This is tomorrow night. I know a lot of people here (understandably) have not been keeping up with the shows weekly during the pandemic, so I figured I could provide a little bit of background. I actually think this show has been built up reasonably well but am kind of a main roster apologist.

WWE Championship: Drew Mcintyre vs. Randy Orton
Drew has been on fire since winning the Rumble and beating Lesnar at Wrestlemania, having run through a decent group of heel challengers. Meanwhile, Orton beat Edge in "The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever" at Backlash, put him on the shelf, then has delivered punt kicks to legends (generously in some cases) like Christian, Big Show, Ric Flair, and Shawn Michaels while doing his best work ever on the mic as a sadistic, somewhat conflicted heel. Drew has been a very strong top babyface, so this feels main event worthy and the outcome is very much in question.

Universal Championship: "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt vs. Braun Strowman
Strowman has beaten Mr. Rogers Bray Wyatt and Cult Leader Bray Wyatt, but now has unleashed his final form in The Fiend. This has been one of the goofiest and craziest stories ever in WWE, and I don't really understand what they're trying to do, but it's certainly creative. Alexa Bliss has become involved as a subject of Braun's affections who was attacked/possibly taken in by The Fiend, which might factor into the finish. They also maybe double-turned them on Smackdown as Strowman has been acting heelish? Really, I don't know what is going on here. I'm assuming this will be a weird story-heavy trainwreck match like the others where a bunch of bizarre nonsensical things happen.

Women's Championships: Bayley vs. Asuka (Smackdown), Sasha Banks vs. Asuka (Raw)
Bayley and Sasha have all the gold as tag team and singles champs and have been parading around on every show being obnoxious heels (pretty effectively, I think). Sasha won the Raw title from Asuka when Asuka was counted out because she went to save her friend Kairi Sane from a backstage attack at the hands of Bayley (which "ended Kairi Sane's career" as she opted to move back to Japan). Asuka earned another shot at the Raw title by beating Bayley in a singles match, then won a battle royal on Smackdown to get a chance to win both titles from Bayley/Sasha in one night. Due to a beat the clock challenge on Smackdown, Bayley will be defending her title first.

There are a lot of different booking possibilities here, but the main intrigue is the Sasha/Bayley storyline and whether they pull the trigger on their long-awaited split, keep both titles and stay the course, or have one lose their title to push the story with a different dynamic. These wrestlers are all great so I'm expecting good matches, though they've been a little overexposed on the weekly TV.

Seth Rollins vs. Dominik Mysterio - Street Fight
Seth took out Rey Mysterio's eye in the "eye for an eye" match at Extreme Rules, leading to Dominik seeking revenge. Dominik has never had a match and is portrayed as a kid possibly getting in over his head, so it's hard to know what to expect here. Rollins can probably make something work, and there will be weapons available to Dominik to cover his weaknesses in the ring. This has been a long-brewing emotional story that has resonated more with casual audiences (based on youtube views anyway) than the hardcore fans who rolled their eyes at some of the goofiness. Not expecting much but this could be interesting at least.

Raw Tag Titles: Street Profits vs. Andrade/Angel Garza
The main story here is that Zelina Vega POISONED Montez Ford, which the Street Profits didn't care for. Bianca Belair (Montez's wife) has been involved going after Zelina so they're likely to be involved in some way. The rest was the standard singles matches/guys trading wins formula that isn't great, but athletically this should be pretty good.

Mandy Rose vs. Sonya Deville - No DQ, Loser Leaves WWE
This has been sneakily the best story on WWE TV for most of this year, starting when Mandy became interested in Otis and Sonya was caught meddling in their relationship which ended their friendship. From there, Sonya became a further unhinged psycho heel and has blossomed in the ring and on the mic, looking like a possible star. Mandy has actually been delivering some good babyface promos about "not being just a pretty face."

Initially, this was scheduled to be a Hair vs. Hair match. However, due to the horrific real-life incident involving both wrestlers and a stalker fan, the ante was upped to "loser leaves WWE," which most people are interpreting as a chance to write Sonya off TV to get her out of the spotlight and let her collect herself mentally. I don't dismiss the possibility of a swerve, though, since Mandy was also at Sonya's house during the incident and could be looking for time off. This won't be a technical classic, but it should be an emotionally charged brawl and given what both performers just went through, I'm impressed that they're going through with this match.

US Title - Apollo Crews vs. MVP
MVP has been great as the mic guy in a faction called "The Hurt Business" with Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin. Everyone is kind of puzzled that they're running this match again, though, since Apollo beat MVP at the last PPV and Lashley is the more obviously dominant member of the stable. They'll have a fine match but it's difficult to care about the feud since it's gone on for too long without much variation.

Other thing to watch out for is a masked group called RETRIBUTION has been meddling on both shows. The storyline has been quite bad and received poorly I think, so this might be the night they try to kick it into another gear by unveiling the leader or doing some massive attention-grabbing angle.

I think that's everything. They've been keeping the PPVs shorter in the pandemic era so I'm not expecting one of the old 6 hour Summerslams.

Will be in.

Yep, I'm gonna watch. Very intrigued by most of the main fights on the card, so credit to WWE for having strong builds.

The real problem is that WWE already announced another PPV......ONE WEEK from tonight? 'Payback'?

Seriously, what the **** is that? The cynic in me just assumes we are going to get a handful of non finishes and we're just gonna get a card of rematches a week from now.

You'll Never See It Coming...

They must have something they think is a big deal planned. My guess is the Fiend gets his mask ripped off and it's really Hornswaggle.

Distraction roll up finish in first match.

I never saw it coming!

Why doesn't Mama Mysterio wear a mask too?

I definitely never saw that coming!

His wrestling gear has a hoodie?

Yeah that's some weird ****. It's like he's wearing an extended horsecollar, where the entire utility is to help the other dude yank you down violently. Except it's not a penalty here.

It's funny how they're treating Dom like a child here when Rey was several years younger than him when he debuted for WCW.

So Sasha still hasn't successfully defended a title on a PPV in his career?

Good title match but that is the first time I recall seeing a backslide get the three count in recent memory. Great match between Seth and Dominik, impressive debut for him and he took some huge bumps and no botched spots. Women’s title matches and Deville matches have been good and entertaining. I’m enjoying it.

Randy Orton:



Good match ruined by a pathetic call by Phillips that just had me laughing

[x] never saw it coming

Of course, I'm so out of the loop that I had no real idea of Reigns's status outside of the fact that he's been away.

Wow, Roman must have hated this match as much as we do.

I guess they could make him the leader of Retribution maybe?

Roman return was rumored, so I did see it coming.

But regardless, beating us to death with that tagline just so they could say it (again) about the surprise was really weak.

That felt like a Roman heel turn, no?

Definitely. The fans boo him anyway so he is rolling with it.

Watched on an hour or so delay, I liked the show. Mandy/Sonya understandably felt a little off but I'm just amazed they had the match. And the main event was whatever (surprised there was no Alexa). Everything else overperformed or met my expectations. I guess there was no blow-away match, but everything was solid.

Reigns at the end is kind of the guy a lot of fans have been wanting to see I think. No vest, kicking ass, owning his status as "the guy" in more of a heelish way. It'll be interesting to see what they do with him.

I didn't view it as a heel turn, just the Big Dog reminding everyone that it's HIS yard.

He attacked two dudes that’s have beat on a girl in recent weeks.

It felt like a clear character shift/change to me, but yeah, I don't think he's going to be a full heel who is tearing down the fans and trying to get heat. Hopefully just a cooler persona that is more natural and less jamming him into the Cena box.

Drew-Orton rematch next week is a certainty after that finish right?

didn't watch but sounds like when he went ape **** on HHH after losing in the main event of TLC 2015. Not a heel turn but not a clean babyface, either. We were very disappointed with where it went but even so, this seems promising.

Absolutely this. The excessive chair shots on Braun (almost ten?) and the taunting of Bray, "you're just a freak in a mask", were definitely supposed to represent some sort of shift. What they do with it is another question though.

Other thoughts:

-Sasha/Asuka was the best match of the night imo. Way better than Bayley/Asuka. Curious to see how they split Sasha and Bayley. Hopefully it's Bayley that turns on Sasha though. I think that works way better for a number of reasons.

-Drew/Randy seemed to drag a little, and the ending was as pathetic as Phillips' call of the ending. Drew McIntyre is supposed to be arguably the strongest wrestler in the business, and is fighting Randy Orton who has, in kayfabe, murdered 5 legends. Winning with a backslide rollup not only isn't Randy getting what's coming to him it also just makes Drew look weak.

-Mandy/Sonya match was standard, good for them for even going through with it. Sonya deserves some time off.

-Tag team match was entertaining but it's no good that the only story is between the individuals in the challenging tag team. The Street Profits won and it felt like they just were sort of there.

-Rollins/Dominic was the 2nd best match of the night, a lot of cool spots and bumps, Dominic didn't look super green in the ring. Another one I'm curious to see where they go with, because I couldn't help but think the match would have been more compelling (and just better for Dominic) if Rey wasn't a part of the match at all.

-Braun/Fiend was whatever. I don't get not having Alexa be involved at all when she was involved in the build. There doesn't seem to be much of a story between these two going forward which makes me think they're gonna end up reuniting in some way.

Solid PPV, way better than Wrestlemania which I think was the last one I watched.