Hey, hey!
Naomi vs. Chelsea Green
Oh, dear. Chelsea has something to say. She predicts that there will be a double beatdown when she thinks she’ll defeat Naomi during this match, then Piper will dethrone Bayley for the WWE Women’s Championship tomorrow at Clash at the Castle. One word: delusional.
After too many weird tussles in the early goings of this match, Naomi manages to shoulder tackle Chelsea to her ass while Bayley cheers her on. Naomi is on a roll thus far, which Chelsea can see, so she tries to beg for mercy. Luckily, Naomi slaps her regardless. Ha!
As much as I enjoy Naomi’s split slam across the body of an individual, she took too much time executing that move, that in all seriousness Green would have kicked out of because of the time waster.
Later on, Naomi runs into a right hand from Chelsea when she had enough of being on the receiving end of Miss Glow’s onslaught. Green is able to get the upper hand on Naomi. It became a back-and-forth endeavor. Naomi’s striking kick to Chelsea’s head, twice, was great to witness.
Green turns things around in her favor when she drop kicks Naomi from the sky and enters a failed cover, a near fall at that. Chelsea hooks Naomi’s leg again soon after, but she stays in the fight.
Bayley got involved when she noticed that Chelsea was using the middle rope to add pressure as she covers Naomi. The referee didn’t see the cheating attempt, which led to Bayley and Piper arguing on the main floor.
Naomi gets back in the game with a unique bridge-like pinning position to obtain victory. Whoo!!
Winner: Naomi
Backstage, Legado del Fantasma deal with the repercussions of their attack on Apollo Crews last week. Santos says “pardon” for ruining Nick Aldis’ show, so he informs Aldis that Crews will face him in the ring given he’s good to go.
Next we have The Grayson Waller Effect with special guests in DIY. Oh, Lord… But something more intriguing I could be mentioning right now is that QR code glitching on our screen again. This time the message writes “You refused salvation. The reckoning is inevitable.” I must say, they’re leaving me with a gallon of anticipation.
Unfortunately, I have to get back to the Grayson Waller Effect. The good thing about this is when Tommaso and Johnny were rearranging the furniture. Ciampa doesn’t play those kind of games. However, he does bring up the fact that Waller’s name is the only one labelled on the posters, which makes Theory his “secretary”.
No one believes that Waller would take a bullet for Theory like he claims he would given what occurred last Friday during the Grayson versus Gargano match where Waller left Theory to be dived upon by his Tag Team partner’s challenger. “That footage is A.I.” said Grayson. Ha!
Austin is left somewhat quiet in the background… longer than usual. Ciampa comically urges a Tag Team Championship match to take place between these four men tonight. Things were getting interesting already, yet Gargano made it even better when he tried to convince Austin that Grayson was using him.
Obviously, that possessed Waller to lunge himself into Gargano, which turned into a very vicious brawl where Theory received the most hits to the jaw. Austin kept saving Waller regardless of the previous insinuations made about his “friend”.
Santos Escobar vs. Apollo Crews
Apollo attacks Santos quickly in the opening bell of the match, catching Escobar off guard. Escobar switched things up with a sudden drop kick while Crews was distracted by the rest of Legado del Fantasma. Because of this, which confused me, Baron Corbin came out to even the odds after he suffered that rude comment made to him earlier by Angel.
Once we got back to the match, Apollo drops Santos on his face from the air, then performs a standing Moonsault for a near fall. Following the commercial break, Santos gained back control of this fight with a back breaker.
Crews escapes Santos’ clutches with a deep arm drag followed by a series of offensive moves like clotheslines and German suplexes. Apollo kept showing his thunderous power despite the fact that he fell victim to Santos’ knee to the gut. Crews was doing well. Corbin, however, wasn’t. He got jumped by Humberto and Angel after seemingly disposing of them earlier. He drives Angel into the post.
Courtesy of Elektra Lopez’ sneakiness, Santos was able to obtain a dirty victory despite Corbin’s assistance.
Winner: Santos Escobar
AJ Styles deceived the majority of the WWE universe with his mascaraed intent to retire only to urge Cody Rhodes to issue an “I quit” Undisputed Championship match at Clash. The cup was already full, but never mind the mess. Cody is out here with something to say ahead of Saturday’s rumble.
Rhodes believes that Styles has overstayed his welcome, that he should have retired when he acted like it. Now, he has to deal with the consequences of wanting a match with the Champion. Flanked by Anderson and Gallows, AJ Styles makes his entrance.
This is a side of Styles I’ve never seen before, a menacing, manipulative one. Somewhat crooked, too. Anyway, Cody invites AJ inside the ring, and while that’s happening, the crowd noise is as loud as when we were in Lyon for Backlash. Scotland is reaching the number two spot in noise impact. Glasgow is kind rude, though. AJ informs us that his journey to arrive in WWE took him seventeen years, and yet these people chant “Shut the f*ck up.”
That’s always nice to hear. To have a door, a truck and a typhoon hit you in the face by a bunch of strangers. People want to accept what they want without the other interesting parts of that person. Styles is simply telling fans about the facts they ignore just for the hell of it. It’s like marriage, it’s ludicrous and unfeeling of you to not be accepting of the flaws of the person your ass is marrying. It comes with the package. You can’t avoid one thing and acknowledge the rest just because…
Rhodes quit WWE once upon a time, NJPW, Ring of Honor and an independent dream when the going got tough due to the pressure according to Styles. However, Cody says that he didn’t quit because he chose to gamble with his choices instead, to get the best possible outcome in becoming Champion.
On the other hand of a different person, AJ’s family were adamant of him to stop perusing this career and putting his body on the line week in and out, but he doesn’t want to. He’ll stop when he says so. Styles gives credit where credit is due when he mentions how Cody didn’t quit when he fought Seth Rollins with a torn pectoral at Hell in a Cell. One of Rhodes’ best matches.
Styles will do everything he can to forces Rhodes to say “I quit”, even if it means he’ll have to dismantle and dismember the Champion till he bleeds. And speaking of blood, the Street Profits were supposed to be KO’s backup during his match with Solo tonight, but they were ambushed backstage by the Tongas. Once Owens got wind of it, he tried to help.
Michin vs. Nia Jax
A delusional notion for an equally delusional person such as Tiffany Stratton, who’s sitting at commentary still hoping she can get Nia to team up with her for… whatever reason.
Inside the ring, Michin jumps on Jax first as she attempts to gain the upper hand, yet Jax quickly turns things around… until she doesn’t when her face meets with the post. That’s only a small infraction of what happens next. Stratton threw water in Michin’s face, which cost her the match when Nia delivered the annihilator.
Winner: Nia Jax
After seeing LA Knight’s newest attempt to submit Logan Paul into having a US Championship match against him, Carmelo Hayes is still raging on Knight for chasing opportunities as dramatic and unnecessary as he can, whilst he has chances chasing him like the Money in the Bank Qualifying match starting next week.
Elsewhere, Nick Aldis bares the Tongas following the assault the Profits endured. If Aldis sees either of them, the whole Bloodline will get suspended. Ha! Somehow, if Solo loses, he’ll blame Heyman for his demise. Paul was left quite shaken.
As Clash at the Castle looms near, Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair defend their Women’s Tag Team Championships in a Triple Treat match against The Unholy Union plus the team of Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark. Another piece of gold on the line lies with Sami Zayn defending his Intercontinental title versus Chad Gable. Bayley meets Piper for the WWE Women’s Championship.
Drew McIntyre gets another chance at the World Heavyweight Championship as he battles Damian Priest. AJ Styles will do anything, as he promptly mentioned before, to get his hands on the Undisputed WWE belt against Cody Rhodes in an “I quit” match.
Kevin Owens vs. Solo Sikoa
Well, I’m not surprised by how quickly this fight broke out the second KO got in the ring. He pounced after Solo so fast, he didn’t see it coming. Owens even gave chase and shoved Sikoa. A big frog splash on the main floor stunned Solo.
Finally, Sikoa was able to get himself some breathing room after he managed to drive Kevin into the stairs. Despite that, KO fights back as he kicks out of a back elbow at the one count. However, Sikoa backs it up in the corner as if the previous attacks didn’t effect him.
Owens ducks out of the way as he manages to deliver a DDT to allow himself some time to breathe. Once he got back to his feet, he stomped on Solo numerous times that he nearly got disqualified for doing so.
A minor slug fest commences in the middle of the ring until Owens ends it with a clothesline. Sikoa makes a comeback when he catches Kevin at the top of turnbuckles, momentarily preventing him from doing whatever it is he intended to do. Owens counters with a tornado DDT.
A Samoan Drop from Solo may have not given him the win he hoped for, but it did pause the fighting for a moment. Owens picks up the pace with three Super Kicks followed by a Swanton that nearly ended this match. Solo retaliates with a painful back drop on the apron that practically sucks Owens’ soul out.
Sikoa hits two Spinning Solos that simply continues the match because of Owens’ durability… and insanity to remain. A Swanton attempt was thwarted by Solo’s knees, yet Kevin was able to hit a beautiful Stunner that would have concluded this fight if it weren’t for a scared Paul Heyman, who hurriedly placed Sikoa’s foot on the bottom rope.
The fans were in boos. Owens was also very pissed as he pursuits Heyman outside, wanting to slam him on the commentary desk, but Solo stopped him with a winning Samoan Spike. Following the match, KO gets jumped by the Tongas. Luckily, Randy Orton is here to help. Good on you.
Winner: Solo Sikoa
TOP PHOTO: Sikoa delivers the Spinning Solo to Owens. Courtesy of WWE