The Good
For Raw, the Intercontinental championship match between Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins stole the show this week. These two put on a great match from start to finish and has some interesting ramifications from it. Rollins decided to host an open challenge, which Owens answered and stated that ever since his time on Raw, he has been miserable but that may soon change. Things didn’t change for Owens though and he was unable to beat Rollins. After the match, Owens then decided to quit. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes for both competitors as Rollins looks to find the next challenger to his championship and Owens looks for new work.
For Smackdown, Daniel Bryan had a great match with Andrade Almas on their show. These two went back and forth and right when we thought we were going to see Almas tap out from the Yes Lock, The Miz and Maryse interfered and attacked Bryan and Brie Bella. The attack on them really intensified this rivalry going into Hell in a Cell and it is one of the best things going for Smackdown.
The Bad
For Raw, it seems like WWE does not know what to do with Bobby Lashley. From beating Roman Reigns a few weeks ago, to beating the Ascension and not having a match at Summerslam is a very steep downfall. This is a shame considering how talented he is and how successful he was outside of WWE. As much hype as there was when he returned, that hype has faded quickly.
For Smackdown, while the triple threat tag team match that Smackdown had wasn’t bad, they only question I have is where did the Colons come from? We haven’t seen or heard from them in months and then they just appear on this match? Confusing times right there but at least WWE is taking time to find out who should challenge the New Day next for the championship.
The Final Verdict
Overall, both shows were pretty good this week. With both shows in Toronto, the crowd was hot for both shows and made everything more interesting and better to watch. Both shows did a very good job of building up the Hell in a Cell PPV, the women’s PPV, Evolution, as well as the super showdown show in Australia. With that being said, I will have to say that Raw had the better show this week. We got to see a returning Trish Stratus, saw some controversy with Kevin Owens quitting, and had an interesting main event where Braun Strowman turned on Roman Reigns. The buildup for Hell in a Cell has been pretty good and hopefully WWE can keep this momentum going into the next few PPV’s.
