Night 2 of the WWE Draft begins, Paul Heyman gets interrupted, Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan VS Damage CTRL
Triple H came out to remind everybody about the rules of the 2023 WWE Draft before he announced that Raw’s first pick of the night was the SmackDown Women’s Champion, Rhea Ripley. SmackDown then selected the current United States Champion Austin Theory, Raw picked Seth “Freakin” Rollins and SmackDown chose the Queen Charlotte Flair. 4 big names. Triple H then introduced the Wiseman Paul Heyman who made his way down to the ring to discuss the Usos’ loss on Friday Night SmackDown last week as well as how nice it would be to see Roman Reigns hold 3 World titles! He then disrespected the Raw locker room which resulted in Seth “Freakin” Rollins coming down to the ring. Rollins told Paul that Roman no longer needs to run away from the Visionary before the Special Counsel to the Tribal Chief spoke to Roman Reigns on the phone. Just as it looked like Seth Rollins might be about to lay out Paul Heyman, Solo Sikoa arrived and a match was set up for the two men later on in the night. Good opening segment.
Grade: B
Cody Rhodes arrived at the arena as Adam Pearce asked the American Nightmare to “keep the peace” when it comes to Brock Lesnar tonight. Rhodes just walked off. The first match of the night saw the reigning WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez take on Damage Control’s Bayley and Dakota Kai. This match was fine, it didn’t go too long, but everyone inside the squared circle knew what they were doing. At one point, Dakota Kai hit the Kai-ropractor which is one of my favourite moves in all of professional wrestling (it’s my signature in 2K23 MyRise) and the ending saw Liv Morgan nail Kai with the ObLIVion only for Bayley to roll up the champion to get the victory. Nice to see Bayley getting a win for once.
Grade: C+
The WWE Draft continues, Ricochet and Braun Strowman VS Alpha Academy, Brock Lesnar arrives, Jimmy Uso VS Matt Riddle
Brock Lesnar laughed at Adam Pearce when the WWE official asked the Beast “to please keep the peace”. Booker T and Queen Sharmell were then out to announce the picks for the second row of tonight’s draft. Raw picked the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn as well as the Judgment Day whilst SmackDown selected the Usos and the LWO. Very tag team heavy, but I like it. Ricochet and Braun Strowman then took on the Alpha Academy in a pretty short match. Ricochet and Gable didn’t get too much time to showcase their immense talents and it was more focused on the battle between Braun Strowman and Otis. However, Ricochet was the one who got the fall as he pinned Otis after jumping off of Strowman’s shoulders. I don’t understand how and why they book the Alpha Academy to lose every single week!
Grade: C
Shawn Michaels and Adam Pearce were then about to do round 3 of tonight’s draft before Brock Lesnar’s music hit. Lesnar got into the ring before Adam Pearce called out a ridiculous amount of security (that was still pretty useless). Cody Rhodes’ music then hit before the American Nightmare snuck up from behind and got a shot in on the Beast. Lesnar then left as over 10 security guards just about held back Cody Rhodes. This feud has been booked really simply, but I still am a little bit confused as to the real reason why Brock doesn’t like Rhodes.
Grade: B-
Shawn Michaels then announced the picks for the 3rd round of the 2023 WWE Draft (on Raw) as Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez and The New Day will all be appearing on Monday nights whilst Asuka and the Brawling Brutes will be appearing on Friday nights. Matt Riddle then told Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn that he was delighted over the fact that they are all staying together on the same show before it was time for the Original Bro to take on Jimmy Uso. Early in the match, Jey Uso was sent to the back after Sami and Kevin managed to frame it as if the Right Hand Man smashed Owens with a chair. Owens and Zayn were then at it again at the end of the contest as Owens threw Jimmy into the exposed turnbuckle before Riddle picked up the victory with the Floating Bro. I thought the action between Jimmy and Riddle was decent, but I wasn’t a particularly big fan of the ending.
Grade: C+
The end of the 2023 WWE Draft, Miz TV, Another Omos squash, The Judgment Day VS The LWO
We got a video package reminding people of just how cool Iyo Sky is before Jey Uso came into the Bloodline locker room and asked why Solo Sikoa wasn’t out there to help Jimmy tonight. Paul told him that the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns wants the Enforcer to be “fully focused on extinguishing that clown (Seth Rollins)”. Rob Van Dam and Eric Bischoff were then out to announce the picks for the 4th round of the night's draft. The USA network now exclusively has Trish Stratus, Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler on their network whilst Fox has Karrion Kross and Scarlett as well as the Megastar LA Knight. The SmackDown picks certainly excite me as I like both of those guys. It was then time for Miz TV as the Miz’s guest was none other than Shinsuke Nakamura. This started off great as the Miz did an awesome (no pun intended) introduction for the King of Strong Style, but the rest of the segment was pretty crap. They tried to make Shinsuke funny and everything that he said had the opposite effect. If you are going to do these types of segments, do them with lower Midcarders or comedy acts (Baron Corbin, Alpha Academy), but to do it with Shinsuke Nakamura, a guy that WWE are supposed to be building back up into a star, is absolutely criminal. Shinsuke Nakamura is a top 3 guy in this company when he’s at his best, but right now, he’s being booked to feel like someone who’d be involved in 24/7 title segments.
Grade: E
Omos came out to the ring and squashed Anthony Alanis in less time than it took me to write this sentence! I get it, Omos is big, but he’s not entertaining (as this character). Compare him to Bronson Reed, someone who is booked in a similar manner, and they couldn’t be any further apart when it comes to being entertaining. It was then time for the 5th round of the draft as Raw selected Ricochet and Braun Strowman as well as Bronson Reed (speak of the devil) whilst SmackDown picked up Shotzi and Pretty Deadly. Pretty Deadly could well be my favourite pick in the entire draft this year! The Judgment Day then cut a promo and what I really liked about this was Damian Priest was talking in Spanish for 98% of his promo. I like that because even though I have no idea what he’s saying, it makes their match at BackLash feel even more personal and special. Dominik Mysterio then tried to speak and he kept getting booed out of the building. The Judgment Day then took on the LWO’s Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar and Zelina Vega and I thought it was pretty decent. Damian Priest, Rhea Ripley and Santos Escobar are on an absolute tear at the moment whilst Rey and Dominik Mysterio tell their stories well. Zelina Vega has also stepped up her in-ring work which is always a good thing and both teams had opportunities to get the win. In the end, though, it was Finn Balor’s “heroicness” that allowed Damian Priest to deliver an awesome South of Heaven to Rey to get the victory. Keep giving Priest victories, please!
Grade: D for Omos, B- for the Six-person tag team match
Cody Rhodes told Cathy Kelley backstage that he has to beat Brock Lesnar at BackLash before Bianca Belair talked about her love for Monday Night Raw. Damage CTRL then walked in as Bayley told Byron Saxton that she and Dakota are going to be the next WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions before Iyo Sky made it clear to Bianca Belair that she’s going to become the Raw Women’s Champion at BackLash. The final round of the 2023 WWE Draft then took place as Monday Night Raw selected Alpha Academy before Friday Night SmackDown selected Rick Boogs. SmackDown then took the KC’s (Katana Chance and Kayden Carter) which is really cool before SmackDown picked Cameron Grimes. I’m still not 100% certain whether I’m more excited for Pretty Deadly to go to SmackDown or Cameron Grimes.
Grade: B (the draft as a whole)
Seth “Freakin” Rollins VS Solo Sikoa
The Main Event of the last Monday Night Raw before BackLash saw Seth “Freakin” Rollins take on Solo Sikoa. Seth Rollins has been the best wrestler in the world for a long time now whilst Solo Sikoa looks and feels like a star. However, there just didn’t feel like there was much point to this match, particularly given the fact that the Visionary has been drafted to the opposite show that the Bloodline is on. There were some good moments in the match including Rollins kicking out of the Spinning Solo, but in the end, the match ended up as a DQ as the Usos arrived and attacked Rollins. Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and Matt Riddle then arrived to “hype up” their six-man tag team match which takes place this weekend at BackLash.
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