Drew McIntyre finally had a head-to-head match with Sami Zayn, the poetic finale of their little feud, which took place in a steel cage match that eventually became a microcosm of the feud itself. Zayn spent the entire match escaping and McIntyre would smack her every time he pinned him in the cage. Eventually, he hit the claymore and scored the pinfall.
It was entertaining for what it was, a way to heat up McIntyre while also using Zayn in how he’s most effective.
Turns out McIntyre needed to warm up because later in that show he would come to the rescue of RK-Bro who needed help because The Bloodline outnumbered them and put the boots on them. Roman Reigns acted shocked when McIntyre confronted him, but when Drew himself yelled at him, “It’s been a long time coming.”
It’s an interesting choice, all things considered.
McIntyre has clearly been fairly well protected for a while, obviously anticipating his return to the main event to take on Reigns. Doing so now seems to indicate they aren’t as high on McIntyre as they used to be.
In a weird twist, they changed the tag team title unification match by having Paul Heyman intimidate Adam Pearce to make it a six-man tag team match. It appears unification is off the table now, and McIntyre won’t get a title shot either. That could change ahead of WrestleMania Backlash, but for now, the announcement didn’t say anything about titles being at stake.
Strange!
And maybe a hint that McIntyre isn’t quite ready for it yet? Or, and it’s entirely possible, and maybe even likely, an issue related to WWE’s lack of long-term planning.
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- They attempted to make a big deal out of Happy Corbin by smashing Madcap Moss’ Andre Battle Royal trophy with a sledgehammer. This would work better if this trophy meant a lot more than it does. Moss disguised himself and snuck in anyway to stop Corbin, sending him down after a quick punch. Then he laughed at Corbin.
- Ricochet beat Shanky in an Intercontinental Championship game. There wasn’t much to it, which is difficult considering Ricochet always has fun matches no matter the opponent. It turned out to be a way to strain Shanky and Jinder Mahal’s relationship. We’ll see where that leads.
- Raquel Rodriguez won a glorified squash match for her debut bout on the blue mark. It was a taped show so hard to gauge how well it did here but it certainly didn’t bomb.
- Shayna Baszler & Natalya, who get another tag team title match because there are no other teams, never did anything to earn that position beyond passing. Here they let Naomi hit Baszler cleanly, then let the rulebreakers knock down the babyfaces while Shayna did the armbreaker routine. I think that’s a possibility!
- Kofi Kingston said “stand up in the guts” on that show, a word to Jason Mewes.
- Xavier Woods defeated Ridge Holland while Sheamus defeated Kingston in singles matches and then knocked out Woods through a table on the outside. Much more important in all of this? WHERE IS BUTCH?!?
- A “Beat The Clock I Quit” challenge was booked for that show, where Ronda Rousey beat Shotzi in 1:41 and Charlotte Flair couldn’t match that time against Aliyah. She blamed the timekeeper, who surprisingly was Drew Gulak, who was trying something else. He was beaten up and treated like dirt again. Poor guy. I wonder what he will experience next week!
This was a taped show that didn’t really feel like a taped show, which to its credit.
Grade: C+
It’s your turn.