those middle of the road type shows.
Oh, except for Roman, he was amazing!
So, yeah, I guess Raw‘s been better than SmackDown for the past few weeks and Roman‘s great.
Weird, right?
Do you enjoy Roman now?
Tell me in the comments.
Feel free to share my new found respect for Roman with your friends.
I‘ll see you for SummerSlam whenever that‘s done.
Have a great day!
