The night opens with a mixed tag match between Bianca Belair and Cesaro verses Bayley and Seth Rollins. Great match highlighting the power of both Cesaro and Bianca. Bayley wore her ferengi shirt while focusing on Belair's arm and shoulder. Seth got swung at least 15 times. In the end, Bayley picks up the win for her team compliments of the Rose Plant. Despite all the great action, I mostly day dreamed about a match up between Seth and Becky against Bianca and Montez. Fingers crossed. Until then, prayers for a safe and speedy recover for Montez.
I am going to save my two favorite segments for last. Moving on to the next match we see Big E and Apollo Crews in a Money in the Bank qualifying match.I am team Big E all the way. I have a tidbit of a story about my experience with Big E in the ThunderDome which I promise to share in a future post.
Neither one of these superb athletes have ever been a MITB contender. The majority of the first half of the match goes to Apollo. Excellent standing drop kick. frog splash and a trifecta of suplexes gives Crews a fighting chance at the opportunity. But never count Big E out. With 3 belly to bellies, Ettore changes the momentum. However, before he can claim victory, he has to deal with interferences from Commander Azeez. Luckily, the ref catches the second one and kicks Azeez out of the ThunderDome. With the road cleared of any obstacles, E hits the Big Ending and advances to Money in the Bank.
One more men's match-up before the only women's match of the evening.
Jimmy Uso takes on Dolph Zigler. I just need to talk about Dolph for a moment here. On the June 16th edition of the Twitter-verse, Wrestle Critic posed a question which I offered an answer to.
WC: When it comes to Dolph Zigler, what do you think his legacy will be in wrestling? Do you think he'll be fondly remembered in the future?
OL: Yes he will be remembered fondly. He is a consistent hard worker. From his days in the Spirit Squad, to singles to tag team. He is highly decorated and he gets his character and storylines over.
I just hope that when they show his highlight reel, that his hair has its own separate reel.
During his match with Jimmy Uso, Dolph hits his signature move that was tough to watch. Outside the ring action allowed Zigler to hit the Zig Zag on Uso. It was when the center of Jimmy's back came down hard on the corner of the steel steps that was absolutely cringe worthy. How that man got back to a vertical base inside the ring to pick up the win is beyond me. Incredible job Jey....I mean Jimmy.
The only women's match was between Carmelo and Liv Morgan. Sonia DeVille has already named Carmella as a contender for MITB but tells Liv to prove herself worthy of the opportunity. I'm stunned that Mella didn't have to qualify like the female athletes on Raw. And even though Liv picked up the win, she is still not a contender for MITB. Just weird.
Now onto my two favorite segments of the evening.
First, the coronation of King Shinsuke Nakamura. I have been saying for weeks that Shin would be the perfect sovereign for the common people. He is hilariously entertaining especially with his 80s hair band hype man Rick Boogs. Baron Corbin did a great job wearing the crown for 2 years. I hope Nakamura gets a full year of authority
.
The highlight of the evening came at the end with the State of the Universal Championship Address. I initially rolled my eyes something fierce when I heard about this segment. I'm a little tired of the same old speech from Roman. Luckily, he never got to speak. Paul Heyman did all the jaw jacking. No sooner did Heyman declare that "there's no one left," the music that WWE Universe hasn't heard since WrestleMania 37 shook the ThunderDome.
On this day...Edge is back! Edge is back!
The Rated-R superstar makes his way intensely down the ramp and unleashes a beat down on the champ. At one point, Edge goes for a con-chairto but Jimmy Uso prevents the move. Edge sends Jimmy into the steel stairs for the second time this evening before spearing him through the barricade. By this time, Roman and his advocate are at the out of the ring and at the top of the ramp. Looking dead center into the hard camera, Edge bellows "Where you at Roman! I'm right here!"
He looks amazing and I hope the beard is still present when they meet next month at Money in the Bank. What great news as we are three weeks away from WWE being back on the road in front of a live WWE Universe.
Friday was not all good news. Once again, WWE released more superstars. So far this year, 38 superstars have been released. Compare that to 2020 with 21 superstars released. 2019 saw 7 superstars being released and 2018 had only 5 superstars saying goodbye.
This latest round of terminations held some surprises. For this fan, I was surprised at the release of Killian Dain. I'm just at a loss as to what to think. Every business has a short and long term plan and I'm stunned at some of the decisions. Is this the Nick Khan era of the WWE?
#BringBackBraun
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