WWE Weekly BreakDown July 15-21

 Written By: Danny Albers 

Raw 7/15

Rhea Riply kicked off the show to a roaring crowd. From the reaction, it’s pretty clear Rhea is the biggest star on Monday Night Raw. She was interrupted by Dominik Mysterio who was trying to ask for forgiveness. Liv Morgan appeared on the screen. She taunted Liv, apologizing for her voice because she’s a “screamer.” Ripley challenged Liv for SummerSlam, and told Liv she will “end her career.” 

The first match was Sheamus and Bronson Reed. The match was a hard fought battle between the two heavyweights. Sheamus picked up the pinfall victory. Pete Dunne came out of nowhere and stopped Bronson Reed from attacking Sheamus. Dunne eventually attacked Sheamus as their relationship is still tense because of their complicated past. Bronson Reed took advantage of this and took both men out. The next match was Zelina Vega and Sonya Deville. Zelina has had some pretty good promos, and she’s strong in the ring. I don’t know why they buried her for Sonya Deville. This trios of lesbians are pretty prominent, but what has Deville done in the past to make you think she can beat a woman who challenged for the championship in the past year. Since there are no trios titles in WWE, what is the end goal for the Stark, Sonya, and Shayna trio? 

Damian Priest and Gunther had another face to face showdown. Damian Priest got a good reaction from the fans despite some of his struggles. Gunther said some pretty scathing things taunting the struggles that Priest has gone through. It helped to put a personal touch on things, but neither of these men can carry a feud for a show as big as SummerSlam. These segments have been pretty brutal to watch. After the match, Damian Priest took on Braun Strowman. Strowman came out aggressive in this match. When Damian Priest picked up the win, the fans went nuts. This has to be encouraging for Priest as whatever he’s been doing is working. He will be ready to break off from The Judgment Day pretty soon. 

We got some women’s tag team action between Katana Chance & Kayden Carter taking on Zoey Stark and Shayna Baszler. Zoey Stark looks like a personal trainer, not a WWE superstar. She’s hard to watch in that ring because she has no emotion and nothing intrigues me about her. Shayna’s only good thing is that she used to fight in the UFC. Besides that, this team is pretty boring. Stark and Bazler picked up the victory in a solid match. I hope that WWE is building this prominent women’s faction to feud with Jade and Bianca. 

Adam Pearce and Drew Mcintyre had a heart to heart on the show as Drew attempted to get off his suspension. Drew was angry at Pearce for never suspending Punk for any of his actions, and not holding Punk accountable for screwing Drew over. Drew once again attacked the referees. Seth Rollins came out to make the save for Adam Pearce and send Drew packing. I hope that this doesn’t mean CM Punk isn’t medically cleared for SummerSlam, I don’t think anybody is asking for a Rollins and McIntyre rematch. 

In what has been rumored as the first feature of each of the members of the Wyatt Sicks, Eric Rowan has a purely emotional video tape confession about his self-worth, and losing people he loved. It showed a side of Rowan that we’ve never seen, and hurt me deeply as someone who's admired his work for a decade now. I can’t wait to see the other insightful video to each member as WWE continues to build this faction.

Jey Uso asked if Rhea was single earlier. Damian told Dom to show everybody who Rhea belongs to. When Rhea scolded Dom for taking on Jey, she was disgusted to hear that he was going to show people she belonged to him. So she told him to not be a coward. The two had an excellent match. Liv came out again to try and help Dom to win the match, but Jey didn’t fall for the distraction. Liv and Dom were close to having another intimate moment, but Rhea spoiled it, sending Liv running off into the crowd. 

Chad Gable came out and challenged Bo Dallas. Hilariously, Gable told the crowd that he discovered the true identity of Uncle Howdy, and that Bo was the center of all of this. Michael Cole and Pat McAfee hilariously taunted him on the announce desk. When Bo did come out, The Creed Brothers attacked Bo. Gable and The Creed Brothers dismantled Bo, giving me real Team Angle vibes. Bo laughed throughout the attack, and eventually, the masked members of the faction came out to defend Bo. This was the best segment of the Wyatts yet. Both teams look formidable, and a fun match is set for the future. 

The night ended in an exciting Intercontinental Championship match between Sami Zayn and Ilja Dragunov. The match between the two was extremely physical, and maybe one day these two can run it back on a pay per view. But this was to get Bron Breakker over, and boy did he ever. He came out and ran through Ilja and Sami, sending a message to both men and to Sami that he is coming for the title. 

Show Grade: B-

NXT 7/16 

The partnership with TNA has really amplified NXT as a brand. There is a lot of intrigue as some TNA veteran starpower are now working with the youthful blend of the NXT roster. The Rascalz kicked the show off, and the crowd went nuts for them. They took on the Gallus boys in the opening match. A blend of styles that worked well together, Gallus was hard hitting and The Rascalz were high fliers. Joe Hendry made an appearance, and ended up causing a distraction to cost Gallus the match. Joe Hendry cut a promo, saying that he’s Trick Williams' answer to all of life's problems, and will team with the former NXT champion in the main event. 

Roxane Perez then came to the ring and cut her typical heel promo. She’s getting better with the mic, but still has a lot of work to do. Her next challenger, Thea Hail came out to face off with the champion. Roxanne wasn’t taking Thea seriously because of her age and inexperience, even though Roxanne isn’t much younger than Thea. Thea took exception to that, and she took down Roxanne and locked an armbar on her, sending a message to Perez that she needs to take Hail seriously. 

Je’Von Evans faced Brooks Jensen in the next match. Josh Briggs was playing the role of babysitter with his former tag team partner. I was surprised by Brooks Jensen’s performance. He gave Evans problems throughout the match. Evans ended up winning the match, but Jensen attacked Evans. Josh Briggs broke the attack, and scolded Jensen saying his job was on the line as he vouched for Brooks. 

Ethan Page defended his NXT championship against Dante Chen. It was a random match, but still good to see Ethan Page get some more TV time. Chen fought for his life in this match, and impressed me. But Ethan Page showed why he’s the champion, getting the pinfall victory. But Oro Mensah had some unfinished business with Page and attacked him ahead of their match at The Great American Bash. For the next match, Tatum Paxley took on Izzi Dame. Paxley keeps impressing me with her in ring ability, and this creepy gimmick is really working for her. She beat Dame, and walked by Wendy Choo, putting a head on a doll and laughing. Paxley and Choo seem to have their sites on tormenting Kelani Jordan next. 

Lola Vice had her first match since losing to Roxanne Perez for the championship. Vice took on Jacy Jayne. Vice had a really impressive match. She’s really coming into her own. If she can work on her promo skills, WWE might have a star with Lola Vice. The OC looked to settle the score with OTM once and for all. They took to each other in a street fight. Unless you're going to actually hurt each other, don’t have a street fight. A lot of these matches have just been fighting on the outside of the ring and the occasional smack of a kendo stick. The OC won the match, buying the young OTM. 

The main event was the dominant Oba Femi defending his championship against Duke Hudson. Duke Hudson really impressed me in this match. He held his own with Femi who’s been running through the roster. The two big men are a lot more agile and fast for their size, and were impressive with their mixed bag of offensive maneuvers. Oba Femi got the victory, but Duke Hudson came out of this match looking fantastic. 

Show Grade: B-

SmackDown 7/19

A defiant and angry Cody Rhodes comes out to address the brutal attack of Randy Orton last week by Solo Sikoa and The Bloodline. Cody speaks directly to Solo Sikoa, but is cut off by A-Town Down Under. It doesn’t take long for Cody and these two to get into a fight. Terrence Crawford in the crowd throws Cody a chair to fight off the two annoying heels. Once we return to the ring, Carmelo Hayes and Andrade begin their match. This was an excellent match, and Andrade has been showcased extremely well in his time back with WWE so far. This match got super physical, but it ended with Andrade picking up a roll up victory. I’d love to see them revisit an Andrade and Cody feud. Those two worked great matches right before Cody left AEW. It seems like we could be ramping towards that. 

Bayley and Nia Jax sit down for an interview, and in what was an attempt to make the feud more personal, Bayley might have further buried Nia Jax. Nia has not been able to escape the “she hurts people” narrative. Instead of her colleagues coming up in her defense, Bayley told Nia in this promo that she hurt her in 2017 because Nia is “big and clumsy.” She basically confirmed all the criticism that Nia has gotten from the audience. Besides this segment, I think we are going in a good direction with this story. Tiffany Stratton seems to be using Nia to set up a perfect moment to cash her MIB contract. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Tiffany cash in at SummerSlam after Nia and Bayley do battle. 

Bianca Belair and Chelsea Green faced off next. It appears that WWE is keeping Bianca and Jade in the mix for the women’s tag titles. Chelsea Green gave another excellent performance in this match despite losing to Bianca. But they didn’t make Green look weak by having Bianca squash her. After the match,  Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn appeared on the screen to send a message to Jade and Bianca. 

The next segment was a United States Title match contract signing for SummerSlam between LA Knight and Logan Paul. The two trade some words, and Logan Paul says LA Knight is a gym rat cosplaying as The Rock. I’m usually not a fan of reused insults as that is almost the exact insult Roman Reigns hit him with. Logan’s still new to the promos, even though he’s done an excellent job early in his career. I’m looking forward to these two facing each other at SummerSlam. 

Michin has had a busy week. After working NXT, she’s back on SmackDown to face Tiffany Stratton. These two were given time to work, and Tiffany is looking more and more like a star every week. Bayley came down to the ring to attack Nia, and created a distraction so Mia Yim could get the roll up victory. Bayley gives the contract back to Stratton as she walks away. The main event is between A-Town Down Under and Cody Rhodes & Kevin Owens. The action in the ring ended pretty quickly. Cody and Kevin Owens picked up the win easily. However, The Bloodline came back out. They put Cody through a table like they did to Randy and they smashed Owens’ head with a steel chair. The show ended again with The Bloodline dominant. 

Show Grade: C