We’re coming into the homestretch for Super Show-Down and what a week’s it’s been in WWE!

On RAW, Dean Ambrose is given a shocking offer that tests his loyalty, Brie Bella makes a serious mistake at Liv Morgan’s expense, the Revival gets the title shot they were screwed out of by Ziggler and McIntyre, Corbin calls in some surprising help against the Shield, the war of words between Lashley, his hype man, Lio Rush, and Elias and Kevin Owens continues, and Sunil Singh pays the price for Mahal’s mistake.

On SmackDown, Samoa Joe takes his sadistic mind games to a whole new level, Becky’s war against Charlotte continues, the destruction of Team Rusev Day takes a shocking turn, and the Empresses of Glow have their first match as a tag team.

On 205 Mustafa Ali finally gets his rematch against Hideo Itami, Noam Dar and Lio Rush finally square off, and Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy face off before their Super Show-Down match.

On NXT, Tommaso Ciampa faces Otiz Dozivic, Candice LeRae is confronted by an unexpected rival, Lars Sullivan’s path of destruction meets a surprising obstacle, Undisputed Era learns that William Regal isn’t one to play games with, the war between Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler finds its next battlefield and Nikki Cross lets us in on a secret.

So how did WWE do? Let’s find out!

RAW

Shield vs Dogs of War: The Shield kicked off RAW. Well, actually, the first person we saw was birthday girl, Stephanie McMahon, and Triple H, Steph getting a really bad rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ from GM Corbin. Stephanie was not happy with Corbin’s performance, including the Universal Title match last week. Steph was fed up with Corbin’s excuses and told him that he needed to find two partners because he’s facing the Shield tonight. If Corbin can’t get his act together, Kurt Angle will be back from vacation earlier than expected.

Now, the Shield DID kick off RAW, in full gear, belts in tow, music, the whole kaboodle. Ambrose touted the Shield as the workhorses of WWE. The Shield may lose battles, they don’t lose wars. Roman says that reading their resumes would take too long, when all they have to do is show their belts, which everyone wants.

Rollins mocked Corbin and the Dogs of War, challenging Corbin to come out and see what a big problem the Shield can be.

Corbin did respond to the challenge, vowing to keep things under control for Stephanie and that RAW won’t degenerate into chaos like it has the last few weeks, even though that was mostly because Corbin is incompetent. He also brings out the Dogs of War to take on the Shield, like that’s a really scary threat.

Unfortunately, Corbin proved that he got the GM post by being a kiss ass, not a thinker because putting those six men in one area is a guarantee of chaos. Ziggler proved that he was the real brains of this outfit, mocking Dean with the fact that Rollins and Reigns has shiny belts and Dean didn’t, which seem to get to the Lunatic Fringe, pointing out that Reigns and Rollins seemed to have forgotten about him while he was out.

Finally, Reigns got sick of this and challenged the Dogs to a fight, much to Corbin’s dismay. However GM Wet Blanket stopped the potential fight and reminded Ziggler and McIntyre that they had a match against the Revival and Corbin and his partners will take care of the Shield.

Like a shark smelling blood and the nervousness of the man who drew the short straw, Ziggler approached Dean backstage, and nearly got his head taken of by a very irate Lunatic. Ziggler leaned in on his comments from the start of the show, even bringing up Dean’s nearly fatal staph infection. He told Ambrose that he and the Dogs would be at ringside during the six man, all Ambrose has to do is give the signal and they’ll take care of it.

Before Ziggler and McIntyre could really worry about the Shield, they needed to worry about the Revival, who was finally getting the title match they were robbed of two weeks ago. Not surprisingly, the match was AMAZING! Unfortunately, the Revival would fall to Ziggler and McIntyre. More interesting than that unsurprising outcome, was the fact that the match was being watched by Dean Ambrose.

Deciding that sauce for the goose is good for the gander, Seth decided give the Dogs a taste of their own medicine, telling McIntyre that Strowman and Ziggler were using him. McIntyre confronted Ambrose about this, reminding Dean that Rollins has stabbed him in the back before.

The main event was fraught with tension even before we found out who Corbin’s partners were, which was AoP, accompanied by Drake Maverick.  The match was amazing, but the presence of the Dogs of War during the match added a combustible mix into the match. Ultimately, the Shield’s brand of organized, chaotic, teamwork would bring them another victory.

After the match, however, was a moment of truth for Ambrose. He was outside the ring, seeming caught between his brothers and the Dogs of War. After several VERY tense seconds, Ambrose seemed to have made his choice, he chose his brothers. Back to the drawing board, Dogs.

RAW Women’s Division: The one-on-one match between Brie Bella and Ruby Riott didn’t happen. What we got was Nattie and the Bella Twins vs the Riott Squad. The match was going pretty well until a misplaced Yes!Kick from Brie seemed to knock Liv Morgan out on her Jordans. To her immense credit, Morgan continued the match, but it was clear that the lights weren’t completely on. Logan and Riott would soldier on, getting the victory after a Riott Kick to Natalya.

Nia Jax took on Alicia Fox in singles competition. Fox was accompanied by Alexa Bliss and Mickie James, while Jax was accompanied by Ember Moon. This match wasn’t pretty, Jax pretty much dominated Fox, though Fox gave her a pretty good fight. The Irresistible Force is looking pretty dominating, but when will she have a chance to get her hands on Alexa Bliss again?

Undertaker vs Triple H: Triple H cut a promo about the Undertaker after being told about Taker’s comments. Triple H says that if Taker’s worried about a suit, he’s already lost and that he’s sold his soul long ago. Triple H vows that the end is near for Taker.

Elias vs Bobby Lashley: Lio Rush’s role with with Bobby Lashley has a name: Hype Man and Rush did a good job of that on Monday before Lashley’s match with Elias. Ignoring Owens and Elias’ taunts, that included a child’s booster seat, Rush did a good job of hyping the hometown (sort of ) boy, Lashley, and did an even better job of outrunning Kevin Owens and Elias.

What happened was that Owens had a segment of his ‘Kevin Owens Show’ with special guest, Elias, and the two spent their time trashing Lashley and Rush. Both Owens and Elias got theirs, to a degree. Elias got his butt kicked, while Owens got outsmarted by Rush and punched by Lashley.

Chad Gable vs Konnor: Gable and Konnor of the Ascension met up again this week and, despite a valiant effort by Gable, Konnor was able to pick up a win, much to the chagrin of Bobby Roode.

Finn Balor (with Bayley) vs Jinder Mahal (with Sunil and Alicia Fox): With Sasha Banks out with an injury, Bayley was seconding long time friend, and Mixed Tag Challenge partner, Finn Balor, against Jinder Mahal, who was accompanied by Sunil and Mixed Tag partner, Alicia Fox.

The match was really good with a lot of back and forth, but Balor would pick up the win after Mahal was distracted by Bayley taking out Fox and Sunil. Unfortunately, Sunil paid the price for Mahal’s mistake, getting the tar beat out of him by Mahal before everyone settled into a meditation session, which looked like something out of a cult.

SmackDown Live

WWE Championship: Styles and Samoa Joe had a contract signing for their rematch in Australia and, as usual for contract signings in WWE, nothing went the way it was supposed to. AJ showed up, ready to sign the contract, Paige was there with plenty of security guards to stave off trouble. Except that Samoa Joe wasn’t at SmackDown, he wasn’t even in the State of Colorado, he was in Georgia, at AJ’s house, where AJ’s wife and kids were. AJ went ballistic and SmackDown ended before anyone at the house responded to Samoa Joe’s doorbell ringing.

WWE United States Championship: Over the weekend, Tye Dillinger called out Shinsuke Nakamura, which resulted in Dillinger challenging Nakamura on Tuesday. The match was actually going pretty well, until Randy Orton stuck his nose in, for some reason, attacking Dillinger, resulting in a DQ.

SmackDown Women’s Division: Becky Lynch’s campaign to destroy Charlotte continues. This time, Becky attacked Charlotte during a photo shoot and demanded that she be photographed standing over Charlotte.

Naomi and Asuka took on Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose in their first match as a team. The IIconics were on commentary, having been interrupted by the Empresses of Glow before they could start their usual Mean Girls shtick.

This match was…okay. There were some awkward spots, but the Empresses would pull out the win after taking out Sonya Deville with stereo kicks to the chest.

Despite a valiant effort by an angry Lana, Becky would be victorious in her first match as Women’s Champion. The match was quick with Becky making Lana tap to the Dis-Arm-Her.

SmackDown Tag Team Division: Sheamus took on Big E in singles action as both the Bar and New Day look to build momentum heading into Super Show-Down. Sheamus and E took it to each other tooth and nail, but a Brogue Kick knocked Big E out, letting Sheamus pick up the pinfall. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in Melbourne.

Rusev vs Aiden English: The issue between Rusev and Aiden English took a scandalous turn this week. All Rusev wanted was an explanation of English’s actions. What he got was English trying to take credit for Rusev’s success, but also trying to make Lana the Yoko Ono of Team Rusev Day, despite the fact that Lana and Rusev were already married before English came along. As a parting shot, English asked Lana if she’d ever told Rusev about that one night in Milwaukee. What happened in Milwaukee is a mystery to everyone, including Lana, who professes her innocence.

Added to Lana’s troubles is Becky Lynch, who stuck her nose in, claiming that since she’s Women’s Champion, Lana’s business is her business. She also challenged Lana to a match.

As for English, he’s vowed to release video of whatever happened in Milwaukee next week.

Miz and Daniel Bryan + Miz vs R-Truth (with Carmella): Apparently, MizTV has been cancelled and a new show premiered: TruthTV, hosted by R-Truth and a newly brunette Carmella, and as is true with all new shows, there’s a few awkward spots, but there’s dance breaks to make up for it. Their first guest is Daniel Bryan, who manages to cut a pretty good promo on why he’ll beat Miz at Super Show-Down, while trying to keep from laughing at Truth and Carmella’s antics.

There always has to be a party pooper, and this time, it was Miz, who was NOT happy about his show being taken over by Truth. When Truth offers to fight him for it, Miz tries to back out, only to be confronted by GM Paige, who told him to go back out there and fight.

The match was fabulous, as expected, and even though Miz won, Truth looked fantastic. Guess TruthTV is a one and done, like a lot of new shows.

205 Live

WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy faced each other backstage in a segment moderated by Drake Maverick. While Alexander talked about pride and his pride in being Cruiserweight Champion and his determination to win, Murphy had a lot of…excuses for why he didn’t win in their last match: They were in Alexander’s backyard, Alexander had his family watching, including his mama.

Alexander says that when he beats Murphy in Australia, Murphy won’t have any excuse since they’ll be in Murphy’s backyard. Murphy counters that no excuses will be needed on his part, because he WILL beat Alexander in Melbourne. Oddly, this confrontation ended without any fists flying, but there will be no civility in Melbourne.

Lio Rush vs Noam Dar: After ducking Dar last week, Lio Rush and the Scottish Supernova faced off tonight. The match started with Rush taking a cheap shot, which Dar made him pay for.

The match was great, Dar really seemed to have Rush’s number, but Rush would get a victory after a mistake by Dar, but I have a feeling Dar isn’t going to let this go.

In an after-show interview, Dar admitted to underestimating how fast Rush was, comparing him to a gazelle, which Dar has never seen. However, if Lio is a gazelle, Dar is a lion, or a bear, or a bear/lion mashup. Anyway, this belion (that’s what he called it) is going to keep chasing Lio Rush until he catches him. Rush is still a dafty, BTW.

Mustafa Ali vs Hideo Itami: So the much anticipated rematch between Mustafa Ali and Hideo Itami was this week and, to no great shock, it was even better than the first round. Ali, at full strength, was more than a match for Itami, who did everything he could to stop the Heart of 205, but Ali kept getting up and coming back for more. This amazing fight would end in a double count out, which is fine with me, because that means we’re going to get more of this feud.

Brian Kendrick vs Mr. No Name: The Wizard of Odd was back in action after suffering an injury against Akira Tozawa in a match so quick, no one got the name of the poor schmuck he was wrestling. Kendrick made quick work of the hapless jobber, whoever he was, but insult was added to anonymity when Gulak and Gallagher beat the poor guy up after Kendrick won. Have a feeling Gulak’s going to be taking out his rage on whomever crosses his path for awhile.

TJP vs Lucha House Party: TJP’s campaign of disrespect towards the masked luchadors continued this week. Despite claiming that he had a lot of respect for the luchador tradition due to getting his start in Mexico, TJP also admitted that he didn’t care about the mask. What he cares about is tapping people out.

NXT

NXT Championship: Tomato Champa faced Otis Dozovic in one-on-one action. Ciampa certainly had his work cut out for him as Dozer was twice his size.

This match was fun. Dozovic was a load of concrete, but this match wasn’t awful. When Ciampa tried to take a countout loss rather than get squashed like a bug, Tucker Knight came out to be sure his partner wasn’t robbed of a real victory. Ciampa got so desperate, he tried to use the female referee as a shield. Ciampa would finally pull out a victory, but it took two nasty DDTs to do it. Dozer has nothing to be ashamed of, but I don’t think that’ll make him feel better.

NXT North American Championship/NXT Tag Team Championship: Undisputed Era interrupted GM Regal’s promo on the Aleister Black situation and decided to complain about the attacks on them by War Machine. Regal made a comment about them complaining about his investigation, which UE didn’t appreciate. Cole then complained about Ricochet not giving him a rematch, despite the fact that Cole hasn’t asked for one. He also pointed out that Cole wanted Pete Dunne to soften up Ricochet and then robbed Pete Dunne of his title opportunity last week.

Undisputed Era learned the hard way to not try to play games with William Regal, who has not only played all the games, he wrote the cheat codes. Cole will get his rematch against Ricochet AND Pete Dunne in a triple threat match in two weeks. O’Reilly and Strong will face War Machine in three weeks.

NXT Tag Team Division: The Mighty squared off with the Street Profits after weeks of attacks and theft. The Profits weren’t in the mood for games after seeing their stuff and culture disrespected by the Mighty, though the significance of the Black Solo Cup is still a mystery to me.

The match was really good and the Mighty would pull out a victory, but this war isn’t going to be over any time soon. Profits are done playing games.

NXT Women’s Division: Lacey Evans, for reasons only known to her, decided to go after Johnny Gargano and insult Candice LeRae, stating that she wasn’t a good wife for not fighting alongside her husband, despite Candice doing exactly that in the past. I have a feeling that Evans is going to regret pushing LeRae’s buttons.

Nikki Cross, who seems to hold the keys to the Aleister Black mystery, was found in Regal’s office, not to finally say what she saw the night Aleister Black was attacked, but to ask if she could ‘play’ with Bianca Belair again. Regal said he would think about it and Nikki left, but not before saying she knew something. What Nikki knows is anyone’s guess.

NXT Women’s Champion, Kairi Sane was in action against Vanessa Bourne. The Vision didn’t seem to have much respect for the Pirate Princess, wearing her hat and kicking it around the ring, which was NOT appreciated. Sane beat the snot out of Bourne for her disrespect, finishing the Vision with an InSane Elbow. While She was celebrating, former champ, Shayna Baszler came out and demanded her rematch. Kairi agreed, but the Queen of Spades will have to wait for WWE Evolution.

Aleister Black Mystery: Despite the rude interruption from before, Sherlock Regal is still on the hunt for the person who attacked Aleister Black and he seems to be closing in. Problem is that he still needs to get answers from Nikki Cross.

In a post-show interview, while the Undisputed Era was singing their tale of woe, they were interrupted by Nikki Cross, who said that words we’ve all been waiting to hear: ‘I know who attacked Aleister Black’. Will Nikki let the rest of us in on the secret? We’ll find out next week, I guess.

Lars Sullivan vs Victor Worchak : The Leviathan was in action on Wednesday against Victor Worchak, who didn’t stand a chance. However, Sullivan’s rampage was stopped by the returning EC3, who jumped Sullivan from behind and beat him from the ring.

Tiffany’s Takeaways

RAW: I LOVE the new ‘Then, Now, Forever’ opener. Yes, it includes Hogan, but that shouldn’t detract from how cool the rest of it is.

The seeds of Ambrose’s heel turn were planted tonight and I am here for it. It was a little heavy-handed, but very well done. Ziggler and McIntyre hit all the right notes with their pitches to Ambrose on why he should ditch the Shield. I don’t think Ambrose will turn heel in the immediate future, but his hesitation showed that they got to him.

I love Brie Bella to pieces, but she needs to re-think this comeback. Botches happen more often in wrestling than we think, but Brie has had some pretty obvious ones lately. The one with Morgan on Monday was not totally Brie’s fault, but she’s not blameless either.

I love the Conner’s Cure segments. Yes, they’re heavy-handed heartstring pullers, but WWE really does seem to be invested in this movement and I applaud them for it. To make a sick child’s day brighter, even for just a few minutes, is worth having to sit through all the sappiness.

I’m glad the Revival finally got their title match, not happy that they lost. I get why, but that doesn’t make it easier. Hopefully, WWE will give them a real chance down the road.

Authors of Pain being in the main event felt right. They’re probably the one team that can really take it to the Shield.

Glad to see Stephanie getting fed up with Corbin. He really doesn’t have the stuff to be a good authority figure.

SmackDown: This sounds EXTREMELY superficial, but I LOVE Carmella’s new look. Dark brown hair really suits her.

Farewell, Lana’s accent, and good riddance.

I’m not sold on WWE’s bid to have English try to make Lana the Yoko Ono of Team Rusev Day, especially since Lana was managing Rusev before English. If anything, English seems more like the Eric Clapton to Rusev and Lana’s George Harrison and Patti Boyd.

WWE is determined to make the fans hate Becky by trying to turn her into a bully, but I don’t think it’ll work.

The IIconics need a new gimmick. The wannabe Plastics thing might work in NXT, but they come across as those girls in high school who think they’re super cool, but that the real cool kids can’t stand.

Randy Orton is Nakamura’s hired goon, there’s no getting around this and it ‘s kind of pathetic.

Samoa Joe showing up at AJ’s house is really creepy, but if he’s not there to sign the contract, does he still get the rematch? He no-showed to work.

205: I was ultimately disappointed in the Dar/Rush match. It felt too onesided and quick.

Even though Gulak’s ongoing temper tantrum over being beaten fair and square AGAIN is perfectly in line with what heels normally do, I’m having trouble taking him seriously as a top heel, I’m not sure why.

NXT: LOVE Regal being the cool, heelish General Manager. He knows every game you can play, which makes him perfect for the role of General Manager for NXT.

Evans vs LeRae is going to be an interesting feud.

Sane vs Baszler is going to be the show stealer of Evolution.

Nikki Cross is probably my favorite part of NXT. I can’t wait for her reveal who attacked Aleister Black.

Ciampa vs Dozovic was was fun, which we need sometimes. I don’t think anyone honest thought Dozer was going to win, but it was a fun match to watch.

Gargano vs Nese seems like a really interesting match up, but I have a feeling that it’s going to be used as part of the Black mystery.

The Street Profits showed a more serious side this week in their match with the Mighty and I really liked it.

Mae Young Classic: Wednesday was the final night of Round 1 and honestly, despite being a little disappointed in a few eliminations, Round 2 is looking SUPER stacked. A case could really be made for any one of these ladies.

Jesse Elaban is a real life Kimmie Gibbler/AJ Lee mashup. I honestly hope she sticks around.

I want to see Taynara Conti vs Ronda Rousey down the road in a Judo match.

I find it interesting that they’re playing with face and heel this time, or they were in Conti vs Elaban, until Conti won and started crying, which totally kills her as a heel.

Michael Cole’s enthusiasm for the Mae Young Classic is amazing. He seems to be genuinely having fun calling the match. It’s such a contrast to how he is on RAW.

Despite wanting an all-female announce team for Evolution, I’ll happily take Cole/Phoenix/Young as the commentary team.

Xia Brookside is going to be a star in a few years. She still has a lot of learning and growing to do, but she’s got it. Watching her dad see his daughter wrestle for the first time was very moving.

Tiff’s Tantrums. 

To the people fansplaining the dangers of wrestling and concussions to Corey Graves and other ring veterans: SHUT. UP! Unless you’re a neurosurgeon and/or a former professional wrestler, you don’t know what you’re talking about and they are well within their right to mock you.

Alberto Del Rio’s comments about Paige and her brother are sickening and proves what an absolute pile of flaming garbage he is. Paige has gotten her life on track and the fact that ADR has repeatedly trashed her and/or blamed her for his actions is classic abuser behavior, as is airing her dirty laundry in an effort to make himself look better. Dude, shut up and go away.

While I get that Triple H, Batista, and Orton were all a big part of SmackDown’s history, especially during the first Brand Split, advertising that Evolution will be reuniting makes no sense since that stable was exclusive to RAW. It seems like no-brainer booking, if you ignore that logic lapse. I will say that I have a feeling that there will be a Shield/Evolution confrontation over Orton’s claim that Evolution was the most dominant faction in WWE history, which is true only if you ignore DX and the Shield.

RAW’s diminished ratings aren’t a surprise since we’re in the start of football and the new TV seasons. The ratings always take a hit every year around this time because there’s a lot more stuff to compete against. It’s not a big deal, stop pretending it’s the end of the world.

I find the narrative that the Author’s of Pain being featured on the Main Event of RAW after being in quick matches against jobbers for weeks, is a burial, a little baffling. Shield made them look like big players, and neither of them took the pin. How is this a burial?

WWE not overly promoting Evolution right now isn’t a surprise because they have to promote Super Show Down. Once we’re past that, they’ll have about three weeks to fully promote and already pretty stacked looking card, just like every other PPV, calm down.

Final Thoughts: I really enjoyed WWE TV this week. The card for Super Show-Down is looking really good.

So, that’s it for this week’s Week in Review for WWE. Have a great week and be good to each other.