American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida
Cesaro vs. Jason Jordan - **
Bray Wyatt vs. Apollo Crews - *¼
Alexa Bliss vs. Asuka - ¾*
Braun Strowman vs. Rhyno - NR
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Samoa Joe - ***
Ariya Daivari & Drew Gulak vs. Cedric Alexander & Goldust - *½
Elias & The Miztourage (Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel) vs. Finn Balor & The Club (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows) - NR
Overall Rating: 4/10.
Notes: The first segment of the year reeks of the same formula that turned me away from the weekly shows last year. Jason Jordan getting accused of not knowing how tag teams work from Rollins is silly considering American Alpha. Cesaro becomes one of many to target Jordan's knee, the crowd is not into Cesaro vs. Jason Jordan at all. After Rollins distracts Cesaro by attacking Sheamus on the outside of the ring, Jordan gets the win. Bray vs. Apollo was boring, but also showed me how crazy underrated Crews is. I don't mind Titus Worldwide, but man Dana sucks. Another distraction leading into a win for Bray. The WOKEN Matt Hardy promo after the match was extremely weird but I don't mind. Alexa Bliss vs. Asuka was a wasted match and made me hate Alexa even more than I already do. The Samoa Joe promo with Renee Young was great, especially with Renee selling the hatred for Joe due to him injuring Dean. Braun takes on Rhyno, but Heath keeps getting on the apron so Braun grabs a mic and asks Heath if he wants to shut up or catch these hands. A quick squash, followed by 3 powerslams for both Rhyno and Heath. It was great, and brought the crowd to life. Braun is a gem. Corey's line for someone to call Peta for Rhyno was clever too. Balor picking The Club as his tag team partners made me smile and was a nice touch. Roman vs. Joe started off really slow, but the ending false finishes really got the match going and watching the match knowing Roman is going to win makes the finish understandable. Pretty good match. The planned cruiserweight title match is canceled due to Enzo being sick, and I just want to say he better actually have the flu and not just a bad hangover, otherwise this is just another reason to hate this guy as a person. Goldust coming out is desperate booking but hey it kind of worked. Elias and Miztourage segment was funny enough. Match too short to mean anything. Lesnar gets hyped up by Heyman, which is of course great. Kane comes out however and chokeslams Lesnar. Lesnar sitting up and laughing is a brilliant callback to the Taker match. Then the locker room clears even though they were barely brawling... a bit anticlimactic.
