Grand Rapids is Red. Toledo is Blue!

WWE RAW RUNDOWN: 22ND MAY 2017

Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves & Booker T

Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Venue: Van Andel Arena

• The show opened with Bray Wyatt in the ring. Bray ran down his four Extreme Rules opponents and talked about opening the chest of Brock Lesnar and feasting on his black heart. Gnarly! Roman Reigns came out to loud boos from the crowd. Reigns suggests Bray talk to his face and is trying to figure out how to get Bray out of his yard. GM Kurt Angle comes out to a HUGE ovation. Angle says he doesn't want to wait to see these guys go at it and books the match for right now. Nice!
• Roman Reigns Vs Bray Wyatt starts after the break. The announcers did well to remind everyone about the intense rivalry these two had in 2015. The match was pretty hard hitting but didn't last long. After about 5 minutes Samoa Joe ran down putting Roman Reigns in the Coquina Clutch causing the DQ. Joe puts the clutch on Wyatt then Seth Rollins comes down to get him some of Joe. Eventually Reigns and Rollins clear the ring to stand tall.
• Backstage after a commercial Reigns and Rollins are arguing. Reigns tells Rollins he didn't need him and Rollins said he was there to go after Joe. Angle showed up to set up the main event tag match of Rollins & Reigns Vs Wyatt & Joe. Elias Samson drifts into shot with his guitar. Angle said he's finally got his attention and books him in a match with Dean Ambrose.
• Akira Tozawa Vs Ariya Daivari is next. A typically short cruiserweight match but an aggressive showing from Tozawa. He won with a Senton Back Splash for the pin. Brian Kendrick was watching backstage and he said he would destroy Tozawa on 205 live.
• Dean Ambrose Vs Elias Samson is next. The Drifter comes out playing guitar and getting the hell booed out of him just like he did in NXT. Wonderful! The match itself was decent and I thought Samson looked good in his first match on RAW. Miz ran down and hit Samson causing a DQ win for Samson. This plays into the stipulation for Extreme Rules that if Ambrose gets DQ'd he loses the title. After the match Ambrose chases Miz around until Samson drops Ambrose with a neckbreaker. Drifter wins!
• Backstage we see Big Cass going crazy because someone has beat down Enzo Amore. Cass tells Kurt Angle he better find out who did this or he will. My money is on The Revival!
• Finn Balor is in the ring. He talks for a bit before being interrupted by Paul Heyman. Heyman claimed that Reigns, Rollins, Joe & Wyatt would all be victims of Brock Lesnar but Balor is no ones victim. He puts Balor over massively as the most talented guy on the roster and says a match between Balor & Lesnar is the most intriguing. Balor tells Heyman to tell Lesnar since surprise surprise Brock isn't there that he's going to win at Extreme Rules and then beat Lesnar. Great stuff!
• Finn Balor Vs Karl Anderson is next. Former brothers in Bullet Club! This was a fun match for the time given on tv and it helps that these guys obviously know each other well enough to pull off a great match regardless of time. There was no doubt that Balor was going to win heading into Extreme Rules and indeed he did win with the Coupe de Grace for the pin. Still a very entertaining match.
• Sasha Banks Vs Alicia FOOOOXXXXXXXX is next. This is the worst feud in WWE right now. Sasha wins after 2 minutes then after the match she slaps Noam Dar then gets beaten up by Fox. These 3 deserve so much better than this mess!
• Shattered Dreams Productions video airs with Goldust telling us the Golden age is back. Ah Nostalgia! This was a great trip going back in time 20 years or so. Goldust is still charismatic as hell and can still go in the ring for someone who is 48. I hope this can be a great last run for him before he gets his well earned Hall of Fame induction.
• Kalisto Vs Apollo Crews with Titus O'Neil is next. Kalisto earlier confronted Apollo about his attitude change and whether he was responsible for Enzo's attack. Apollo said no which led to this match. Another short match on this weeks RAW. Kalisto won after Apollo was distracted by Titus shouting instructions at him. This was a bit silly. Hopefully they have another match with Apollo decimating Kalisto.
• Matt Hardy with Jeff Hardy Vs Sheamus with Cesaro is up next. The winner of the match gets to choose the stipulation for the Tag title match at Extreme Rules. Good match this. The crowd seemed to be really into it as both teams seem to be super over right now. Matt got the win with the Twist of Fate for the pin. An assist to Jeff as he stopped Cesaro from getting involved. After the match Matt said the match at Extreme Rules would be a Steel Cage match. Its been a while since we've seen a steel cage match in WWE so I'm all for this!
• More Cruiserweight action as we have Austin Aries Vs Tony Nese. It was announced that Aries will now face Neville at Extreme rules in a Submission match. That should be cracking! This match served to put Aries over as he won with the Last Chancery for the submission. After the match Neville came down and put Nese in the Rings of Saturn submission. Tough night for Nese!
• Alexa Bliss Vs Mickie James comes and goes. Yes its ANOTHER short match on Raw this week. Bliss wins with the DDT after about 2 minutes. After the match Bliss attacks James with a kendo stick before Bayley makes the save. Continuing to build up the feud between Bliss and Bayley is fine but its a shame it had to happen at the expense of Mickie James.
• MAIN EVENT TIME!! Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns Vs Bray Wyatt & Samoa Joe. This was a quality main event for RAW which hasn't always been the case. Wyatt & Joe did some really team work even if it was just for one night. Reigns continues to sell really well something I've seen him improve on massively recently. Rollins did a great job coming in like a house on fire from the hot tag. The finish comes when Reigns and Rollins accidentally collide resulting in Rollins passing out to Samoa Joe and the Coquina clutch. After the match we see Kurt Angle and Finn Balor backstage. Angle books two huge matches for next week. Rollins Vs Reigns and Balor Vs Wyatt Vs Joe!

And that was Raw! The show was fairly good but had too many short matches for my liking. The Main event was really good and I enjoyed the matches between Balor & Anderson and Hardy & Sheamus. Good promos from Balor, Heyman and Goldust but the feud between Sasha, Fox and Dar needs to end. Its really REALLY bad! Two good matches set-up for next week though which will be worth seeing. Extreme Rules is shaping up pretty well with the main event still hard to predict. The tag team cage match and cruiserweight submission matches should be really good, and I have hope for the IC and Womens titles to be better even if they have slightly silly stipulations.

 WWE SMACKDOWN SUMMARY: 23RD MAY 2017

Announcers: Tom Phillips, JBL & Byron Saxton

Loaction: Toldedo, OH

Venue: Huntington Center

• The show started with Shane McMahon making his way to the ring with a blue Money in the Bank briefcase hanging above the ring. Shane announced that at the MITB event the New WWE Champion Jinder Mahal would defend the title against former champion Randy Orton in Randy's hometown. Good luck Randy! The Shane announced the competitors for the Money in The Bank Ladder match and they took it in turn to come to the ring. They were AJ Styles, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Dolph Zigger and Shinsuke Nakamura. Kevin Owens comes out and manages to convince Shane to add him to the match. After the 6 competitors argue with each other which convinces Shane to book two big matches for tonight. A rematch between Zayn & Corbin and a tag team match main event pitting Kevin Owens & Dolph Ziggler Vs AJ Styles & Shinsuke Nakamura. AWESOME!!
• After the break we get Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair with Naomi Vs Natalya & Carmella with Tamina & James Ellsworth. This was a decent tag match with the time given. 3 of these women are the best workers in the division and Carmella is improving every time. Becky Lynch got win making Carmella tap out to the Dis-Arm-Her. I'm happy with this result as Becky REALLY needed the win and Natalya didn't take the loss which keeps her momentum from winning at Backlash.
• Baron Corbin Vs Sami Zayn is..OVER! Zayn wins after a dreaded sneaky roll-up after about 10 seconds! Didn't see that coming! What wasn't a surprise was the brutal beat down Corbin gave to Zayn after the match. Understandably Corbin was furious with the sudden loss and this does a great job of making Corbin look like a devious heel and Zayn as the forever sympathetic babyface we love to cheer!
• AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura are in the locker room hyping up their tag team match later. Styles says this is the first time they are teaming together so Shinsuke should follow his lead as this is his house. Nakamura responds saying they are a team tonight but he will win at Money in the Bank and turn the house into his playground. NICE!
• The Fashion Files returned with an amusing segment with Breezango and Shane McMahon in Shane's office. Breezango said they were there to turn in their badges. Shane told them they weren't cops and he didn't ask to see them. Breezango had plastic water guns. Shane put Breeze in a match with Jey Uso and Fandango in a match with Jimmy Uso. This wasn't as funny as the previous Fashion Files but this was still entertaining.
• Jinder Mahal's Punjabi WWE Championship Celebration was next. It was as extravagant and colourful as I expected. The dancers and drummers were pretty accurate for a Punjabi celebration from what I understand. Jinder came out looking like a million bucks wearing a suit and head turban. Jinder got in the ring and ran down the American fans calling them fools. He said that 1.3 billion people in India are celebrating his win and he will celebrate for his people, for Punjab and for India. Jinder posed on the turnbuckle and the traditional championship celebration pyro went off. Good stuff I thought overall. Surprised Orton didn't show up to get some revenge though.
• Next up we had Tyler Breeze Vs Jey Uso. Fandango sprayed Jey with his water gun and Breeze won with the sneaky roll-up. The sneaky roll-up strikes again! Immediately we have Fandango Vs Jimmy Uso and after some shenanigans Fandango also beat Jimmy with the sneaky roll-up. That's the hat-trick! After that Breezango mock The Usos and ask for a tag title match. The match is made by Shane McMahon via the ref who told the announcer. Nice bit of chain of command there! Breezango Vs The Usos for the Smackdown Tag titles happens after the break and its very entertaining for a match that lasts about 4 minutes. Some good action from both teams but in the end The Usos outsmarted Breezango when Fandango didn't see a blind tag and hit his finisher on Jimmy but was immediately hit with a splash from Jey for the pin. 
• Backstage in Shane McMahon's office we see Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and The Welcoming Committee enter. They all make their cases for a Smackdown Womens title match and Shane decides to book a match for next week. It will be a Fatal 5 Way Elimination match between Becky, Charlotte, Carmella, Tamina & Natalaya with the winner facing Naomi for the title at the Money in the Bank show. That should be a great match next week!
• MAIN EVENT TIME! AJ Styles & Shinsuke Nakamura Vs Kevin Owens & Dolph Ziggler. This was a very good match if a bit long. Both Nakamura and Styles spent time getting beat up by the heels and I would argue Nakamura spent more time than he should have. Owens & Ziggler worked great as a heel team much like Joe & Wyatt did on RAW. In the end Nakamura got the win after hitting the KINSHAASAAAAA on Owens for the pin. This match did a great job of putting over Styles and Nakamura as two of the top babyfaces on Smackdown as they had to really fight for this win. After the match AJ and Nakamura celebrated doing A 'too sweet' hand gesture to one another before both staring at the MITB briefcase above the ring to end the show. 

And that was Smackdown. Overall I think it was a really entertaining show as is often the case. While we had short matches on Smackdown much like we did on RAW I felt like a better job was down with the time given to the matches on Smackdown this week. The Main event was really good if about 5 minutes too long. I'm really interested to see the build towards the MITB ladder match. Its really hard to pick a winner right now but Corbin seems to be an early favourite. Next weeks Womens Fatal 5 Way elimination match should be really good and again I think its hard to pick a winner in that match as they have all been built pretty well up to this point. Still no Rusev or Lana which is a big down. The New Day did appear on Talking Smack so hopefully they show up next week!

Thank you guys so much for reading! What did you guys think of the shows this week? Did you prefer Raw or Smackdown? Let me know in the comment section!