Wrestling
Sean Ross Sappdown Live (8/1): Nakamura vs. Cena, Styles vs. Owens, Match Ratings, More
United States Championship
AJ Styles (c) defeated Kevin Owens
5.5/10
- Kicking off the show with this is fun — an immediate sense of importance for this show.
- A good match to have the split screen for, too
- Styles clobbered Owens with a big clothesline. This would have been a no-no a few years ago, and I'm glad the mindset shifted.
- The idea that a while back someone heard a free speaking Mauro Ranallo and said "Nah, we'll replace him with a verbally neutered Tom Phillips" is remarkable.
- Styles won after a ref bump, but it looked like Kevin Owens had his shoulder up.
- Byron calls JBL "Tom."
- They're really playing up the non-pin. Kevin Owens goes off on Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan
Usos rap
- They had the crowd sold that it was New Day as they mocked the tag champs' intro.
- Usos have a new theme, and it's pretty good. They rap a solid promo to follow
Fashion Peaks
- I'm a big Twin Peaks (at least season 1) fan, so I enjoyed this.
- A lot of references to the show. Red dancing Fandango, The Ascension with a log. This was good.
Aiden English defeated Sami Zayn
- Aiden English has beaten Randy Orton, Tye Dillinger and Sami Zayn over the last month. THE GOAT
- This was quick, and mainly served to further Zayn and Kanellis.
- The Kanelliiii come out and say they love that Zayn lost. Okay. Neat.
Naomi & Becky Lynch defeated Carmella and Natalya
3.5/10
- A lot of Naomi's offense looks choreographed, but her finish and transition here was awesome.
Backstage Crappenings
- Jindermania isn't running as wild as it was about 100 days ago. His promo wasn't good.
Rusev defeated Chad Gable
6/10
- I don't think Gable is going to be Jordan's Jannetty.
- Floatover belly-to-belly rolling suplexes, moonsaults, a beautiful ankle lock. Gable does it all.
- The crowd is super into this match.
- Rusev gets the win, and Gable still looked great.
- Chad Gable is such a fantastic natural babyface and looks like he was plucked from an episode of WCW Pro in March 1996.
- Rusev says everyone is afraid of him. Randy Orton comes out. Am I wrong to be disinterested in anything he does?
- Randy Orton had his chance to go after foreigners and got kicked out of the military. I see him as the Tyron Woodley of WWE at this point. He RKO's Rusev.
Shinsuke Nakamura defeated John Cena
7/10
- John Cena hit more of a belly-to-belly slam than suplex, and it was really cool.
- Nakamura is trying and motivated and that's a nice change of pace.
- Jinder is watching from a skybox with a hilariously bandaged Singh Bros.
- This is the best Nakamura we've seen on the main roster.
- Cena takes a GROSS bump. Woah. Nakamura wins. Clean as a whistle