Rowdy Recap: Week of July 8, 2019
With so much weekly content on WWE TV, it can be difficult to keep track of everything.
That’s where Rowdy Recaps come in, looking back at the week in WWE TV and narrowing down the highlights of the big three shows (and sometimes more). (205 Live and NXT UK will certainly get some more love and appreciation in the future, but baby steps.)
So: Let’s take a look back at the past week in WWE!
Monday Night RAW (July 8, 2019)
Quick & Dirty Results:
- Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch def. Andrade & Zellina Vega, in a Mixed Tag Team Elimination match
- The Miz & The Usos (Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso) def. The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) & Elias, in a 2-out-of-3 Falls Tag Team match
- Bobby Lashley def. Rey Mysterio, in an Open Challenge
- Cesaro def. No Way Jose
- The Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar) def. local competitors
- Ricochet def. Luke Gallows
- Ricochet def. Karl Anderson
- Bayley def. Sarah Logan, in a Beat the Clock Challenge match
- Nikki Cross def. Dana Brooke, in a Beat the Clock Challenge match (and Beat the Clock)
- Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre def. Gary “The GOAT” Garbutt (Cedric Alexander) & Roman Reigns
The Highlights:
As usual, any and all 24/7 Championship shenanigans are an automatic highlight on WWE TV.
Drake Maverick continues to ruin his new marriage, but hey: At least he’s able to remain WWE 24/7 Champion through the night.
If you watched The Real World: Back To New York, you’ll know one thing for sure: While Coral may have taught Mike “The Miz” Mizanin a lot of things (mostly about black people and women), she very clearly didn’t teach him out to find the beat. That is apparent after Miz and The Usos win their 2-out-of-3 Falls match against The Revival and Elias (who ran away to the back), even though it’s pretty endearing that it is the case. The match itself is another commercial averse 2-out-of-3 Falls match, so that deflates some of the enjoyment of the whole thing, but it still counts as a highlight. You don’t exactly see Miz and The Usos together all the time, you know?
I suppose seeing Cedric Alexander on WWE TV—and not just as a part of the 24/7 Championship chase, even though, as I said, that’s always a highlight—is a highlight. At the same time, I can’t say it’s a highlight to see him “help out” Roman Reigns only to still lose him the match. And by being pinned by Shane McMahon. And Shane and Drew McIntyre’s entire search for Reigns’ tag team partner throughout the night really made me want to say “EAT THE RICH” more than consider any of it a highlight. But Cedric Alexander is great, so him being in the main event of Monday Night RAW counts as a highlight! Just ignore the rest of that!
SmackDown! LIVE (July 9, 2019)
Quick & Dirty Results:
- Shinsuke Nakamura def. Finn Balor
- Nikki Cross def. Carmella
- Otis def. Xavier Woods & Daniel Bryan, in a Triple Threat match
- Roman Reigns def. Dolph Ziggler
The Highlights:
N.S.S.S.M. Never Stop Stunnering Shane McMahon. That’s not exactly a catchy acronym, but you get the point I’m trying to make about Kevin Owens (and Stunnering Shane McMahon). Ideally, Kevin Owens should continue to Stunner everyone, but Shane deserves it the most, which is why it’s a highlight. And it will continue to be a highlight every time it happens. It’s much better than main eventing SmackDown LIVE against Dolph Ziggler. (Especially if you know how Owens’ match against Ziggler at Extreme Rules goes.)
I feel weird calling Billie Kay’s Mad Cow Bird Flu a “highlight,” but as usual, if The IIconics are featured on WWE TV, The IIconics are a highlight. That’s just the way it is. Hopefully she gets better soon, and hopefully Paige, Asuka, and Kairi Sane will get better about feeling sympathy for people’s illnesses. Peyton Royce understands.
Well, we finally learned who’s gone knocking on Aleister Black’s door: Cesaro. (Poor No Way Jose, huh? Weeks of getting destroyed by Cesaro, only to learn Cesaro was looking over at the blue brand the entire time, waiting to get some other Superstar’s attention.)
NXT (July 10, 2019)
Quick & Dirty Results:
- Damian Priest def. Blanco Loco
- Jordan Myles def. Boa, in an NXT Breakout Tournament First Round match
- Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) (c) def. Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan, in an NXT Championship match
The Highlights:
Another week, another First Round match in the NXT Breakout Tournament. This time, it’s Jordan Myles (fka ACH) vs. Boa. Boa is actually the only Breakout Tournament competitor who doesn’t have a prolific professional wrestling career pre-NXT; whereas, Myles is someone fans of the independent scene are most likely extremely familiar with. The more experienced man wins, and honestly, Myles may even be my pick to win it all. But let’s see how well everyone does—and who wins the Finals—and then I’ll make a definitive choice.
It looks like Shayna Baszler (perhaps, a bit informally… and dismissively) has accepted Mia Yim’s title challenge. You can read more about that here.
While the Street Profits are currently on Monday Night RAW—recapping everything backstage instead of actually wrestling—they’re still pulling double duty on NXT. They are the NXT Tag Team Champions after all. And they remain such after their barn burner of a title match against Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan in this edition of NXT’s main event. Of course, now Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins have to worry about Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish challenging them for their title. We know Undisputed Era wants all the gold in NXT, after all.
Extreme Rules (July 14, 2019)
As for the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, you can read all about that here.
You can watch last week’s RAW and SmackDown on Hulu and NXT and Extreme Rules on the WWE Network.