Prepare for a massive collage of thoughts.
Bryan vs. Cass felt weird since the crowd was quiet every time Bryan wasn't going on the offensive. Cass remained bland, though I appreciate the new moves he used. I don't get the point in this rematch seeing how it was booked the exact same as the last one with a clean, decisive submission victory for Bryan. Cass looks like he should go back to NXT to improve; he looks really green in the ring.
Owens and New Day's backstage segment was funny. "IHOB was right" is by far the greatest line of dialogue any heel has ever spouted.
I marvel every time I see Lashley. The dude looks like he was chiseled from stone. Seriously, the dude is probably the best built man in the company. Just pure muscle without looking like a 'roider. As for the actual match...eh. Bland squash, which WWE really forced itself into whenever it started feeding Zayn lines questioning Lashley's military service. You can't say shit like that and not get squashed at the end of the feud. The people that chanted for Zayn despite that felt very strange and got on my nerves to an extent. This match could've been a lot better if it was more even. Giving Lashley a triumphant first singles match in years on PPV win matters more than putting on an exciting match, I suppose.
Elias' lariat to Rollins on the apron looked B R U T A L. Fantastic spot. The commentators making excuses for Rollins cheating to win is brutal in a different way. I don't like such blatant double standards just 'cause someone's a babyface. From Graves it makes sense, but the other two? C'mon, not one person disagrees with it?
The best part of the women's MITB match was when a white person named Lynch got doubled team by two black people. Yes, I am immature. No, I couldn't help but laugh whenever it happened. One of the commentators said Ember refers to herself as "the War Goddess", which irritates me. She should've kept her indy name - Athena - if they're just going to call her a war goddess anyways. Athena is a much better name than the emo anime anti-hero name they gave her. Oh, and that ending? Total bullshit. There is
zero excuse for Becky not to have won that briefcase. She stood there with more than enough time to pull it down, but instead of doing that she freezes and starts to play an invisible piano or something. Did she suddenly get Vietnam flashbacks? Maybe touching the briefcase triggered her memories of Khe Sanh.
At this point I stopped taking notes in my phone since I stopped taking the show seriously. This is like one of those movies where the acting is fine, the dialogue is fine, but the CGI is so atrocious it kills the ability of the viewer to suspend disbelief. From here on out I'm looking back on the matches rather than reciting what I wrote to myself when actually watching the show.
Well...kinda watching the show. I skipped all of Mahal vs. Reigns, all of Styles vs. Nakamura XXVI, and everything but the end of Asuka vs. Carmella. The fact that WWE actually brought Ellsworth back to screw Asuka made me laugh, groan, and ultimately curse Redboy123 for being such a prophet. I will admit, though, that it was kinda neat to have someone steal Asuka's entrance gear and appear as an apparition instead of Ellsworth just showing up as himself from the get-go. It's just a shame they used that here instead of in an actually decent storyline. Carmella feels way too cringeworthy.
Ronda vs. Nia was decent. Ronda looked lost at times and the armbar attempts were a bit too frequent for my liking. She could use much more practice. Alexa cashing in to become champion is painful, though I suppose the question to be asked is whether it is more or less painful than waiting a few months before seeing the cash in. I've stated before that I was cheering on Becky, so it goes without saying that I didn't like the decision to give the briefcase to Alexa. I'm not interested in seeing her holding the title anymore. It feels like Alexa's been champion since the dawn of time. At the very least it wasn't Natalya doing this, which makes me happy since Natalya is less entertaining in the ring than Alexa.
The men's MITB match was good. Spots were nice, Miz losing sucks. Strowman having the case was pretty interesting at first, but not so much after remembering that Lesnar appears on RAW about as frequently as the Undertaker does. The opportunities to tease cash ins aren't going to be frequent, which is lame seeing how that's one of the things that makes the briefcase so fun. Definitely should've gone to a Smackdown wrestler. Anyways, I'd like him to take the contract out of the briefcase and just stuff it in his pocket since he'd look like a goofball running around with the case. Miz' facial expressions and Strowman murdering Owens are the highlights of the match.
I'm not giving a numerical rating to this show since I honestly don't know how I feel about it. I'll some up my views towards this show with one word: eh.
I got 8/10 matches right, so that's an 80% chance of correctly guessing outcomes for this PPV. I foresaw the DQ finish for Ronda's match, but not the Ellsworth interference in the Carmella match. The ladder matches are the ones that I was off on the most. I really didn't think Strowman would win since the visual of him with the briefcase seemed so comical. I think I'm going to start documenting my predictions from here on out to see how well I guess match outcomes on average.
Women's MitB
Natalya (but I'm cheering for Becky)
Men's MitB
The Miz
Last Man Standing
AJ Styles (c)
Women's Championship
Ronda Rousey (via DQ)
Women's Championship
Carmella (c)
Tag Team Championship
The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan) (c)
Intercontinental Championship
Seth Rollins (c)
Singles Matches
Bobby Lashley
Roman Reigns
Daniel Bryan
