All in all, this was a great PPV. I knew that they would have to step their game up if they were going to get people interested in the product and I personally think they did enough tonight. The special guest referee was an interesting twist, but there seemed to be genuine disinterest in the crowd during the majority of the last couple of matches. I think this will go down as one of the most underrated PPVs of 2019.

- Men’s Triple Threat Match: Cruiserweight Championship

Tony Nese (C) vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Drew Gulak

We have a new champion! I predicted that Gulak would walk out the champ, despite being the least favored competitor in the match and he proved me right. Nese had a solid run as champ, but clearly, they thought it was time for a shake-up. The match was solid for a kickoff show match and each performer got their spots in. I wish the cruiserweights would get more publicity within the WWE, but it is what it is at the moment. Many of these guys are talented enough to be on the main stage, so hopefully once SmackDown moves to FOX, we could see more cruiserweights featured.

GRADE: 7.7/10

- Women’s Singles Match: RAW Women’s Championship

Becky Lynch (C) vs. Lacey Evans

These two had a solid back and forth in this match. A title retain was the best option moving forward here. Storytelling was the main factor in this match and they told a great story. I’m not sure who will be the next contender for Lynch’s RAW Women’s Championship, but I’m sure it will be entertaining as usual. Stay tuned for more on these two.

GRADE: 8.1/10

- Men’s Tag Team Match

The New Day vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn

I expected this to be a fairly entertaining match, but I was selling it short. It was a great match. The favored team won the match and that was totally fine. Both teams had great chemistry in the ring and there were some risky spots that turned out to be great. I don’t know what is next for Zayn and Owens, but you know they will make the most of the situation that they’re in.

GRADE: 9.2/10

- Men’s Singles Match: United States Championship

Samoa Joe (C) vs. Ricochet

There was a lot of great selling in this match, but I didn’t expect Ricochet to walk away with the title in this one. It’s good to see them pushing him this early into his career on the main roster. Ricochet sold Joe’s strength and Joe sold Ricochet as a legitimate player. A continuation of this feud will be good to see, but I would like to see how Ricochet can fare with a title.

GRADE: 8.8/10

- Men’s Tag Team Match: SmackDown Tag Team Championship

Daniel Bryan and Rowan (C) vs. Heavy Machinery

I expected this to be another solid match with them turning Heavy Machinery into legitimate contenders and that’s exactly what it turned into. We got to see a great showcase for Heavy Machinery and hopefully they get more shots at the titles in the near future. I totally didn’t expect to see as many moves off of the top rope from Heavy Machinery though. In front of his hometown crowd, Daniel Bryan was the star, but Otis was the star of this match. This was just another solid match in what has been a very solid PPV.

GRADE: 9/10

- Women’s Singles Match: SmackDown Women’s Championship

Bayley (C) vs. Alexa Bliss

It sounds like I keep saying this, but this was another great wrestling match. Bayley’s new persona is interesting, but I don’t know how long the interest will be there. It’s great to see Alexa Bliss back in the ring and hopefully she can stay healthy. I feel like there will be some tension between Bliss and Nikki Cross coming up in the near future and I think their eventual match will great.

GRADE: 8.5/10

- Men’s Singles Match

Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre

“This is awful” chants were a little premature, because I think the match turned out to be pretty good. The match was good, but I thought for sure that Drew McIntyre had this match in the bag. At their respective points in their career, Roman didn’t need this win, but McIntyre desperately needed a win of this magnitude. I hated that Shane McMahon was involved in this match, because I think McIntyre needed a big win to get him past the point of no return, but hopefully he isn’t there yet.

GRADE: 7.9/10

- Men’s Steel Cage Match: WWE Championship

Kofi Kingston (C)vs. Dolph Ziggler

The first couple of minutes were interesting, but this match didn’t not have to be as long as it was. It was fairly sluggish throughout the match, which I didn’t expect at all. There was good storytelling, but there wasn’t a lot of good wrestling. This was especially shocking from two of the best wrestlers in the business. There was a lot of good anticipation of the possibility of Ziggler winning, but nobody expected it to happen. I was expecting a lot better, but it wasn’t terrible.

GRADE: 7.4/10

- Men’s Singles Match: Universal Championship

Seth Rollins (C)vs. Baron Corbin

This was another match that drug around, but the ending was pretty decent. Lacey Evans as the special guest referee was an interesting move, but the match was rather sluggish. It was to be expected that Becky would interfere, but the crowd wasn’t interested for the majority of the match. I was also expecting Brock Lesnar to at least make an appearance, but we didn’t get that either. As far as a wrestling match goes, it wasn’t great, but the storytelling value made this match. This was a showcase of some old school wrasslin’ storytelling and it totally worked. Rollins retaining was the right move in my opinion and getting the women of RAW involved was a neat addition, so this grade is about a full point higher than it honestly should be.

GRADE: 9/10

Yacs

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