Ring of Honor

The return of Shaheem Ali meant that it was a return of Coast to Coast. LSG had a few appearances over the time of his injury. Together, they get back to face the scorned Kingdom. Ali had to make sure he showed he hasn’t missed a beat and hit spot after spot. There was shuffling of in-ring participants that eventually the illegal man would be pinned for the Kingdom. C2C escaped with a controversial win, and the Kingdom got to take out their frustrations.

Cheeseburger has finally put Bully Ray behind him so that he could get back down to the business of Will Ferrera. If you’d recall, it was this beef that was ongoing when Bully attacked Cheese. This match had brass knucks, tables, chairs, and plenty of outside interference. All was legal because this was a fight for respect that Cheese drove home with a wicked chair shot.

Raw

I don’t know when Bobby Lashley flipped heel, but it now works with Lio Rush. Everything makes sense now. Heel Lashley in Impact was missing a Rush as a mouthpiece. Rush egged on the fans of Chicago while Lashley put work in on Kevin Owens. Because I missed this flip, I was a bit lost when the boo birds came calling. Once Lashley picked up the win, he made way back down the ramp to put a stamp on what I have been needing. The Dominator has arrived. He crashed Team B & B’s interview for good measure and for all those who didn’t get what was going on.

I am not one to complain about an Alicia Fox appearance. Give me a reason, though. We were gifted yet another match involving the five-some from Mahalicia and Team B & B. Fox and Bayley would mix it up in the ring again; this time it seemed that Fox was given the upper-hand after taking two consecutive pinning defeats to Bayley. Foxy even got a bit of retribution on Sunil Singh when she ushered Bayley into him via the ropes. Mahalicia would drop another match but not because of miscommunication or shenanigans.

Ember Moon challenged her friend Nia Jax to a match, and I’m still not sure about what happened. Were we supposed to see that Ember can challenge more physical opponents and take a lot of punishment? Were we supposed to be reminded that Nia is still around? By the time Moon got Jax off her feet, the fight was taken outside. Jax, having enough of Moon’s constant attacks, went to take her out completely. For that, Nia put herself away, and Moon beat the 10-count to pick up the quick win. They hugged, and that was it.

SmackDown

Put some respect on Shelton Benjamin’s name. He was trotted out as an exhibition act to compete with AJ Styles after the Miz TV segment featuring the champ and Daniel Bryan. It was expected that Styles wouldn’t put too much on the table after his title match in Australia. This match was a far cry from what these two guys have to offer. After pulling the win over Daniel Bryan, it was a Phenomenal Forearm that disposed of Benjamin this week.

Mixed Match Challenge

I’m so ready for a vindictive Ember Moon after the way she responded to Bayley’s attacks; that’s not to say that she needs to be a heel to do this. Moon put a power game on display that you can find in several YouTube vids of her indy work. Moon is coming off as a great match for Braun Strowman. It was refreshing to see Ember take the fight to her opponents and witnessing the chemistry with Braun. She hasn’t been much for words during her run. This is a good look for her. Even after the match, they caught her and Strowman yucking it up about how the pulled out the win.

R. Truth and Carmella shucked and jived to another loss in the challenge. There was no impressive moment to discuss; there was a cringe-worthy dance break. Nevertheless, Styles disposed of a second brotha of the night.

NXT

Kona Reeves talked all that smack, and for a moment, he backed it up. Reeves took the fight to the face of Keith Lee for a solid 5 minutes until the shoulder tackle and Supernova combination sent Reeves back to the locker room in pain.

The main event saw the rematch of Ricochet and Pete Dunne. For good measure, Adam Cole was added to make this a very interesting twist on the first match. This match did not disappoint. There wasn’t an exchange of spots early on. Adam Cole was the target of the onslaught until Dunne got tired of Ricochet’s presence. Ricochet pulled off a double from the top turnbuckle, but that did not close the match. A couple of shooting star presses, big kicks, and impressive pin breaks later, The One and Only would retain his North American Title.

205 Live

The 23-year-old piece of gold, Lio Rush, finally got the chance to issue his open challenge. The answer would come from Lince Dorado, and the two gots to the cruiserweight action. Rush attempted to remove Dorado’s mask and throw him off track, but it was the Lucha House Party mate who would go for the win before Mike Kinellis returned to disrupt everything and have the match thrown out.

Fresh off dropping the Cruiserweight Title, Cedric Alexander was called to the ring by Tony Nese. The Premier Athlete wanted to make sure that he rubbed in the fact that Alexander’s streak of wins was over. The former champ turned on the ferocity after several attempts to put Nese away were not successful. Cedric would fall once again to keep the losing going for a while.

Lucha Underground

The Mack is back! His tornado tag match with Dragon Azteca, Jr against Mil Muertes and Fenix was one of legend. The Mack took action to both opponents with the intensity that only an LU match can deliver. A total of four stunners, one flying and a double dose, were delivered midway through the match. He and Azteca were not enough for their Ultimate Lucha foes. They suffered a double pin in the end.