As per usual, Bray Wyatt delivered in his match with Chris Jericho. It wouldn’t have made my Top 10 list from last week, but neither did it disappoint. I remain interested to see how they can evolve and improve headed into SummerSlam.
Did anyone else find the Lana and Rusev portion of the show a bit long? It’s possible they did it by design, trying to draw more heat for the Russian power couple by attrition alone. I’m not sure how much more I could have withstood, as we’ve literally heard it all before, and Lana does not do well in long stretches of dialogue. Unfortunately, Swagger and Rusev didn’t do it for me like Big E and Rusev did. We’ll likely see this one again next month, since Rusev didn’t win by submission (as I predicted), but I’m marginally less excited about it now.
Lots of Diva involvement throughout the PPV, which is always a good thing in my estimation. I feel like a broken record, but the more time they get to perform, they better they get each week. AJ Lee and Paige got very little in the way of CM Punk chants, which started early but died out almost instantly. I don’t understand their random “we’re best friends” gimmick, as it’s obviously going to fall apart, but didn’t need to exist in the first place. Seems to me like an unnecessary angle when the story should just be about two similar ladies going out there and fighting.
The Miz won the Intercontinental Championship in a spot I swear we’ve seen before, from him, at least once. I had almost forgotten about him, and genuinely bought into the last few minutes from Dolph Ziggler and Sheamus. It was good misdirection, and as a Miz fan I’m pleased enough with the finish and look forward to a potential unification program with the US Champ heading into SummerSlam.
Side note: how good is Kofi Kingston? My friend watching the show with me, who knows nothing about pro wrestling, actually said “how isn’t that guy just the champion by default!?” Unfortunately WWE sees athletic talent and innovative creativity as minor gimmicks to be exploited.
