Smooth Landings
Cody Rhodes defeats A.J. Styles to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship. I’m calling this a smooth landing because it was a good match overall. Even though I knew there was zero chance AJ was going to take the title off Cody, they still got you to a point where you thought it might happen. I don’t like I Quit matches in general. They’re annoying especially when the referee puts the microphone to someone two minutes into the match. It was interesting to see Cody use the steps to get AJ to quit, and more interesting to see him use them post-match, which was completely unprovoked. You could almost call that heelish, and I didn’t like it, but not enough to warrant calling this a bad match. The downside to this match is the feud didn’t feel like it got to a point where an I Quit match was necessary. It just felt like “ok, we want to do another match between these guys, so we have to add drama with the stipulation.” I was surprised to see a post-match attack with The Bloodline, but the more I think about it, it feels like that was a way of them saying they’re done with Cody vs. Styles and we’re moving on to Cody re-engaging with the Bloodline.
Sami Zayn defeats Chad Gable (w/Maxxine Dupri & Otis) to retain the Intercontinental Championship. The match was good as expected, but that was never the story nor the issue. The issue is what chapter would be unfolded between Gable and Otis. For me it’s gotten to the point where Otis needs to stand up to Gable. It’s time. I understand, in storyline why he might be hesitating. When you don’t believe in yourself, it’s hard to stand up to someone whom you think is helping you, but they’re really not. I’ve been there in my life personally, so maybe that’s giving me some patience with this story, but it’s not all about me. At least we took a step with Otis getting in front of Chad when he was going to berate Maxxine and after Raw this week, things played out in full between both parties.
Bayley defeats Piper Niven to retain the WWE Women’s Championship. There’s not a ton to say about this, but I thought it was a good match. They made it look like Piper could win, but in the end, Bayley pulled it out even if it wasn’t with her finisher. I didn’t expect two hometown wins, but I wonder if they might have done a title change here instead of in the women’s tag match had Alba Fyre’s mother not passed away. I would have had no problem with a Piper title run. She’s awesome, but hasn’t had room to shine while being Eva Marie’s sidekick upon debuting and now serving as Chelsea Green’s. Speaking of Chelsea, her getting thrown out by the referee, coming back in a mask, and being allowed to stay ringside was stupid. At least that didn’t factor into finish, but that’s not the point. Hopefully, better things for Piper are coming, but I’m not holding my breath.
Rough Landings
Isla Dawn & Alba Fyre defeat Jade Cargill & Bianca Belair (champs) and Shayna Baszler & Zoe Stark to win the WWE Tag Team Champions. I know Alba Fyre’s mother passed away. I know they’re in Scotland. I realize this is the hometown of Fyre and Isla Dawn. You want them to win the titles? Fine. I’m a sensitive human being with feelings. Here’s the problem. They won two matches in 2024 and they were on Main Event over Katana Chance & Kayden Carter. Prior to that, they last won in May of 2023 over Valentina Feroz & Yulisa Leon. Who? Exactly. Oh yeah and by the way, they lost in three minutes on Raw last week against Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark. Now, I could forgive all of that if the match was good, and it was for a while, but it got sloppy at the end. I’m sorry, but Jade Cargill needs work. She should have gone to NXT for a year or whatever it took to get her where she needed to be. Fyre pinned Shayna and she didn’t even hit a move. Bianca and Jade did their creative finisher before Fyre stole the pin. Call me heartless if you want, but this was rough. I understand the women’s tag titles don’t mean much, and you can afford to do this here and get away with it, but that doesn’t make it good.
Damian Priest defeats Drew McIntyre to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. Forget about the dumb camera angle which “hid” CM Punk as the referee. That is kind of irrelevant. Right now, CM Punk is a heel — not just in Scotland but everywhere, right? That’s what happens when you give Drew McIntyre an elaborate entrance with the bagpipes and then say that this match is dedicated to his wife who couldn’t travel to Scotland. That’s what happens when you come out and pretend to be a referee, do the Shane McMahon Survivor Series ’98 2-count on Steve Austin, and then kick Drew in the balls. All of that is my issue more than anything else in how this finish was constructed. It makes me dislike Punk. Maybe that’s what they want and it’ll get fleshed out in the upcoming weeks, but aren’t I supposed to dislike heel Drew? Maybe they’re pivoting and he’s the babyface in all of this, but I thought we were moving towards Priest being a babyface on Raw. Am I supposed to view Priest as a strong champion going into Money in the Bank against Seth Rollins or Summerslam when if defends against Gunther? Look, the dynamics are all over the place and this raises more questions than it answered. Perhaps we’ll look back in a few months and this will make sense, but I left this match largely unsatisfied.
Closing Thoughts
That finish in the main event put a bad taste in my mouth about this show. I wasn’t thrilled about it to begin with, but I didn’t hate it, and I would have felt better had they not done what they did. Despite the main event I’ll give the show an overall smooth landing.
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