That main event was unfortunate. It's probably going to sour most people on what was overall a pretty good show, started great but left a lousy taste in your mouth at the end.
The matches on the kickoff show were a bit mixed. I liked the men's battle royal. The women's was just passable, wasn't that bad but seemed extremely rushed and the ending was really weak. Hated the cruiserweight match, was really sloppy and they never even gave the impression they were fighting one another at all.
I thought the IC title match was great, all three guys did a good job and Rollins ended it pretty well. I'm starting to worry that Miz might try to become a forgettable face again but I think they know better than to do that. He knows what he's good at.
I was surprised Charlotte and Asuka was second, that probably should have been switched with Nia/Alexa but maybe they wanted something more exciting to get things started really well, or maybe they were unsure of how good the chemistry would be. Either way it was a fantastic match, best of the night for me even if it could have used a few more minutes(if only so Asuka's leg could have taken some damage before the finish).
The US title match was pretty much just there. The ending was really awkward and the rest felt fairly uninspired.
Ronda/Kurt/Haitch/Steph was also great. Ronda was really good for her debut match, had a couple of issues early but got all the important bits right. They all looked pretty good(even Stephanie, for her). It wasn't pro wrestling mastery or anything, but it wasn't supposed to be. It was supposed to be fun and it was a whole lot of that, with nothing that ruined the fun to drag it down. I was surprised this one was as early as it was too.
I was pretty happy with the way they handled Cena and Taker. Throwing Elias in there was a fun curveball and they actually managed to get people to boo him, which is getting harder and harder. Was nice to see Taker get to win at mind games and destroy a big opponent for the first time in forever, but I suppose it means they'll have to do it for real next year.
The Daniel Bryan return match was all right, Sami and Kevin did a great job of keeping it entertaining early and then Daniel got to be the triumphant force of nature everybody wanted him to be. He looked pretty good, but should probably try to avoid dropping himself straight on the back of his head in the future.
I think I missed most of the Smackdown tag match, I was right nearby sort of trying to watch, sort of on the computer, it never really grabbed my attention and then by the time I focused on it it was over 30 seconds later.
I was actually pretty impressed with Nia and Alexa's match. I expected it to be a pretty good story told through a really sloppy match, but it turned out to be fairly well done. I think they played it safe as far as difficult moves went, but that let them execute things much better. Alexa did a good job of looking like the speedy but hopelessly outmatched dirty heel trying to cheat to win, and Nia was probably a good way to finally get the title off of her. I do wonder how long it takes before they inexplicably become best friends again though. Then again I wonder how long it will take before WWE can write a story for the women that just involves beating people up for a living instead of idiotic high school drama.
AJ and Nakamura was a pretty good match, but failed to be great. It just seemed like something was missing the whole time, and just as it started getting intense it was over. I didn't mind the pace of it but somehow it didn't have the "passion" or whatever it is that makes a good match a classic. The heel turn was fun though, and should help keep things entertaining in the future. I think this match will probably get criticized a lot because people expected the moon, and because it really needed to be the main event(even if only in people's perceptions).
The Raw tag match was just silly. It was nice and cute and all, but hardly counted as a match. Having the kid there also meant it couldn't be the really violent badassery that Braun excels at when he's not being a clown, so it was just kind of weird. I think it would have been a great "relax for a minute" match if the AJ match had been the classic everyone hoped it would be, but with that one coming up a bit short we probably needed something a little different to get amped up before the main event. Particularly since everybody knew the main event would probably just be a bunch of repeated suplexes and superman punches anyway. As it was, by the time Brock and Roman took to the ring everybody had about forgotten all the fun they were having for the first two-thirds of the show, so they were just waiting to be bored when they got what they expected.
Brock did not look very happy to me at the end of the show. I don't know if it was just because the fans clearly didn't enjoy it, or if there was more to it. I'm sure both guys are capable of better but somehow they can't seem to figure it out lately.
Not sure why I felt the need to write all that but I guess it was on my mind.
