WWE Weekly BreakDown June 3 -9

Written by: Danny Albers 

A lot of fun and exciting things are beginning to take shape as we head into the Summer for WWE. The Liv Morgan revenge tour is in full effect! WWE is breaking new ground with what looks to be a partnership with TNA as they hold their first show from the UFC Apex, a magnitude of worlds colliding taking place on June 9th. And yet, the main card is still heating up on its International PLE tour, as they get ready to host Clash at The Castle from Scotland. Drew McIntyre is the center of attention for that event, set to face off with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest. Let’s take a look at each event from this week, and BreakDown what happened and what this means going forward. 

Monday Night Raw 6/3

Monday Night Raw kicked off with Liv Morgan. This is her moment, and she is embracing this new elevated heel role well. Liv Morgan welcomed everyone to the “Liv Morgan Revenge Tour.” Dominik Mysterio came out to tell off Liv. However, Liv turned on the charm, and she questioned if Dom really wanted her to leave him alone. Dom looked like a conflicted man, and before he could give into the pressures of Liv, Finn came to aid to help him out of the tough situation. 

After the love affair cleared the ring, it was time for some hard hitting wrestling, which was provided by Ludwig Kaiser and Sheamus. The two have been at it for weeks now. I’ve really loved the way WWE has portrayed Kaiser in this role. He’s shown to be more than just the errand boy to Gunther. He’s a legitimate competitor with a meanstreak. And getting a win over Sheamus is a legitimate victory for the German star. It appears Sheamus is embracing his role as a veteran leading some of the younger talent, and he really is giving us “banger…after banger…after banger.” 

The next match was another really intriguing bout between Finn Balor and Dragon Lee. Lee got another positive reception from the RAW crowd. Balor and Lee worked very well and their similar styles complimented each other really well. JD McDonagh and Carlito interfered to help Finn secure the win over Dragon Lee. The Judgment Day began a 3 on 1 assault, but were thwarted away when Braun Strowman and Rey Mysterio came to the rescue. Dominik Mysterio appeared to be in some trouble left alone for Strowman to exact some punishment, but once again, Liv Morgan got involved. She stepped between Braun and Dom to stop him from dismantling Dom with a chair. The beef with Judgment Day and Braun Strowman is heating up, and the way their building to a Judgment Day collapse is brilliant. When Dom does turn on his brethren and Mami, it’s going to get an insane reaction. 

Sami Zayn came out next to share his thoughts on everything that has been going on with the Alpha Academy. He called out Chad Gable, but was confronted by only Akira Tozawa, Rene Dupree, and Otis. As Dupree talked about a united Alpha Academy, Gable appeared behind Zayn and attacked him. They’re really drawing out the implosion of Alpha Academy. Personally, I don’t get it, I never thought much of Otis or Tazawa, and think Dupree should be down in NXT. Sami beat Gunther, and pinned Bronson Reed. I’d love to see him face off with someone like Jey Uso or any member of Judgment Day. I’ve kind of grown tired of the Alpha Academy at this point. After Zayn, Bron Breakker and Ricochet had some unfinished business to work out. Bron had attacked Ricochet. Ricochet did his best with his high flying speed based offense. But the powerhouse Breakker would ground Ricochet, and hit him with a vicious spear to win the match. 

The next match was between Kiana James and Natalya. It’s important for James to get out there and work in front of this level of a crowd. However, after watching this match, it’s safe to say she needs a lot of work. Natalya is a good wrestler to have worked with James, there’s no woman in the business that has the experience of Naty. A couple more of these matches, and James will look like she’s been on the main roster for years. Her time on NXT showed she’s a fast learner. The women continued to be showcased as the Women’s Tag Team Champions Jade Cargil and Bianca Belair came out and invited Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark to settle their differences. Shayna and Zoey obliged. They came down to the ring, and a championship match was made. The match kicked off and had some good action, but wouldn’t go long. Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn would get involved, and end the match by attacking both teams. The next match was AOP and New Day. It seems like Karrion Kross is trying to put a rift in the New Day. A distracted Kofi Kingston left Wood on an island by himself, and AOP ended the match fast. 

The main event was an exciting non-title match between Damian Priest and Rey Mysterio. Although it’s fun to see new matchups in there, Priest and Mysterio were obviously milking time for the big finish at the end. Priest would beat Mysterio with the help of The Judgment Day. With all the distractions going on, Drew McIntyre appeared to get on up on Damian. However, the numbers advantage would be too much for Drew, and the night ended with Priest putting McIntyre through the announce table. 

NXT 6/4 

A TNA Champion, carrying a TNA title and promoting TNA on her jacket got a victory on WWE television. Who would have thought this would ever happen? Even if it was a squash match with Stevie Turner, this was still a massive moment for professional wrestling. Jordynn Grayce is breaking down barriers. All signs point to NXT and TNA crossovers not being done. After the match, we got an awesome face off with Grayce and current NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez. This match at Battleground should be a must see. 

Booker T hosted a North American Women’s Title summit for the contestants in the ladder match. It was pretty sloppy as a lot of the women showed how green they are on the microphone. Jaida Parker and Lash Legend need a lot of work. I was impressed with Kelani Jordan though. For her first real moment on the microphone, she didn’t do that badly. I think of the 6 women, Kelani is the closest to being ready for the main show. She’s athletic and has the passion, with the right character development, her future is bright with the company. Sol didn’t do terribly, but Parker and Fallon cutting her down without the mics so the crowd couldn’t really tell what was happening took away from her moment. But she would get her time to shine a little later. 

Jazmyn Nyx and Thea Hail had a match next. Nyx had no business getting over on Hail. Nyx hasn’t done anything on the product to prove that she’s not just another Eva Marie. The match sucked and killed all momentum, and Booker drooling over Nyx didn’t help sell her abilities. It was just bad from all parties involved. Then we cut to a backstage segment where Shawn Spears attacked Josh Briggs. Je’Von Evans, NXT’s new star, took justice in his own hand. My only note is he has to be careful with the high risk. The dive onto Spears into the table could have really hurt both men. 

The Heritage Cup match was next. Tony D’ Angelo and Damon Kemp got after it. D’ Angelo keeps getting pushed by dominated Kemp two falls to zero. The “Don” gimmick is getting a bit old at this point. D’Angelo is too good of a wrestler for that to work at the main card level, especially if you're moving to Netflix with no rating. Natalya then had a match with Izzi Dame. Natalya’s role as veteran leader in the company has been great. Karmen Petrovic has been relevant under the Hart family member, and she’s worked solid matches with a lot of green talent, Dame being one of them. 

Gallus made a statement, saying that UK talent has been buried on NXT compared to NIL athletes (kind of true). And they took that frustration out on both Wes Lee and Oba Femi. Gallus are a great faction and I hope WWE doesn’t fuck them up. All 3 men are talented and believable badasses. Gallus should get the belts after Frazer and Axiom are done working with The OC. The belts would do really well on the Gallus Boys. 

The next match was a 6 woman tag match with all the competitors in the ladder match at Battleground. Besides the team decisions being questionable, it was a pretty solid segment. All the women are athletic, that’s not a question. And Sol Ruca has one of the most badass finishes in the game, even though I worry it’s too easy to botch. Either way, there were no botches in this match and the ladder match this weekend should be great. 

The show ended with Ethan Page signing an NXT contract. As he was cutting his promo, Trick Williams confronted the new free agent signing. I loved every second of this main event, and Trick VS Ethan Page is so much better than the Noam Dar angle they were working in. With additions of Spears and Page, NXT adds two veteran leaders from AEW’s developmental brand ROH. Things are heating up for WWE and a lot of new things are on the horizon. 

Friday Night SmackDown 6/7 

How else would you kick off SmackDown other than having the Bloodline stand in the middle of the ring and have “The Wiseman” Paul Heyman say a few words. But this time, they came with some announcements. Paul Heyman announced that in the interim while Roman Reigns is gone, Solo sits at the head of the table. Toma Tonga is the new right hand man, and Tonga Loa is now a new member of the bloodline. There seemed to be an uneasy rift and disconnect between Heyman and The Bloodline, especially when Heyman announced Owens who came down to scrap with The Bloodline. Alone at first, the Street Profits came out to even up the odds. A 6-man tag was made for later that night. 

The first match of the night kicked off with women tag team action. Jade and Bianca came out to face the team of Indi Hartwell and Candice LeRae. It wasn’t a squash match, but it was the next thing up from that. It worked itself out fast to get us to the ending moments where both Fyre & Dawn, and Shayna and Stark would attack the champions. However, eventually the two challenging teams would begin to fight each other, causing Bianca and Jade to recover and hit their respective finishers on Fyre and Dawn. A triple threat at Clash at the Castle was made for the women’s tag team titles. 

The next match was the continuation of the DIY feud with the tag team champions Austine Theory and Grayson Waller. Grayson Waller took on Johnny Gargano in singles action. The match was a solid back and forth affair. A breakup between Grayson and Theory was teased again as Waller pulled Theory in front of a Gargano suicide dive. This allowed Waller to get the advantage on Gargano and eventually win the match. But this was the second week in a row that Grayson showed his true attitudes towards his partner. The next step will probably be some sort of a Theory retaliation.

Cody Rhodes was waiting for AJ Styles all night. He rushed down to the ring. With security and Nick Aldis making sure Rhodes and AJ didn’t brawl it out in the arena, AJ called out Rhodes for Clash at the Castle. Rhodes followed this up with a great line to Styles, saying “at Clash of the Castle, I’m going to make you say what you should have said last week…I QUIT.” This seems like the feud is escalating, and we’re going to get an I Quit match at the upcoming PLE. This will be an awesome second installment in the feud. 

LA Knight was on a mission for Logan Paul all night. However, Carmelo Hayes created another distraction for Knight while Logan Paul was participating at a Tetris tournament. Knight and Hayes met in the ring. The two men had another really good match, and this time LA Knight bested the rookie from NXT. The door remains open for more of a story here, but a clash between Knight and Paul is inevitable. 

The final match of the night was Kevin Owens and The Street Profits taking on The Bloodline. The main event never felt like much of a match but a brawl between the 6 men. Eventually, Owens and The Profits started to gain some momentum, but The Bloodline brought chairs into the equation. They would use the DQ to beat down Kevin Owens and put him through the announce table. Once again, The Bloodline bested Owens who remains in a war with these new vicious young members of the faction that has run WWE for the last 5 years. 

The most important thing about this week is WWE has started to fill out the Clash at the Castle card. We have some incredible matches so far. Below is a list of what we’ll be getting on June 15th in Scotland…

1. Damian Priest VS Drew McIntyre for the World Heavyweight Title 

2. Cody Rhodes VS AJ Styles in an I Quit Match for The Universal Title 

3. Bayley VS Piper Niven for the Women’s Universal Championship 

4. Jade Cargil & Bianca Belair VS Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn VS Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark. 

I expect we can see Finn and JD get matches as well as it appears WWE is trying to pack this card with UK talent. In addition, WWE has been teasing involvement in both title matches. Will this be the moment Uncle Howdy appears to torment Cody Rhodes? Will CM Punk once again get involved and screw Drew McIntyre? There are a lot of questions going into next Saturday’s event, and WWE has built it up perfectly over the last couple weeks.