After Kevin Owens performed the pile driver on Randy Orton last week, sending him to the hospital with an injury of subvocal trauma that’s taken him out indefinitely, Cody Rhodes yelled for Owens to come out. Instead, Nick Aldis attempted to dissolve the flames. For some reason, Rhodes thought that Aldis was making a martyr out of Owens by not having him here. I was like: “What?”

Regardless of Cody’s opinion, Aldis made it clear that Kevin won’t come back until this matter is resolved. So, of course, Cody tried to appeal to Nick’s career as a wrestler. Imagine being the one who calls your friend’s wife, telling them that you don’t know if the husband’s neck is broken. That all of this occurred because of you, it would be heartbreaking.

Rhodes warned Aldis that the ball is in his court, that waiting for too long won’t be a forever option. Cody knows that he doesn’t want to represent the brand by venturing to Owens’ house like LA Knight did with both AJ Styles and… arg, Logan Paul, despite not being Champion during those two times.

Backstage, Jimmy Uso was on the phone with Roman Reigns. He informed Jey and Sami Zayn that Reigns wants them to meet in his locker room. Prior to that, Sami mentioned that he has someone else in mind as a fifth member, given he was seen asking Seth Rollins this past Monday. Jey asked Rey Mysterio, obviously, he also said no.

Bayley vs. Candice LeRae vs. B-Fab – Round One Triple Threat Women’s US Championship Tournament match 

The Poison Pixie took out Bayley by kicking her in the kneecap, then sending her rolling outside as B-Fab grabbed ahold of LeRae, until she got smacked in the face. B-Fab returned fire with a right arm of her own and a sliding clothesline. Given how Bayley wasn’t a facture for the time being, B-Fab and Candice were brawling in a one-on-one tussle.

Once Bayley came back, B-Fab was able to clothesline them both. Bayley crushed down on B-Fab with a furious elbow to the back of the neck, lucky for Candice, she stopped the cover from concluding the match. All three women were down after they clotheslined each other at the same time.

Candice delivered a Code Breaker to Bayley as she landed on B-Fab’s back as she did so, almost advancing in this match. Bayley had Candice up for a suplex, yet LeRae shifted her weight while B-Fab came in wanting to powerbomb them both. She nearly lost the opportunity if she hadn’t removed LeRae from the cover.

B-Fab may have surprised Candice with a face plant, and an inverted neck breaker towards Bayley, neither of those moves granted her the win. Later on, Candice nearly won with more sneaky maneuvering if it weren’t the determination of Bayley and B-Fab. By the end of this, Bayley advanced by stacking B-fab up in a roll.

B-Fab did very well regardless of the outcome.

Winner: Bayley

I suspect that Sami was asking LA Knight to be the fifth member for War Games, but judging the Megastar’s body language, I’d say he declined. When you really think about it, who will stand next to Roman knowing how narcissist he is? There’s no such thing as balance and equality with him, and the sooner people know this, the better off they’ll be. I reckon that Sami and Jey are the only ones who want this if Reigns learns what self-accountability means. Jey already warned him once. If Roman shows the slightest disrespect, he’s out. Strike one was last Friday.

Next up, LA Knight is here to announce an open challenge for the US Championship.

LA Knight (c) vs. Humberto – US Championship match

Given the abruptness of it all, Humberto has been taking the fight to the champ the majority of the break and prior to the match being official because Legado del Fantasma jumped LA Knight. Berto was trying to slow down the pace by stretching the champ out like a piece of Play-Doh. Ha!

It didn’t take much for LA Knight to turn things over by dribbling Humberto’s head against the commentary deck, then covered him after the DDT, that doesn’t end the match. Berto caught LA Knight with a brilliant springboard kick out of nowhere, but it wasn’t enough.

LA Knight finally connected with the flying elbow, then retained his title with the BFT. Bravo to Humberto for his amazing efforts. Knight had everything to be happy about, although, he didn’t expect to get dropped by a returning Shinsuke Nakamura. The foreboding appearance on the face of the King of Strong Style, alluded to his search for gold. He resembled something that came out of a swamp, or a barrel of ink.

Winner: LA Knight

In Roman’s dressing room, Sami informed him that they weren’t able to find a fifth member. Jey suggested that Reigns makes the call. To who? I don’t know. But never mind that, Solo Sikoa’s music was playing as the Bloodline march to the ring. Whatever was meant to happen, didn’t, because the original Bloodline came out for a brawl. This was definitely the chaos I wanted to see today. Ha!

What shocked me was the presence of Bronson Reed as he squashed Roman. We suspect that Reed might be the fifth member for Solo’s team. All I’m curious about is who Jey was alluding to earlier. I have a guess, but I won’t say mine until we’re closer to Survivor Series. That’s the game we’re playing.

As we move one from this onslaught, we have another to look at. Kevin Owens posted a video responding to Cody Rhodes’ words at the beginning of the evening. According to Owens, it’s nonsensical that he was turned away from attending tonight’s events because of what he did to Randy. All he did was his job, he did what was asked of him. What pissed Kevin off was that because Cody told Nick to have him here next week, “We can’t disappoint the little golden boy,”

He made the decision to show up next Friday, but not for Aldis, or the WWE universe, rather for himself. Owens’ final warning was that when he arrives, everyone needs to remember that he’s simply doing his job. This sort of thing has been happening for decades, yet it’s only now that people cry about it. It’s kind of weird. I still think that pile driving Orton was too much, but I don’t play favorites, nor am I blind to points that make sense despite the ruthlessness behind the actions.

People see what they want to see, and that’s an irritating notion about humanity.

The Street Profits vs. Motor City Machine Guns (c) – Tag Team Championship match

Chris Sabin and Montez Ford started this match off with stoic looks in their eyes, the Profits more so than ever. Ford went in at full force with that hit to the back of Sabin, right to the point where it may as well have been a whipping. The smiles were gone tonight. A few moments later, Motor City were double teaming on Montez. Luckily, Ford retaliated with a thunderous clothesline to Alex Shelley.

Because Angelo Dawkins hit his face against the turnbuckle, Ford was tagged in as he grabbed Shelley by the ankle to prevent him from bringing Sabin back in. It didn’t matter since he was able to nonetheless. Sabin took out the Profits on his own at first, until Shelley provided some assistance.

Motor City’s top notch angle with that drop kick into the flatliner on Ford was very well executed. Given how Sabin didn’t notice the tag being made, the Profits shocked him with a double team maneuver for a near fall. With some urgency, the Profits were looking to perform their blockbuster on Sabin. While Ford was at the top, Tommaso Ciampa came out of nowhere to disrupt the match, forcing a disqualification and a premature ending.

Ciampa is still ticked off that he believes that the Profits cut the line to get this Championship match and that the Motor City Machine Guns are holding those titles. How petty. Shelley saw Tommaso attacking Montez, so he quickly got in-between them, and so did Johnny Gargano trying to play peacekeeper… and that slightly failed because Ciampa shoved him aside as well before storming off.

Even though Sabin and Shelley had nothing to do with Tommaso’s involvement, Dawkins said to hell with that when he punched Shelley in the mouth. Geez…

Winners: Motor City Machine Guns by DQ

Next Friday, in Round One of the Women’s US Championship tournament, Bianca Belair, Chelsea Green and Blair Davenport will be facing each other.

Nia Jax (c) vs. Naomi – WWE Women’s Championship match

Naomi blasted out of the gate strong by landing the first hit on Nia. The early flurries were well and done with as Jax used her power to overwhelm Naomi by swigging her body around like a lasso, then tossing her over like a sack of flour. Fortunately, Naomi made a comeback with a striking knee kick to the jaw of the Champion.

Naomi’s attempt at a sunset flip was wonky, but effective. However, Nia came back twice as hard with that clothesline to her opponent’s throat. Now, Jax was looking to wear her challenger down with a chock hold in the middle of the ring. She was hoping to embarrass Naomi, especially with that shocking headbutt to the head of Miss Glow. Corey Graves enjoyed that a bit too much.

Nevertheless, Nia took her time showboating, hence the reason why Naomi took advantage by driving Jax’s head against the mat. She was doing great until the champ switched the momentum when she collided with Naomi. So, it came as a shock when Naomi turned Nia’s leverage against her into a sunset flip that almost awarded her the gold.

Later on, Nia caught Naomi with a pop-up Samoan Drop after kicking out of the Rearview from earlier. Luckily, Naomi got Nia with that crossbody. As things are looking up, things backstage are going down. Belair and Cargill said they would have Naomi’s back if necessary, yet they were overtaken by Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan after losing in their Women’s Tag Team Championship match on RAW.

Back inside the ring, Tiffany Stratton helped Nia while the referee wasn’t looking. Once Naomi was shoved back in the match, Nia delivered a leg drop to the back of her opponent’s head. Naomi looked dead, I kid you not. Jax thought she was making good on ending this, yet Naomi still had some life left with that countering move from the top. It was so amazing!

Stratton was looking to cause another distraction, so Bayley showed up like she said she would. Naomi came close to winning with the roll up and the spilt-legged Moonsault. She was overshowed with emotion when neither of those moves finished Nia.

Naomi went back on the attack from the top. Bayley was slammed by Candice into the post, perhaps for her lost. Jax secured victory with a high risk Samoan Drop, then the Annihilator. Naomi may have lost, but she did stupendously well. A lot of people tonight have done just that.

Winner: Nia Jax

Well, Roman was planning on calling none other than the wise man, Paul Heyman, yet what baffled us all is that the number was no longer in service… What’s going on here?

 

TOP PHOTO: Nakamura delivered the Kinshasa to LA Knight. Courtesy of WWE