Giants Collided On RAW And Tension Ran High On Smackdown - This Week In WWE
I’m still trying to find my groove as far as these recaps go, so here’s another new format. To give you a peek behind the curtain, my current struggle is finding a way to make these recap blogs interesting and informative, while not redundant to things we talked about on the podcast (From The Top Rope download/rate/subscribe). Because we do pretty extensive recaps of RAW and SmackDown, it seems pretty lazy for me to basically transcribe the pod, and it’s exhausting to just regurgitate takes. This week I’m gonna try to give you the highlight of each show, then a brief rundown of everything else that went down. Let’s go!
BRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!! God I fucking love this guy. What have we done to deserve him?!
Braun Strowman and The Big Show main evented RAW in a steel cage match on Monday, and it was amazing. Every match between these two clicks like you’d never expect it to, and I think a lot of that falls on the shoulders of From The Top Rope alumni The Big Show. Kevin Owens always has nothing but good things to say about Show both publicly and privately, and you could really tell from our interview with him that he understands the psychology a “big man” needs to get the crowd invested in a match, even if it’s at half the speed of what they’d expect from say, Seth Rollins or Cesaro. It also shows that Braun is even more versatile than we give him credit for, because usually hosses are either good when paired with someone their size or someone WAY smaller (think AJ Styles). Braun’s level of work is more or less the same with opponents of any size. The finish was a running powerslam, followed by the aftermath of a powerslam through the cage, and this was done before The Big Show needed a sendoff for hip surgery.
Also on RAW:
-John Cena def. Jason Jordan in a great match
-Roman Reigns made a dick joke and called John Cena a “lyin’ fake ass little bitch”
-The Miz def. Jeff Hardy to retain the Intercontinental Championship
-Nia Jax and Emma got themselves added to the Alexa Bliss vs Sasha Banks match at No Mercy by defeating them in tag team competition
On the blue side of things, Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon stole the week. This is heating up into the best feud of the year, and that says a lot being Kevin Owens vs Chris Jericho also took place this year. Owens feuded extensively with Jim Cornette in Ring of Honor, and it was fucking awesome. He knows how to work the anti-establishment role better than anyone going right now. Pair that with the fact that Shane can work the Hell in a Cell pay per view against Owens, and we’ve got magic on our hands.
Also on SmackDown Live:
-Shane McMahon was later suspended indefinitely and Vince was announced for next week
-Shinsuke Nakamura def. Randy Orton to become #1 contender for Jinder Mahal’s WWE Championship
-Dolph Ziggler “redebuted” and it was horrible. He just made fun of everyone’s entrances and left.