This Weeks RAW & Smackdown LIVE Highlights: The Road to SummerSlam begins
Who Will face Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam?
So this past Sunday two huge matches took place at the first ever Great Balls of Fire pay per view. First up long time rivals Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns looked to compete in their bout as their heated feud reached new heights. The pair competed in what was personally my favourite match of the night thanks to the crazy spots, end result, and Roman's attack on Strowman after. There has been a lot of talk on whether or not this was a double turn, after all the baby face, Roman Reigns, did try to murder his opponent because he lost the match... To be honest I didn't really see it like that. It's hard to see Roman as a baby face any more regardless. Since his win over the Undertaker at Mania he's just felt more like a heel than he ever has done and while he is booked at a baby face we all know his a twiner leading more to the heel side, all the WWE have to do is give him a little nudge and keep him doing the stuff he is doing now. Anyway, all of that could be saved for a completely different post, what we are focusing on now is SummerSlam. Okay, so the second big match to come from Sunday's pay per view saw Brock Lesnar defend his WWE Universal Championship against former NXT Champion, Samoa Joe. While this was a super hyped match and the one thing that kept me awake at stupid o'clock on Sunday I was pretty disappointed. The jump at the start of the match was good and much needed, helping Joe make an impact the match overall was not as good as I would have expected. The end result of course saw Lesnar retain but the following night it was made clear the beast was not lacking competition as both Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe stepped forward demanding a title match. Roman over the past couple of weeks has made it clear he wanted to main event SummerSlam against the beast for the championship (despite not earning a title opportunity) but with Joe now expressing that he was far from over with the champ there looks to be a difficult decision to be made and so RAW general manager Kurt Angle stepped forward and announced that on next weeks show Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns will go one on on to determine the new number one contender, the winner of course facing Lesnar at SummerSlam. Now, I have post coming up where I will be talking about this match in full detail and how it plays a key part in one of my "how I would book" posts but what I will say for now is that I loved this entire segment and it was probably my favourite of the past two days. I love that Joe hasn't been pushed aside. He has cemented himself as a main event star and I was worried about what the WWE would have planned for him following his match against Brock at GBOF. However, is angry, arrogant persona Monday night worked. He didn't look weak following his match against Lesnar on Sunday he appeared more focused on beating Brock now this was more personal and taking his title from him. This also has opened the door for potentially a triple threat or fatal four way (adding Braun Strowman to the mix) to headline SummerSlam.New Rivalries kick start on Smackdown LIVE
So as we have already made clear, the road to SummerSlam has kick started and with this being one of my favourite pay per views I'm beyond excited to see what this years card will look like. With a month to go we can begin to get an idea of what the night will look like and I have to say I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. Over the past couple of weeks we have seen some brand new storyline's and feuds kick start ahead of the SummerSlam pay per view and after paying extra attention to this weeks episode of Smackdown LIVE it's clear to see that two new feuds in particular seem to be getting hotter and hotter every week and could easily be added to the SummerSlam card. First up we have the two thousand and seventeen Mr Money in the Bank, Baron Corbin vs the Artist (still hate that nickname) Shinsuke Nakamura. In all honest this is a feud this is a feud we pretty much all saw coming. After Corbin took out Nakamura before the bell had even rang at the start of the Money in the Bank ladder match it was clear that the two would be meeting in that ring much more often and a rivalry between the two was inevitable. Now, to be honest I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. While I believe the pair of them could actually out on a decent match and if they were given enough time it could so easily be one of the best matches of the night come SummerSlam. I also really do feel as though Nakamura could bring out the best in Corbin in the ring and Baron could in the end have his best match to date or at least his best main roster match to date. However, the problem I do have is the end result. Both men are going to want to get the win in this feud. Sure they could both bounce easily and perfectly fine but I'm not sure how it would work out for both of them. To be fair we could see Corbin cash in at this pay per view to bounce back from the loss but I doubt we will see a cash in from him so soon. Regardless, I am interested in the build up to there one on one match up. They were supposed to collide during last nights show but after a brawl broke out between them it never happened. I did really really like what we saw last night from them both. The story works so so well, they are the perfect opponent for each other and I'm really interested in seeing how things progress. The work from them both last night was some of my favourite moments of the week this week and had to make the list today.The second growing story we need to focus on is Sami Zayn vs Mike Kanellis. So we haven't seen Mike make his in ring WWE debut but over the past couple of weeks we have seen tensions slowly rise between him and Zayn and we saw this continue over to this weeks episode of Smackdown LIVE. Okay, no physical contact has actually happened and there hasn't been any promos aimed at one another. However, it's pretty obvious that the pair will collide at some point. While this wouldn't have been my personal pick for Mike's first feud it does work. Personally, I would love to have seen him kick start a feud with Randy Orton but when taking a deeper look I can understand completely why the WWE didn't go down that road and while it's a story the WWE can have at some point at the moment it just isn't the right path. However, Zayn is the perfect opponent. While Orton would have needed a feud to bounce back following his work with Jinder, Zayn can always bounce back from any loss and fits fine with his character. In recent weeks the backstage work between Mike and Zayn has been minimal but enough to show that their characters work perfectly together and in time they could easily have enough depth to their story to make this one of the highlight matches of the Summer given that they are provided with enough time both in the ring and to develop their story.
Broken Hardys and Revival Return
Over the past few years tag team wrestling in the WWE has seen the light. With new teams such as the Revival, DIY, and American Alpha reminding the world why we should be paying attention to the division, the crazy impressive historic run of the New Day and the return of the Hardy Boyz there has been a lot to enjoy in the land of tag team wrestling. This past weekend at the Great Balls of Fire pay per view history was made as the first ever tag team Iron Man match took place for the RAW tag team championships against current champs Sheamus and Cesaro and former champs the Hardy Boyz. The match was one of the best of the night and a standout in the divison this year. Swill Sheamus and Cesaro did retain the championships on the night but this week on RAW the Hardys came out to address their loss hinting at the possibility of going down a character change every hardcore wrestling fan will welcome with open arms. Since their return to the WWE at Wrestlemania we have all been wondering and when and if we would see the broken gimmick arrive in the WWE and while we have seen little glimpses of it here and there we haven't been treated to the full thing. Following their loss to Sheamus and Cesaro this past Sunday it did feel as though this was the right path to go down. Broken Hardys thats what needed to happen... well that was until another return took place. It's been quite some time since we have seen the former two time NXT tag team champions on our screen following an injury however, last night the pair made their much anticipated return to action attacking the Hardys live on RAW. Okay, so I totally marked out when their music hit and I honestly cannot wait to see where things go here. It does kind of make me wish these two teams were feuding over the titles but I don't doubt for a second that tag team gold is about to happen here. Can you imagine the matches we're going to see between these two teams? Ah I cannot wait!Big Show Teaches Big Cass a Big Lesson
This past Sunday at the Great Balls of Fire pay per view Big Cass went toe to toe with former tag team partner Enzo Amore and while the match was far from match of the year quality Cass made a huge impact in the ring in the perfect display of strength of power while Enzo made just as big of an impact moments before the mach in a killer promo. After picking up the victory Cass was full of confidence and boasted about his win on RAW Talk following the show. He also spoke of his dominance and how he believed he could defeat Brock Lesnar to become the new Universal Champion. Okay, so the WWE clearly have no plans just yet on putting that championship on his Cass however he is making an impact. As part of the opening of Monday night RAW this week he and Big Show came to blows in a segment that saw Show get one of the biggest pops he's had in years. Okay, so I understand. A feud between these two makes sense and I'm expecting a couple of matches from them over the next couple of weeks but it's not the work between them that really got me talking and the reason why this is featuring in today's post. Instead, what I loved about this was the reaction Big Cass got. It's so rare now days that a heel gets a heel reaction. The bad guy in the eyes of the fans is the more entertaining and interesting character and much much easier to get behind. In this case however things are different. Big Cass comes across like a big heel and that simply comes down to both him turning on Enzo after being apart of one of the most over teams of the past five years and Enzo being such a hugely likable baby face. It doesn't matter what the SummerSlam card looks like this will be the most good guy/bad guy match of the night its booked and one of the only matches were fans genuinely dislike the heel and fully love and support the baby face and its that that makes this feud so interesting and fun to watch.Overall Thoughts
So Overall I thought we had two decent shows this week. No standout match of the year style action from neither RAW or Smackdown but good story development, a good fallout show to Great Balls of Fire and reasons given to tune into Battleground in a couple of weeks time. I felt the tag team action all round was strong but the work from the women's divison was much weaker than it should have been apart from what we saw between Bliss and Banks at Great Balls of fire. This is probably the women's feud I'm going to be most interested in this Summer. I do believe there is a lot to look forward to on both shows next week and I will of course be live tweeting throughout them both. As always, any recent blog posts will be linked bellow including my Great Balls of Fire Review and finally, you can let me know what you thought of this weeks episode of both Monday night RAW and Smackdown LIVE by leaving a comment bellow or by dropping me a tweet over at @TezangiVictoria.
Recent Blog Posts:
Top 10 WWE Superstars of 2017 So Far (Part 1)
5 Things WWE Got Right with Great Balls of Fire Pay Per View
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