This is our penultimate Thunderdome pay-per-view as WWE finally returns to the road this summer. Sheamus (c) vs. Ricochet for the United States Championship was our pre-show match, a completely passable bit of action interspersed with your typically stupid WWE storytelling. The “haha, you pinned me clean with your finisher BUT all you did was surprise me so I should get a rematch” trope makes me want to punch my screen.
RAW Women’s Championship: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka
WWE three-ways generally go with the patterned two-in, one-out formula that makes me completely tune out of the action. Thankfully, our RAW women’s title match eschewed that blueprint in favor of just really good action throughout. We had our established babyface (Asuka), heel (Charlotte), and tweener champ (Ripley), leading to a match were every interaction had meaning on both storytelling and in terms of the actual match.
While there were some annoyances — obnoxious promo-cutting early on in the match (especially from Charlotte), a strange finish where it seemed like Charlotte should have easily been able to break up the deciding pinfall — this contest proved that the “Ripley and Asuka have no chemistry” concerns were overblown and continued to establish Ripley as somebody who lives up to the championship standard between the ropes. (***½)
Smackdown Tag Team Championships: Dirty Dawgs (Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode) (c) vs. Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio
Has there ever been a more boring instance of the already-contrived layout of “the heels beat up one of the babyfaces, leading to domination until the beat-up babyface returns and wins the match”? God, this was yawn-inducing. That heat segment just went on and on and on. And Dominik’s return — which could have been held off until fans came back — completely failed to capitalize on any sort of timing around his comeback. Happy for the kid, though. He’s got negative charisma but he’s also the rare real-ass dude in WWE. (*)
Lumberjack match: Damian Priest vs. The Miz
(DUD)
Smackdown Women’s Championship: Bianca Belair (c) vs. Bayley
One of the stories of WrestleMania Backlash was that the matches were really long compared to what WWE normally does. I like that! It gives performers much more room to create something magical without lowering the floor of the match too much. Was Belair’s defense decidedly better because the match went 16 minutes instead of ten? Probably not. But in front of fans, I’d imagine two electric performers like Belair and Bayley could really up their game when given plenty of time to do so. This was a strongly worked match — nothing exhilarating, but a better match than Bayley’s been booked to have in months, one that confirms Belair’s status as somebody much better cut out for the main roster than NXT. (***¼)
WWE Championship: Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Braun Strowman
There’s a reason Vince McMahon books lots of giant dudes against each other: it’s fucking awesome. The three real avenues to pro wrestling success in my eyes are (1) engaging storytelling, (2) technical perfection, and (3) sheer spectacle. WWE has nailed the latter with its world championship matches in 2021, no doubt partially thankful to Paul Heyman’s influence. There was stuff in this match that you *only* see in WWE, in no small part because WWE is the only promotion who says “screw the fans” and just books who they want to book.
Get a load of this sequence. Lashley picked up Strowman up for a nasty one-armed spinebuster and then immediately followed it it up with an effortless fireman’s carry throw, sending McIntyre into the ring post. Strowman crushed Lashley with the steel steps. McIntyre took out both opponents and took the fight to the ramp, where Lashley turned it around with a suplex on the ramp, before McIntyre summarily tossed Lashley through an exploding video board.
That rules! It’s not epic because of some contrived #moment, it’s epic because all this stuff is really cool and impressive! Not to mention all the other unbelievable spots in this match, from Strowman’s death-defying double blockbuster to the floor to McIntyre’s picture-perfect Michinoku Driver and overhead belly-to-belly on the gargantuan Strowman. Shoutout to Strowman in particular who put together perhaps the single best performance of his career. Couple the sheer spectacle with the genuine drama regarding who would walk out of the building as champion, and you have one of the most exciting WWE matches of the year. (****¼)
Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Cesaro
What a performance from Cesaro! This man had me completely convinced that his arm was legitimately injured (a spate of freak arm injuries, from HipHop Kikuta in Dragongate to Shinjiro Otani in the Champion Carnival had me spooked). The chase for the superplex in this one — mirroring the chase for the swing in his wonderful Mania match with Seth Rollins — was a great, simple hook. Considering he’s a large, powerful man, the dynamic with Reigns — one of the few men larger and more powerful than Cesaro — made for some fantastic babyface work.
Reigns, to his credit, was the empty space that allowed everything to happen. He destroyed Cesaro’s arm from the very start of the match and rightly capitalized on that dynamic. Reigns is also the only WWE talent from whom I tolerate mid-match promos, because he was the first one to really do it. The little tease with Daniel Bryan made this match feel like it had an actual connection to something outside of WWE Presents WrestleMania Backlash™. It’s a shame WWE’s stupefyingly complicated camera work missed his insane Superman Punch counter off the Cesaro springboard, because that was one of the sickest WWE spots I’ve seen in a while.
Speaking of Bryan, the closest analogue to this match in recent memory is probably the Brock Lesnar-Bryan classic from Survivor Series in 2018. You have a beloved challenger giving it his all against WWE’s chosen champion, with the slightest chance that the upstart might actually get the win. The fight over the guillotine hold at the match’s conclusion was so much fun, with Cesaro practically DDTing himself, leading to the stoppage. Reigns was the better man but Cesaro was out of his mind, to the point that he gave it a legit MMA sell at the end, coming to consciousness about 30 seconds after Reigns let go of the guillotine. No Usos, no nothing, just a challenger elevated and a champion maintained. (****¼)