The Good
For Raw, the opening segment with Alexa Bliss and Ronda Rousey was an awesome way to carry over from the PPV. Bliss came out and bragged about her accomplishment in cashing in the Money in the Bank contract, etc. Then, Rousey came out to confront Bliss and it caused absolute chaos. She took out Bliss, attacked Kurt Angle and WWE officials, and topped it off by putting Bliss through a table. Due to these actions, Rousey got suspended for 30 days, but we all know that when she gets back, she has some unfinished business to attend to.
For Smackdown, the gauntlet match to determine who would face AJ Styles at Extreme Rules was great from start to finish. Rusev ended up winning the gauntlet, which was a bit of a surprise, but it should get fans excited for this match for the upcoming PPV. The best match out of this gauntlet though was the opener between Big E and Daniel Bryan. These two beat the hell out of each other and put on one of the best matches of the year. Overall, this was great booking by WWE for this layout from beginning to the end.
The Bad
For Raw, they had a few matches that felt like filler on their show, but at the same time I can understand why they needed to have these matches because they do need to figure out what to do with a few superstars after the PPV. Names like Jinder Mahal and Bobby Roode come up because they basically had jobber matches this week. Mahal is moving on from Roman Reigns and Bobby Roode is still lost on the roster so WWE is trying to figure out where to go with him from here. Maybe a rivalry between the two start up, either way, when the roster has that much star power, some may get lost.
For Smackdown, the only match that didn’t really have any meaning behind it during their show was the match between Becky Lynch and Billie Kay. Lynch is trying to bounce back from the Money in the Bank loss and she was able to against Kay. It just leaves questions on where to go with Lynch from here, which hopefully can get answered in the next few weeks if they’re going to put on her display.
The Final Verdict
Both shows were really entertaining this week. Raw had a surprise championship change when Ziggler defeated Seth Rollins for the Intercontinental championship as well as had a great opening segment. Smackdown hosted a fantastic gauntlet match and helped layout a few rivalries going forward. With that said though, the brand that made the best out of their time given this week, Smackdown had the better show. Not only was their main event great, but they debuted SaNity, helped push more towards a Jeff Hardy versus Shinsuke Nakamura rivalry, and left questions about where Daniel Bryan goes from here. Overall, both shows were very great coming out of the PPV, hopefully WWE keeps this pace up going into Extreme Rules.
