Fyah
We didn’t see much of the man of the hour, Lio Rush, in NXT. I want to say that the last time we saw him there he was getting squashed by the Velveteen Dream. His new foe is now Akira Tozawa after the two spent the last two weeks interrupting each other’s matches. Rush made easy work of his opponent in front of Tozawa before they got to the war of words. The match is set for next week, though; we will return to speak on another PPV level feud to be highlighted on the Network.
The 205 Live brand has been relegated to the WWE Network as of late. With Extreme Rules approaching, it was decided to showcase the Cruiserweight title match on the weekly show. Cedric Alexander would defend his title against Hideo Itami. These two men gave us only a taste of the action they’re worthy of producing. Quite honestly, I don’t think their full effort would have been well spent on this show. Alexander blessed us with a variation to the lumbar check catching Itami off guard for the title retaining victory.
The Lucha Underground Trios champs were faced with a decision. There were two medallions on the line for a shot at the Gift of the Gods title. The men who were not pinned or submitted would punch their tickets. The Mack and Killshot, being two of the three original champs, could have easily teamed up on the Son of Havoc. Killshot had already proved his penchant to turn on his partner in Aztec warfare; he wanted no parts of the Mack’s idea to talk. There was plenty of hostility among the three and a lot of agility on the part of the Mack. Killshot pushed his partner to the point that the Mack chose to pin him rather than Son of Havoc when both men were down.
Let no one say that the New Day is not about putting anyone over. When you’re the hottest act of the past few years, it comes with the territory. The time for SANity is almost here, and here comes the power of positivity to put them on. SANity got the best of the New Day at Extreme Rules’ pre-show; not before a phenomenal performance to close SmackDown and throughout the opening of the tables match.
Meh
Cheeseburger had his moment in the sun in his match with Bully Ray. If Colt Cabana was the US, Cheese was South Vietnam. He rolled out after helping put Bully down for a bit. Bully got back into the match and ended Cheese rather easily.
We were honored with another Vanessa Borne match on NXT. She faced Kari Sane and produced a couple changes to her move-set. The announce team made sure to let us know this, too. Even in loss, it seems that there is about to be something brewing for Borne.
Rich Swann took to tagging with Fenix and Pentagon Jr. I’m not sure what was the purpose for this team beyond Pentagon’s hangups with oVe and Sami Callahan. Rich immediately got to selling and serving. He served a slew of kicks and ate serious mid-air cutter. He teased the 630 only to get cut off twice. Swann would help his team to the L by taking the closing pin.
There was a brawl between Bobby Lashley and Roman Reigns that kicked off the week. Considering the number of men that attempted to keep them separated, you’d think their match would be worth discussing. It came off as more of a early match of a long running series telling me that they did too much too early. Then, Lashley won with an awkward spear.
Well, Nia Jax is officially a transitional champion. Her latest quest to regain the Raw Women’s title was not so extreme as the match was billed. Yes, there were foreign objects but mainly as filler. It’s been obvious that Rhonda Rousey would have a part in this match for quite some time. She didn’t really influence the out come as much as any of the other women involved (Mickie James and Natalya). Nia ended up being the third wheel on the stage one more time. Alexa Bliss picked up the win before making the dash to avoid Rousey.