WWE Weekly Round-Up- MITB Qualifiers, Big Returns, SNME

Welcome to the WWE Weekly Round-Up! I’m Mick, and we’ve got a bumper edition of the Round-Up, as not only do we need to look at the events of Raw and Smackdown, but we also had a little special event called Saturday Night’s Main Event to cover!

Let’s do this!

——————–

The Women Head To The Bank

The weekly programming this week featured some focused hype for the upcoming Money In The Bank PPV by way of MITB Qualifier matches. Raw saw the women’s field take some shape, as Roxanne Perez- newly signed to the Raw roster- defeated Natalya and Becky Lynch.

Later in the show, it was time for an Aussie to shine, as Rhea Ripley defeated Zoey Stark and a returning Kairi Sane, who looked to be in phenomenal shape. Best wishes go out to Zoey Stark, as she appeared to blow out her knee on a springboard attempt. Nevertheless, these were two quality triple threats that added high stakes and gravitas to Monday Night Raw.

Problems in A-Town Down… Under?

For seemingly forever, there’s been cracks in the relationship of Austin Theory & Grayson Waller. While they’ve been a successful tag team, capturing WWE Tag Team Championship gold, they’ve both been previously successful as singles stars. With the egos of each man threatening to implode this team, this week saw the Aussie Icon, Grayson Waller take on Sheamus.

Sheamus returned last week, with Waller throwing Theory to the wolves by volunteering his partner for that match. This week, Theory returned the favour, and couldn’t hide his glee as the Celtic Warrior beat the hell out of the arrogant Aussie. We even got an “Austin Theory” chant from the crowd! More to come?

More Qualifiers On The Blue Brand

Smackdown saw more of the MITB field get filled out, kicking off the show with a newly signed Giulia def. Zelina Vega and Charlotte Flair to claim her spot- a hell of a bounce back win after getting pinned by Rhea Ripley last week on Raw. On the men’s side, LA Knight def. Shinsuke Nakamura and Aleister Black (thankfully with Black NOT taking the pin).

The matches again were strong, although arguably not as strong as the Raw ones, but were still a great way to add a sense of importance to TV matches this week.

Bloodline Tensions

In the seemingly never-ending Bloodline saga, United States Champion Jacob Fatu and Solo Sikoa find themselves at odds. This week on Smackdown, Fatu asked to speak to Solo alone, away from JC Mateo (the renamed recently debuted Jeff Cobb). Solo said that anything you want to say to him, you can say in front of JC, he’s “family”. So Fatu laid it out plainly- he doesn’t know, like, or trust JC, and he “damn sure ain’t family”.

Despite that, Jacob and JC competed in tag team action, where JC got the pin after the Tour of the Islands. This seemed to earn a modicum of trust, although the champ still looked a tad uneasy. He did drop a “I love you, Solo” later backstage, which perked the former Tribal Chief right up.

Happy Birthday Bray

The closing half hour of Smackdown may have been some of the best WWE TV start to finish all year. First, the main event tag match between the Street Profits and Fraxiom was absolutely stellar, with nail-biting athleticism and plenty of close call moments. If that had been it, it’d still be a part of the show worth raving about.

But as the match reached its climax, the lights went out. When they came back on, The Wyatt Sicks- who haven’t been seen in months- returned to a thunderous pop. The Sicks destroyed everyone in sight, including Candice LeRae and DIY. To top it off, the group posed with a birthday cake- it would’ve been the late great Bray Wyatt’s 38th birthday on that day. A beautiful tribute, and definitely delighted the crowd. An intriguing addition to an already stacked SmackDown tag division.

TSUNAMI!

The Saturday Night’s Main Event special kicked off with a blockbuster tag match, as CM Punk & Sami Zayn teamed to face Seth Rollins & Bron Breakker. The match was good if not spectacular, and the crowd were into it, but the real fun came at the match’s conclusion.

Bronson Reed made an emphatic return from injury, bulldozing CM Punk through the ringside barricade. This allowed Rollins to score the pin over Zayn in the ring. Post-match, things still seemed heated- Rollins and Reed have a long and unpleasant history… then Rollins hugged Reed and raised his arms with Breakker and Heyman! A wounded Punk returned to the ring to try and fight, but took a Tsunami splash for his troubles. It seems that the South Australian has returned right to the top of the card.

Will The Real John Cena Please Stand Up?

In a featured bout on SNME, WWE Champion John Cena competed in a non-title match with R-Truth. Truth has long considered Cena as his idol in canon, and came afoul of Cena following Backlash. Truth was determined to bring the “real” Cena back, the one who was all about Hustle, Loyalty and Respect.

R-Truth started this campaign by wearing Cena’s gear and coming out to Cena’s music. Ron Cena in the building, y’all. John Cena dominated early but unexpectedly slipped and took his own 5 Moves of Doom for a near fall. A frustrated Cena looked to use the title belt as a weapon, Truth looked disappointed, but Cena tossed the belt aside. Relief washed over Truth’s face- until Cena kicked him in the nuts and put him away with an AA. Fun little side mission for Cena.

Another Big Return, Major MITB PLE Match Set

The World Heavyweight Championship match main evented SNME- something of a pleasant surprise to me, I expected either the Cena match or the steel cage to get that billing. Jey and Logan had a fun match for the time they were given before shenanigans ensued.

While Jey seemingly had the title retained after an Uso Splash, John Cena pulled the ref out of the ring and beat up Jey, in a big part of his plan to ruin wrestling, handing the world title to a YouTuber. Suddenly, to even the odds, Cody Rhodes’ music hit! For the first time since WrestleMania, the American Nightmare appeared in a WWE ring and cleaned house. They were apparently short on time, as the credits quickly hit and in double-quick time, Cody laid out a tag match challenge for the MITB PLE- Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso vs. John Cena & Logan Paul! Huge, newsworthy end to the show- as rushed as it seemed.