Once again, WWE knocked this one for a home run. No other way to describe it, but tonight is another entry in a series of great supercards featured monthly.
Some of my predictions were wrong, but all results were acceptable. The one gripe was the Cruiserweight Championship match. I thought it was good, but Perkins and Kendrick had trouble connecting with the crowd. The finish was seen coming a mile away and the crowd was completely dead when it ended.
Anyway, onto the recap:
The pre-show saw Lince Dorado, Sin Cara, and Cedric Alexander defeat Drew Gulak, Tony Nese, and Davari in a great match. Alexander is just so good.
The opening match of the event featured a Hell in a Cell match between Rusev and Roman Reigns for the United States Championship. I will say, despite my disdain for Reigns, he and Rusev put on a pretty solid back and forth match, a lot of hard hits and bit spots. Rusev gets my vote for MVP, even though it was Roman Reigns who retained the championship.
In what I felt to be a lackluster match, Bayley defeated Dana Brooke.
In one of the matches I incorrectly predicted, Gallows and Anderson defeated Enzo and Cass. The opening promo from Enzo and Cass was 100% hysterical. Every time. Every. Time. They are hysterical. Great match, a lot of near-fall moments where it appeared Enzo and Cass were winning, but The Club managed to outsmart the Smacktalking Skywalkers and get the win.
Kevin Owens retained the WWE Universal Championship against Seth Rollins
Well, this went exactly as most of us thought. Insanely good match. Awesome spots. Awesome hits. Superkicks, lariats, and even Owens taking a double-table crashing powerbomb. But… But… the timely arrival of Chris Jericho, sneaking into the cage and locking himself in proved to be a deciding factor in the outcome of the match, as with the help of Y2J, the producer of the Kevin Owens show got the victory following a number of chair shots, a DDT onto a chair, and a powerbomb through chairs. Even with the interference, the match was great. Just great.
Brian Kendrick defeated T.J. Perkins to become the new WWE Cruiserweight Champion
This was bound to happen. So many matches between them, Kendrick playing the desperate mind games, which the announce team beat to unholy death. Seriously, we got it, “Kendrick is desperate” considering he was desperate during the Cruiserweight Classic, then his draft onto the main roster, then in every title match he had since. We get it. We got it. The match was pretty good, but Kendrick’s antics, I feel killed the match, and the ending saw Kendrick feigning injury, which of course, duped Perkins, resulting in a cheap-shot headbutt, followed by the Captain’s Hook strangle hold, forcing Perkins to tap out. Crowd was honestly dead.
Cesaro and Sheamus defeated The New Day… By Disqualification. The New Day retain the WWE Tag Team Championships. Another great match, a lot of teases for the New Day to lose the belts. Great action, and plenty of comedy moments between Cesaro and Sheamus with frequent blind tags. The match broke down when Cesaro locked Xavier in the Sharpshooter, while on the outside, Sheamus lost his cool, brawling with Big E. and Kofi, whacking everyone with Francesca II, but the ref turns around as Kofi kicks out Sheamus, while Woods is tapping. So the ref tosses the match, ends it by DQ, and while the unlikely pairing win the match, New Day goes home with their gold.
Charlotte defeated Sasha Banks to reclaim the WWE Women’s Championship
“This is Awesome” chants start as the Cell is lowered. The match begins, well, doesn’t actually start because Charlotte strikes before the bell. They brawl in the crowd, but things take a turn when Charlotte plants Banks through an announce table and seems to get injured. After a very long injury scene, stretcher and everything, they begin to announce Charlotte as the new Women’s Champion, which causes Banks to snap up from the stretcher, Undertaker-style, and bolt into the ring, officially beginning the match. Banks takes another sick bump in the form of a monkey-flip against the cell wall, bending her over awkwardly. Banks also crushes Charlotte with a leap off the cell wall with the Double Knee. Some chair hits during the match too, such as when Charlotte locked Banks with a figure-eight, and Banks gets out by clobbering her. In the end, Banks attempted a running powerbomb through a table, but her injured back gave out, allowing Charlotte to hurl her on top of a table twice, followed by Natural Selection, and the pinfall.
The finish felt a bit weird, but damn what a match. Charlotte is now a three-time Women’s Champ. Wow.
