WWE Weekly BreakDown: June 24-30

 Written By: Danny Albers 

Raw 6/24 

Drew McIntyre kicked off the show gloating about what he did to CM Punk. He revealed that the bracelet he took off Punk had both Punk’s wife and dog’s name on it. McIntyre revealed he will be in the Money In The Bank, setting up another likely way for Punk to screw McIntyre over. This rivalry has certainly found another way to become more personal. When these two finally wrestle, it will be a legendary bout. 

Michael Cole announced that Pat McAfee was not at RAW for whatever reason, which the way Cole announced it seemed like there is more to the story. Before he could elaborate, Ludwig Kaiser appeared for his match with Bron Breakker. The crowd was really behind Bron in this match. Some of the moves he’s able to do in the ring defy all logic. The match ended the same way with Kaiser getting cut off running around the ring, this time by a Brogue Kick by Sheamus. Breakker complained to Adam Pearce, and was awarded an Intercontinental Title shot at Sami Zayn. 

The next match was the Money in the bank qualifying triple threat match. Kairi Sane, Lyra Valkyria, and Shayna Baszler battled for a spot at the pay per view during the fourth of July weekend. This match went back and forth, and even got a “THIS IS AWESOME” chant. As has been a theme for this year's Money In the Bank, new stars continue to qualify as Valkyria picked up the win. The way that they have booked Valkyria to start her tenure on the main roster has been spectacular. She’s someone to watch as a possible winner of the Money in the Bank match. 

Liv Morgan strutted to the ring and cut a steamy promo. But she was interrupted by Zelina Vega who showed some really great mic skills. Vega murdered Liv on the mic. Dom eventually did show up, and he shoved his dad down when Rey Mysterio got in between Liv and Zelina. This amused Liv as she took it as Dom was protecting her. Dom walked off with Liv following him backstage. I really love everything WWE is doing with Liv Morgan, and she’s working this storyline to perfection. When Rhea does come back, this feud will be fantastic.

The following match was another Money In the Bank qualifier match, this time “unkillable Chad Gable” looked to send a message by beating two monsters after what happened with the Wyatt Sick6. The Judgment Day attacked Strowman in a 4 and 1 beating. This allowed Gable to take advantage of the distraction and hit an excellent moonsault on Reed to win the match. After the match, the arena went dark, and Nikki Cross appeared behind him. Gable took off, and Cross gave Michael Cole a VHS tape that was intended for Pat McAfee. The tape was an interview between Uncle Howdy and Bo Dallas. Dallas addressed a lot of the criticism he’s faced about benefiting from his brother's legacy. It was an intriguing segment that keeps the mystery around the group going. 

Isla Dawn & Alba Fyre returned from Scotland and they looked great. They’re first match as champion was against Chance and Carter. The match never felt like it got a rhythm going, and before you know it, Fyre and Dawn hit the finish with Damage CTRL running out to attack the champions. The following segment was between Seth Rollins and Damian Priest. The two stumbled their way through a segment, but the reveal brings some drama to their match at Money In the Bank. If Damian Priest wins, Seth can never challenge for the World Heavyweight Title again. But if Seth wins, Damian Priest must leave The Judgment Day. I’m thinking Judgment Day will cost Priest the match, getting him disqualified but retaining the belt, sending Priest to drop the Judgment Day. He’s been showing frustration with each member, and he said in this segment “the Judgement Day needs him more than he needs The Judgment Day.” 

Kofi Kingston stole Xavier Woods' match with Karrion Kross tonight. They’re slowly teasing a break between Woods and Kofi. To me, that means that we might not be seeing Big E back, and WWE is choosing to close the door on The New Day. An interesting moment as Woods was attacked by AOP, Kingston had a chance to help Woods and chose not to. 

The night ended with a Tag Team Championship Match. Awesome Truth defended the belts against Judgment Day. The match was rather boring as we’ve seen these 4 wrestle a bunch now. Liv Morgan got involved and cost Miz and Truth the match. In an interesting moment, Morgan stood united with The Judgment Day. Could this mean she’s taking away Rhea’s faction as well as Dom? It was also good they took the belts of Awesome Truth. It was a fun nostalgia act, but this title reign was pretty terrible by the two veterans. Truth stopped being funny, and Miz looked like he didn’t want to be there half the time.

Grade: A 

NXT 6/25 

The show opened with some high profile tag team action to determine who would challenge for the tag team titles. I think they missed an opportunity having Chase U go last, which is usually a spot where the heel team goes in a tag team turmoil match. Edris Enofé and Malik Blade kicked the show off with New Catch Republic, a team from the main show. New Catch Republic would run through the entire NXT division after beating Enofé and Blade. The beat LWO with the help of Apollo Crews, pinned The OC on a roll-up. It wasn’t until after running through the entire division that Chase U was able to steal one. It’s great Chase U is going to get their moment, I was just hoping they’d look a little more formidable in this match.

Ethan Page took the show hostage for another week, calling out Ava to grant him a championship match. But it wasn’t long until Shawn Spears came to the ring to stake his claim as a rightful challenger. He talked about beating Je’Von Evans and was going to beat Trick Williams tonight, something Page couldn’t do. Trick Williams rained on both men’s parties saying he thinks Evan’s deserves the shot, and he will beat Spears tonight, and will make it clear who the challenger should be. The entire segment was a bit messy, and Trick Williams doesn’t feel natural with the microphone in his hand. He’ll need more segments like this to continue to improve his mic skills. 

Wes Lee and Joe Coffey faced off with one another, which really bothered me because they brought Gallus back in this prominent segment, but now just weeks later, Wes Lee has all but buried Joe Coffey. And the size distribution between Wes and Oba is really bothering me. It’s not believable that Wes would be any type of one-on-one threat to Oba. Oba congratulated Wes, but let’s hope this feud doesn’t go past Heatwave. 

The best match of the night was no doubt Tony D’ Angelo and Nathan Frazer. This match went 6-rounds. D’Angelo retained the Heritage Cup, but Frazer really proved himself in this match. This was a fun back and forth battle, where both men looked like they were going to win that at multiple points. Tony’ D Angelo is doing some of his best work with the Heritage Cup. 

Roxanne Perez called out Karmen Petrovic. Petrovic needs to drop the sword gimmick, nobody is buying it. She got buried by Roxanne as Petrovic didn’t even put up much of a fight. Perez would win, but out would come Lola Vice to a strong reaction after working the announce table. She confronted Perez, and hit her with a spinning backfist to knockout Perez. I think Vice is great in the ring, but she’s not ready to be champion. Her microphone skills aren’t there, and aside from dancing she hasn’t shown much range in terms of charisma. 

Damon Kemp and Tavion Heights worked a decent match to continue the angle of Heights joining NQCC. It was pretty forgettable with where it was placed in the show. It was a pretty quick match, but Heights has some good physical traits. I think this will be good for him. After that match we had another number 1 contender match between Sol Ruca and Arianna Grace. Ruca really struggled with this match as she seemed to be trying too hard to fly around with no real rhythm or flow in the match, and Grace had no idea how to work it. Hopefully someone can sit her down and correct this for when she wrestle Kelani Jordan for the Women’s North American Title.   

The main event was a title match for the NXT championship. Shawn Spears did some of his best work tonight, and has been really good while being a menace for the last couple weeks. He’d pin the champion, solidifying himself as a threat to the belt. We also moved a little bit closer to getting a fatal 4-way match for the NXT championship at Heatwave. A really great way to close the show. 

Grade: C+  

SmackDown 6/28 

Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, and Kevin Owens had problems with The Bloodline. The show kicked off with the trio attacking Solo and the Tongans. However, NYPD came out to the ring with Nick Aldis looking to restore order. Cody Rhodes announced a multi-man match where the three of them will take on The Bloodline at Money In the Bank. The three men were then escorted out of SmackDown. 

The next match was a triple threat match to qualify for the women’s Money In the Bank match. Jade Cargill, Candice LeRae, and Tiffany Stratton fought for a spot at the pay per view. Jade looked really sharp in this match, with all her moves looking devastating. It looked like LeRae was going to win the match, but Tiffany hit the “world's prettiest moonsault”.  It was a beautiful finish. “Tiffy Time” could turn into “Tiffy in the bank.” 

Next LA Knight tried to earn his spot in the Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder match. He faced Logan Paul and Santos Escobar. I doubt that Paul is going to let this go. WWE made big headlines when having Tyrese Halliburton and Jalen Brunson join these stars in the ring. There are really only 2 stars I think that can win that match, Jey Uso and LA Knight. I think Logan Paul will get involved to screw LA Knight over, allowing Uso to win the MIB match. WWE is building a really good mid-card feud for the future between Paul and Knight. The two superstars' problems are becoming more personal on a weekly basis. 

The final match was Naomi in a match with Indi Hartwell and Blair Davenport to qualify for the Money in the Bank match. This was a bit of a jumbled mess. Indi Hartwell had screwed Jade out of the match earlier in the night, leaving Bianca Belair to chase her down. Her actions would come back to bite her as Jade would get her revenge and cost her this match. Naomi eventually would win to qualify for the women’s MIB. There seems to be some good feuds building here on this show, between Jade and Bianca and Candice and Indi, and Naomi and Blair Davenport who’ve been going after each other the last couple weeks. The show ended with Solo having everyone in The Bloodline acknowledge him. The Tongans and Jacob Fatu acknowledged Solo, however, Paul Heyman would not. This would cause Solo to spike Paul in the throat, and end the show powerbombing Heyman through a table. This is an interesting development in the storyline. CM Punk pissed off The Bloodline last week. He’s tied up with Drew McIntyre right now, but it’s possible that the segment between Punk and The Bloodline was for nothing. Of course, Roman Reigns will come back at some point as well, and it will be interesting to see how he deals with this issue. And who is Solo Sikoa taking his orders from. WWE is building this story really well, and people genuinely are in the dark. A reveal has to be coming right after Money In The Bank so they can set up a big match for SummerSlam. 

Grade: B+