Roman just called Drew his favorite shit.
Legend.
Roman’s absolutely killing, no, murdering… no – slaughtering every promo he cuts on television. And it feels like every single one is better than the next.
Roman told Adam Pearce to step aside so that he could sit at the head of the contract signing table. What a nice touch. That is extreme attention to detail I am here for.
Drew said that he hopes Reigns underestimates him, because he should now prepare for war. Then Roman led the sermon. Roman gave the brutal truth, that Drew is nothing but a secondary champion, a prop, a stand-in. Roman said he’s THE champion, the face of WWE, your tribal chief, and the head of the table. One day, years from now, McIntyre will finally get a chance to be the man, and when he does, he’s gonna look back on these nights and thank him.
“You’re the guy they send in when I’m busy.”
Woof.
He signed the contract and told Drew he’ll always be his favorite #2. (His favorite shit.)
Shooter McReigns huh? That was a really great wrinkle into the story. I mean it would have been absolutely epic if it ended up being Drew picked to face Goldberg at WrestleMania instead of Braun. Calling Drew the secondary champion was disrespectful, and I loved it.
Also, isn’t it quite interesting that the match I’m most looking forward to involving Drew since Lesnar is Roman this Sunday – both Heyman guys?
Well, I think this time around it’s Paul Heyman who’s a Roman Reigns guy. All of this is brilliant. Roman is winning on Sunday, but man I’m still so incredibly excited for this match.
Logic and catchphrases
This is gonna be a quick one.
The promo was atrocious. Asuka quoting superstars of the past and Sasha making Michael Cole say “it’s boss time!” Cringe. Bad.
And then – logic!
Carmella attacked Sasha from behind while she was trying to get a fight out of Asuka before the pay-per-view, and Asuka just… stood there. That made sense! Why would Asuka help her after everything Sasha and Bayley did to both her and her best friend Kairi Sane over the summer?
Totally on Asuka’s side here as much as I love Sasha. Sasha needs the win on Sunday but I have a feeling the win is going to Asuka.
The Rest
Daniel Bryan def. Jey Uso – I really, really appreciated the aggression from both men. Before the match, Bryan said that his daughter was crying when he was in the hospital and he understands there’s an angel and a devil on Uso’s shoulder. The match ruled, with Bryan trying to stomp Jey’s head into the mat and Jey nearly got the win. Bryan got his knees up and blocked Jey’s splash and won with a small package. Really well done from these two. No Roman presence, and I wonder how this loss is going to play out for Jey.
Not to put a damper on things, but Jey is in the men’s Bragging Rights team on Sunday. And he lost. That was a trend on this show.
Murphy def. Seth Rollins – Very well done match between these two as well, and I liked how they showed us that they knew each other and could anticipate what the other would do. We saw that both when Murphy went to superkick Seth on the turnbuckle and Seth kicked him first, and when Seth went for the curb stomp and Murphy moved out of the way and delivered sick sounding knees to Seth’s face. The Mysterio clan were out for this match and Seth took his aggression out on the men, which made me worry a bit that it would continue what is supposed to be finished with them. I think we’ll be okay.
Team tag team champions def. Corbin, Zayn, Ziggler, and Roode – SmackDown before Survivor Series – the one night a year Raw’s and SmackDown’s tag team champions face a group of SmackDown wrestlers and tease dissension! We didn’t need that. There was a bunch of stupidity here. The Raw tag team champions were about to give a title match to a SmackDown tag team. Very… creative and… sensical. (Sarcasm!) However when the tables were turned on New Day, Street Profits came to make the save. Um, where was Big E to make the save for his boys? He was just in the same room with the two men that came down to save them!
That’s because we wouldn’t have gotten a nonsensical 8 man tag team match if E showed up. Sami got pinned by a flying Montez after just being in the match for 12 seconds. Please tell me why this happened when Roode or Ziggler, which neither are on Bragging Rights, could have eaten the pin? Sami is in a Bragging Rights match on Sunday. Corbin is also on the men’s SmackDown team and was a loser here. Losers make up most of the SmackDown side of this upcoming show. Which is Bragging Rights, of course.
Natalya def. Tamina – The Captain and the BOAT are on Team SmackDown. Bayley decided to take the Captain role as Adam Pearce selected her to be on the team, while shoving Natalya and Tamina in a match to qualify. Unfair! Poor Tamina didn’t stand a chance here, because Natalya’s win was heavily telegraphed. So we have Bayley, Bianca, Liv, Ruby, and Natalya vs. Nia, Shayna, Lacey, Peyton, and Lana for Bragging Rights. I’d like to see the SmackDown women take it, but regardless of whether they win or lose, Lana will be the sole survivor for Raw. I would bet my house on it.
Otis is on the men’s team – So, Otis who has done pretty much nothing as of late since losing the Money in the Bank briefcase, was selected to be on the men’s Bragging Rights team this Sunday by Adam Pearce. His new… manager?… Chad Gable tried to take credit for it. Don’t take credit for stupid ideas, Chad. Uh… okay! Sure. I mean, Big E was hanging around. I don’t know where after the first three minutes of the show but I’d have rather picked him.
Well, we have our pay-per-view this Sunday and there are a couple of things that are obvious – Survivor Series sucks now and WWE can’t book shit to make it exciting. That’s not exclusively for Survivor Series, though. WWE has the tendency to not book well. Just par for the course watching WWE for the past few years. While it’s not exclusively for this show, it’s the reason why this show now sucks. BRAND SUPREMACY and all. Bragging rights. Not very compelling.
We have the Undertaker’s farewell, but like, is it really a farewell? Only time will tell. I’m only looking forward to Roman and Drew.
Grade: B-
What are your predictions for Bragging Rights, Cagesiders?