This week, WWE is moving past SummerSlam and looking forward to a very busy fall. We have Hell in a Cell, the Super Show Down Under, and Evolution. Baron Corbin is in full control of RAW, the Shield will have to face the wrath of Braun Strowman after they stopped his cash-in attempt last week. On SmackDown, AJ Styles continues to deal with Samoa Joe’s twisted mind games, Charlotte will have to put her feelings about her fractured friendship with Becky on hold in order to survive Carmella’s attempt to regain her SmackDown Women’s title. So, how did they do? Let’s find out!

RAW

WWE Universal Championship: Well, it’s officially official, Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman will face off in Hell in a Cell. The Monster Among Men was still seething about his failed cash-in last week due to the Shield. The Big Dog said that he was there to meet Strowman in the ring, just like Strowman wanted, but if the Meat Shack didn’t show up soon, he was going to issue an open challenge for the Universal Title, just like he promised. Strowman came out and mocked Roman for having Ambrose and Rollins come out to save him last week.

Roman countered by saying that all three members of the Shield knew what it was like to be top guys, while Strowman just knew how to push things over and say ‘Get these hands!’. However, if Strowman wants to cash in, they can do that right now. Strowman refused, stating that Roman would just have his boys save him again, but Monster in the Bank has already decided on where and when he DOES want to cash-in: Hell in a Cell, where the Shield won’t be able to help Roman. I guess Strowman missed the part where Roman is undefeated in Hell in a Cell matches. Roman accepts the challenge on a handshake and the match is made.

However, Ziggler and McIntyre come out, complaining about how the Intercontinental was stolen from Ziggler by Ambrose and Rollins at SummerSlam, despite the fact that it has nothing to do with Reigns or Strowman and neither Rollins nor Ambrose are even in the ring. ANYWAY, Ziggler says that he fully plans to invoke his rematch clause to become a seven time IC champion. After that announcement, he finally gets to the point of him being out there and says Reigns and Strowman need new challenges and Ziggler and McIntyre are there to be that challenge so they can knock them off the mountain and be the top guys. This makes me wonder why they’re even bothering to invoke the rematch clause for the IC title if they want to take on Strowman and Reigns.

Reigns and Strowman are bored with this bottle of whine (as am I) and are ready to shut Ziggler and McIntyre up, but acting General Manager Corbin steps in. Apparently, Corbin thinks he invented the concept of being General Manager because he books a, you guessed it, tag team match for the main event: Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman vs Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, claiming that Angle would never have thought of it, despite Angle doing exactly those kinds of matches before. Further more, Strowman WILL get his cash-in at Hell in a Cell.

Later in the evening, Corbin was talking to Braun Strowman and Strowman surrendered his briefcase to Corbin, despite the fact that Hell in a Cell is about two weeks away. Given the fact that Corbin showed a perfect willingness to abuse his power before he was given sole control of RAW, and is a former Mr. Money in the Bank who failed to successfully cash-in, Strowman surrendering his briefcase so soon seems like a pretty unwise decision.

If anyone thought Strowman, having seemingly gotten what he wanted, would let sleeping dogs lie, they were disabused of that thought during the main event. Things seemed to be plugging along until Strowman was tagged in and let Reigns get beat up by Ziggler and McIntyre and joined in the assault.

Both Rollins and Ambrose had had pretty tough matches that night and were a little delayed coming out to the rescue. Unfortunately, the weakened hounds suffered their own beatdowns at the hands of Strowman, Ziggler, and McIntyre. However, it’s a safe bet that the Hounds of Justice will be out for blood next week.

WWE Intercontinental Championship: Seth Rollins came to the ring alone, having left buddy Dean Ambrose in the back. Seth cut a promo about how all three members of the Shield were workhorses and that tonight was about Intercontinental Championship action. He’d planned on facing some combination of Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, but since they already had plans, his dance card was suddenly free. So, how about an open challenge instead? The challenge was answered by Kevin Owens, who was last seen getting squashed like a bug at SummerSlam.

The Ours Grincheaux (grumpy bear) of WWE assured his long time friend that he was happy that Seth was living his best life right now, but since coming to RAW after WrestleMania, Owens’ life has not been great. While Rollins got to have his bestest friend in the whole world with him at SummerSlam and got to walk out as champion, Owens had been on his own against Braun Strowman, since Sami Zayn was out with injury, which had also kept Owens from becoming Mr. Money in the Bank. However, Owens is determined to end his streak of rotten luck tonight, he’s not leaving Toronto without a title.

Do I need to say that this was a great match? I’ll say it anyway, this was a GREAT match. Rollins and Owens always work well together and tonight was no different. It truly seemed that Owens was going to get his wish and walk out of Toronto as the new Intercontinental Champion, but a missed moonsault and a Curb Stomp put an end to Owens’ dream of championship glory. Rollins walked out with his Intercontinental Championship and Owens was left in the ring.

After a few minutes, Owens got up, got a chair and sat down, looking out at the crowd in his home country and utters the one phrase no one thought they’d hear Kevin Owens say, “I Quit!”, and stormed out.  Time will tell what’s going on, but for now, the Prizefighter has left the building.

RAW Women’s Division: Tonight was a pretty big night for the RAW Women’s Division. Elias was doing his usual schtick in the ring when Toronto’s very own, WWE Hall of Famer, Trish Stratus, interrupted him! The Greatest Diva of All Time came to the ring, taking exception to Elias’ jibes about her hometown. Elias became the latest person to discover what Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Chris Jericho, Lita, Mickie James, Jazz, and Victoria all found out the hard way: NEVER piss off Trish Stratus. When Elias made a rude comment about Trish’s age, Trish didn’t hesitate to slap the taste out of his mouth. Before Elias could really think about doing anything in retaliation, Ronda Rousey and another Canadian darling, Nattie Neidhart, came down to the ring so Nattie could have her match against Alicia Fox.

Alicia was accompanied by Alexa Bliss, who wasted no time trashing all three women in the ring, including Trish, who Alexa will be facing at Evolution. Bliss also vowed to get her title back at Hell in a Cell. For now, the Foxy One and the Goddess were joined by the Crazy One. Mickie James was back and given her and Trish’s history, it certainly promised an interesting match.

The match was pretty good, Alexa and Mickie both tried to help Alicia win by taking cheap shots at Nattie, but that only brought Trish and Ronda into the fight, sending Alexa and Mickie scurrying and Alicia Fox had no choice but to tap out to the Sharpshooter, much to the delight of the very pro-Nattie crowd.

Backstage, the victorious trio encountered the Bella Twins, who congratulated Nattie and Trish for representing. They also had a little announcement: They will competing against the Riott Squad next week on RAW!!! For the first time in almost three years, the Bellas will be teaming up in a WWE ring (no, Women’s Royal Rumble doesn’t count). In celebration, Trish, Nikki, Brie, Nattie, and Ronda took a selfie.

When the Riott Squad was asked about it in a post-show interview, they were full of confidence, claiming to be the most dominating force in the WWE and mocking the Bellas for what they’d been up to: Filming Total Divas and Total Bellas, having children and planning weddings (oops). Though they claimed to not be taking the Bellas lightly (even though it sounds like they are), given Nikki’s status as the longest reigning Divas’ Champion of all Time and Brie as the backbone of her family, it’s no secret that the Bellas have turned on each other more than once. The Riott Squad has never turned on each other and that’s why they’ll beat the legendary Bella Twins.

In non-Women’s Title events, Dana Brooke, who has been working as the numbers cruncher for Titus Worldwide, had a match against Sasha Banks. Dana was accompanied by Titus, much to the chagrin of Apollo Crews, though it seems Titus is trying to neutralize the growing closeness between his protege and his numbers person. It goes without saying that Sasha was accompanied by Bayley.

The match was okay, Dana has improved a great deal since her NXT days, but she was really no match for Sasha, who made Brooke tap out to the Banks Statement. In a post match interview, Bayley and Sasha were asked about the shattered relationship between fellow Four Horsewomen members, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. Both women seemed to find the whole situation hilarious, despite their own past issues. However, Sasha took Becky’s side, citing Charlotte’s history of bringing her dad into everything. Bayley said that she wasn’t getting into the middle of it, but she understood Becky’s feelings.

Comment: Maybe it’s me, but Sasha and Bayley came across as very heelish this week. Something about their reaction to Sasha’s victory over Dana Brooke, and their comments about the Charlotte/Becky situation reminded me of the IIconics.

RAW Tag Team Championship: The Revival had another chance to prove to Corbin that they deserved another shot at the B-Team’s Tag Team Championship and they took full advantage of it. They faced a very determined B-Team, who sensed that keeping a hold of their belts depended on surviving this match. However, the Revival pulled off the win after a great match, making a definitive statement that they should get another shot. After the match, the Revival grabbed the Tag Belts, cutting a promo where they asserted that they were tired of the mockery that the B-Team had made the Tag Titles, citing legendary teams like the Road Warriors and the Brain Busters, while ignoring every great tag team of the 90s and 00s.

Baron Corbin: The acting GM of RAW wasted no time in abusing his power, booking himself in a rematch against Finn Balor and then changing the match so he use a chair to defeat Balor and not be DQ’d. Later on, Corbin would try and get some revenge on Bobby Lashley for his humiliating loss last Monday by putting him in a match and not telling him who his opponent was, claiming that he couldn’t remember who it was. He also assured Stephanie McMahon that he’d do what it took to get Kevin Owens back, which, given what he has in his possession, makes Strowman’s decision to hand over the briefcase over so early seem more and more like a really bad idea.

Bobby Lashley vs the Ascension: Corbin’s memory lapse lasted until Lashley got to the ring, his opponents were revealed to be the Ascension in a handicap match. Lashley made quick work of the hapless pair and seemed unimpressed by Corbin’s antics.

Dean Ambrose vs Jinder Mahal: The Lunatic Fringe had a match with Jinder Mahal, after the Modern Day Maharaja tried his meditation shtick. Ambrose wasn’t interested and told Mahal that he saw Mahal in great pain and crying before warning Mahal to get out of his face. So, with that, we have a match. Ambrose and Mahal put on a pretty good match, but the Modern Day Maharaja and his sidekick, Sunil, discovered that Dean not someone to take lightly. The Lunatic Fringe staved off the Modern Day Maharaja and finished off the night with some Dirty Deeds.

Triple H vs Undertaker: All throughout the night, we got clips of WWE legends talking about the rivalry between Triple H and the Undertaker and how the final chapter will be written at the Super Show in Australia. Everyone seemed excited by the prospect, which is understandable given the great matches the two men have put on together. We also found out that Mr. WrestleMania, Shawn Michaels will be on RAW next week!

SmackDown

WWE Championship: Samoa Joe ramped up his mind games this week, going from unsettling to downright disturbing. While Styles was in the ring cutting a promo, promising to end Joe’s harrassment of his family, saying that his former friend wasn’t a ‘man’ after what he’d done to AJ and his family. Unfortunately, Joe had absolutely no intention of stopping his harrassment. He mocked Styles and then called AJ’s wife, Wendy, promising that Styles would be coming home and asking if they were still on for the after school BBQ.

Needless to say, Styles blew a gasket. He searched all over the backstage area for Joe, and grew increasingly angry when he couldn’t find him. This feud will culminate at Hell in a Cell, but there’s still been no word on whether or not the match will actually be IN the cell.

WWE United States Championship: Nakamura didn’t have a match this week. He did a WWE.com exclusive interview saying that he wasn’t going to compete because he makes the rules in the United States of Nakamerica. Have a feeling Paige is going to have something to say about that.

SmackDown Women’s Division: Last week, the long friendship between Charlotte and Becky seemed to have fractured beyond repair after Charlotte seemingly stole the SmackDown Women’s Title from Becky just when it seemed Becky was about to make Carmella tap at SummerSlam. Becky, quite understandably, was NOT happy about this and seemed to turn on her best friend.

This week, Charlotte had other things on her mind, namely fending off former champion, Carmella, who wants her title back. Carmella expressed no interest in Charlotte and Becky’s issues, she viewed Becky’s turn as a temper tantrum. As far as Carmella is concerned, HER title was stolen from her due to Paige putting her in a Triple Threat match and as long as she can win her title back, Charlotte and Becky can do their own thing.

Charlotte, for her part, still doesn’t seem to fully grasp just why Becky is angry or that maybe, she deserved what happened. In a pre-match interview, Charlotte commented that nobody deserves something they don’t win. She justifies her actions at SummerSlam by stating that she couldn’t let Becky win, despite the fact that Becky HAD the match won, and that she won’t apologize for working hard. However, the Queen is willing to give Becky the spotlight she wants, AFTER she’s done with Carmella.

Comment: I honestly wanted to slap Charlotte in the face over this promo. She came across as so entitled and tone deaf it just pissed me off.

Carmella’s bid to be the second woman to beat Charlotte Flair three times in a title match fell short, but it wasn’t from a lack of trying. The Princess of Staten Island threw everything she had at the Queen of WWE, but was forced to tap out to the Figure Eight. While Charlotte was celebrating her victory, she was attacked from behind by Becky, who gave her former best friend a thorough beating before demanding the mic. The Relent-Lass told her former friend that when she got what she wanted, she was going to take back HER title at Hell in a Cell, bitch, before walking away to the joy of the crowd.

Naomi had a match against Billie Kay of the IIconics, hoping to avenge losing to Peyton Royce, with help from Billie Kay last week. Naomi put up a heck of a fight, but Kay was able to pull out the win with a big assist from Peyton Royce. In a post-match Instagram post, Naomi bemoaned the fact that she has no back up, stating that she’d pay to have someone back her up, perhaps setting the stage for a return.

SmackDown Tag Team Championship: New Day was jubilant, having defeated the Bludgeon Brothers last week in a brutal No DQ match. They started SmackDown with a celebration, including being knighted by King Booker for being five times champs. Mostly, they were there to see the first match of the tournament to determine the next #1 Contenders. Tonight’s match is a triple threat between The Bar, Gallows and Anderson, and the returning Colons.

The match was amazing. All three teams gave it everything they had, however, the Bar would pull out the victory by pinning Anderson. Next week, the Usos will face Sanity and Team Rusev after Paige was convinced to add Aiden English and Rusev after they and Lana claimed to be back on the same page.

Daniel Bryan vs Andrade Almas: Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella cut a promo tonight, bragging about Brie punching Miz and calling out Miz and Maryse for Maryse constantly helping Miz win, which Brie doesn’t need to do with Bryan. Brie also admits that she was going to punch Maryse, but settled for Miz instead.

They were interrupted by Andrade Almas and Zelina Vega, who were not impressed by the power couple. Vega challenged Bryan to take on Almas. Bryan demurred until Paige came out, winded from running to gorilla from her office, in heels, and made the match official.

It’s unfortunate that this match was used simply to further the Miz/Bryan storyline because this was a really great match. Bryan and Almas were amazing together. However, the fun was broken up by sneak attacks by Miz and Maryse and Vega, which gave Bryan a DQ victory. Miz and Maryse were very proud of themselves, but it’s a safe bet that Bryan and Brie will be looking for revenge next week AND at Hell in a Cell.

Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton: Last week, Jeff Hardy finally got his revenge after weeks of insults and torment by a jealous Randy Orton, taking the Viper to the woodshed last week. Hardy admitted that Orton’s attacks and taunts had gotten into his head, but it’s made him feel alive. Brother Nero peeks out and demands that Orton let Jeff Hardy finish Orton’s project.

Orton, who seemed a little perplexed by this came out and said that while he appreciated being given credit for the rebirth of Jeff Hardy, he isn’t done and won’t be satisfied until he’s stripped Hardy of his identity and ended his career.

Hardy says ‘No!’ and that he’s going to hell and taking Orton along for the ride. He wants their next match to be in Hell in a Cell. Orton is so shocked, he drops the mic without accepting or refusing the challenge, so it remains to be seen if the Enigma and the Viper will end this feud in Satan’s Structure or not. However, given Jeff’s penchant for doing Swantons off of things, Orton’s hesitation is very understandable.

205 Live

WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Cedric Alexander wasn’t in action tonight, nor was his rival, Drew Gulak. However Alexander did do an interview, saying that Gulak had proven what a spineless coward and hypocrite he was by turning tail and running when Alexander confronted him last week. Alexander says that he’s going to be in the ring and is willing to finish what they started, if Gulak has the guts to confront him.

Akira Tozawa vs Brian Kendrick (with Jack Gallagher): After his bid to regain some momentum was halted by Drew Gulak’s temper tantrum, Tozawa took on Brian Kendrick to try and get some revenge. The match was definitely a throwback to the early days of 205 Live, but in a good way. Tozawa and Kendrick really worked well together and put on a great match. Gallagher did his best to help Kendrick, though he never tried to cheap shot Tozawa, or do more than warn Kendrick of things, which I find odd. Either way, Tozawa was able to get a pinfall on the Wizard of Odd and regained some of the momentum he’d lost going against Lio Rush.

Hideo Itami vs Michael Blaze: Itami’s path of destruction looked set to continue this week on 205. The Man Who Demands Respect cut a promo saying that he was very sorry for what had happened to Mustafa Ali, and by ‘sorry’, he meant that he was sorry he hadn’t done more damage.

This match seemed destined to go the way most of Itami’s matches seemed to go: He basically beat the living hell out of his opponent, although Blaze did manage to get in some offense. However, before Itami could really do some damage, Ali’s music hit! The Heart of 205 came out of the back and rushes the ring, sending Itami running for the hills. Ali challenged Itami to come back and fight and calls him a coward. It seems that GM Maverick is going to have his hands full keeping Ali from over exerting himself in his bid for revenge on Itami.

Kalisto (with Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado) vs Blake Murphy (with Tony Nese): In yet another rematch, Kalisto of the Lucha House Party vs Blake Murphy of the Party Crashers. This match was crazy and went all over the place. Members of both factions got involved, but were eventually forced to leave the ringside area by the referee.

It’s a good thing that this match was great because I’m getting a little bored with this feud. It would be one thing if there was something at stake, but it’s basically been the same match over and over. That said, it was a great match. Murphy would eventually pull out a pinfall victory, but it feels like it’s time for him to move on to something else.

NXT

NXT Championship: Tommaso Ciampa addressed the NXT Universe about his TakeOver victory. The Blackheart was very proud of himself for ending the Gargano fairytale, saying that while he’d been out for his ACL injury, he’d sworn to become the most dangerous superstar ever because while other men scratch and claw their way to the top, Ciampa’s made himself a nice nest there. He also warns that this is just the beginning.

NXT North American Championship/Tag Championship: Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly face Ricochet and Pet Dunne in a Champions vs Champions match that truly lived up to hype. Unfortunately for Ricochet and Dunne, the Undisputed Era was able to pull out due to Cole subbing in, though I’m pretty sure the Freebird Rule isn’t applied to the Undisputed Era. Undisputed Era don’t get much time to savor their shady victory because the War Machine rushes the ring. They don’t care which version of the tag champs they get, they want the belts!

In other tag team developments, the Forgotten Sons, a team comprised of Wesley Blake, Jaxson Ryker, and Steve Cutler interrupted Regal’s interrogation of Velveteen Dream, wanting to know when they’re going to get an opportunity. After assuring Regal that they had nothing to do with what happened to Black, they were told that they’d get an opportunity next week.

NXT Women’ Division: Bianca Belair is getting tired of waiting for her estness to be acknowledged. She wants a shot at the top. Unfortunately, she picked the wrong time to take her issues to Regal. He was trying to get a straight answer out of Nikki Cross, who was more interested in messing Bianca’s braid, much to her annoyance. Bianca’s demand for a title shot caught Nikki’s attention and now she wants one too.

The Queen of Kick, Dakota Kai, took on Aliyah this week in singles action. This was a really good match for both ladies. Aliyah threw everything she had at Kai and nearly had her several times, but Kai was able able to put her away with her patented sunset flip backstabber thing, that looked MUCH smoother than it did when she first showed it off at a NXT house show. It seems that Kairi Sane has at least three possible contenders, not counting Shayna Baszler, waiting on her.

Aleister Black Mystery: Any cop will tell you that eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable, and it’s even worse if you have a witness that’s not…playing with a full deck to start with. William Regal found that out the hard way this week in his investigation of what happened to Aleister Black. Last week, it was revealed that Nikki Cross actually witnessed the attack. Unsurprisingly, Nikki wasn’t forthcoming with what she knew, much to Regal’s frustration, she was more interested in spinning around in her chair.

Nikki wasn’t the only one put on the hot seat by Sherlock Regal. Velveteen Dream and Johnny Gargano also had to answer the question about what happened to Aleister Black and both men denied doing or seeing anything. Gargano pointing out that Regal’s known him for years and should know better.

Lars Sullivan vs Raul Mendoza: EC3 learned a very valuable lesson: Don’t point fingers without actual proof of wrong doing, ESPECIALLY if the person you’re pointing at is Lars Sullivan. The One Percenter sort of, but not really, hinted that Sullivan may have had something to do with the attack on Black. Sullivan took GREAT exception to that and attacked 3, leaving the One Percenter unable to do his match, so Sullivan stepped in. It was a pretty brutal asskicking that ended in a no contest since Sullivan wasn’t the scheduled competitor for Mendoza. Sullivan warned the locker room to never make an accusation against him because he’d rip them limb from limb. Duly noted.

Johnny Gargano: Gargano started off the show by addressing his loss at TakeOver. He revealed that he felt that he didn’t feel like he deserved the crowd’s support since he’d failed, and worse, he’d become something he wasn’t proud of, he’d become Tomasso Ciampa and he didn’t know what to do about it. Regal came out to confront Gargano about what happened to Aleister Black, but Gargano pleaded innocence. Velveteen Dream came out as well, tired of the Gargano pity party. As far as Dream’s concerned, everything should be about the man who stole the show at TakeOver: HIM. Before things could get too out of hand, Regal tells Dream to go to his office and Gargano to go back to the locker room.

Keith Lee vs Luke Menzies: Keith Lee has been making waves since his debut and looked to extend his 1-0 streak. He took on Luke Menzies in a really good match that let Lee show off his amazing athleticism. Menzies put up a pretty good fight, but Lee was unstoppable and extended his streak to 2-0.

Overall Comments: So, how was this week for WWE? Overall, it was a pretty good week on all four shows, but RAW seems to be struggling with promoting three big shows at once, while prepping for a whirlwind overseas tour. SmackDown focused its energy on building its Hell in Cell card, which made for a much more coherent and cohesive show.  Speaking of Hell in a Cell…

Hell in a Cell Predictions: So this week, we got several matches booked for Hell in a Cell they are:

• Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship. This will take place IN Hell in a Cell.
• Ronda Rousey vs Alexa Bliss for the RAW Women’s Title
• AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe
• Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch for the SmackDown Women’s Title.
• New Day vs TBD for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.
• Jeff Hardy vs Randy Orton in Hell in a Cell.
• Daniel Bryan and Brie Bells vs Miz and Maryse – Mixed Tag Match.

Final Thoughts: Overall, I enjoyed this week’s shows, but I think RAW should worry about building their Hell in a Cell card.