It’s coming home.

Oh and also, wrestling happened.

The penultimate editions of Raw and SmackDown before Extreme Rules 2018 are in the bag and as we edge closer to July 15 (also the day England wins the World Cup; the greatest British coup since Cromwell), welcome to this week’s edition of WWE Raw vs. SmackDown!

I promise I’ll shut up about soccer now.

So which show was better this week? It’s time to find out.

As always, we do this by sectioning each show into three categories, those being the ‘Quality of Matches,’ the ‘Storyline Progression/Pay-per-view Build,’ and any ‘Fun’ moments that made us feel all happy inside because, as always, that’s what it’s all about.

Quality of Matches

This section is pretty self-explanatory, we’re gonna review each match and decide which show did better overall.

Also note that in this section, we only account for what happens bell-to-bell, not considering pre-match or post-match beatdowns and the like.

Raw

Curtis Axel defeated Matt Hardy

With Bray Wyatt out of action due to injuries sustained in a car accident, we ended up with a repeat of last week instead of Wyatt vs. his real-life brother Bo Dallas.

The match went longer than last week but was still pretty standard, with a nice little Side Effect on the apron thrown in there.

The match culminated when Hardy looked set to hit the Twist of Fate, but Dallas distracted allowing Axel to capitalize with the Axehole for the win. Plus… the floss.

Can you IMAGINE the celebration if @RealCurtisAxel and @TheBoDallas win the #RAW #TagTeamTitles at #ExtremeRules?! #TheBTeam pic.twitter.com/7H3yPuvFiD

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) July 3, 2018

 

The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar) defeated Titus Worldwide (Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews)

After a decent start from Crews and O’Neil, AOP soon gained control and this one was over pretty quick.

 

Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins defeated Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre via Disqualification

This was a damn good match. It felt like all four men involved were genuine stars and the crowd was really into it.

Ziggler and McIntyre were on top, for the most part. They worked over Reigns until a Rollins hot-tag injected 30 CCs of raw energy into the proceedings. Rollins flew around the ring and landed a cross-body off the ring post to his opponents on the outside.

After this flurry, it was Reigns’ turn to tag back in and after minutes of hype and build-up, just as he and Rollins were about to make contact, the Revival ambushed the ‘Big Dog’ thus putting an end to the match.

A very entertaining match with a good conclusion.

 

Ember Moon defeated Liv Morgan

There wasn’t much to this one.

Morgan dominated early on with some slow, submission-based offense, but soon enough Moon turned it around and landed the Eclipse for the win.

 

Bobby Lashley and Roman Reigns defeated The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson) via Disqualification

The story of this one was Reigns being a prideful so-and-so and not tagging Lashley in despite being hurt.

After a few minutes of Revival domination, Lashley grew tired so just entered the ring and attacked them anyway.

It finally looked as if Reigns might have made the tag, but before he could, both members of the Revival attacked him, therefore forcing a DQ finish.

Not really a great match but it did what it was meant to do.

 

Nia Jax defeated Mickie James

Jax started this one but James actually managed quite a lot of offense, targeting the ‘Irresistible Force’s’ legs.

The West Virginia native went for the Mick Kick but was caught by Jax. James, then, thought it would be a fantastic idea to slap Jax and ate a Powerbomb for her idiocy.

Jax went for the pin, but Bliss distracted the referee. This only affected things temporarily though as after Natalya (who for some reason was in Jax’s corner) attacked the ‘Goddess,’ Jax landed a Samoan Drop for the win.

 

Braun Strowman defeated Kevin Owens via Countout

As mentioned at the top, we only focus on what happened bell-to-bell in this section.

So, Kevin Owens ran away and got counted out.

More on this later.

 

Match of the Show

Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins defeated Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre via Disqualification

It wasn’t a good week for in-ring action on the red brand, but this match had a good mix of good wrestling, crowd engagement, and a good finish.

• WWE Smackdown Live Tag Team Championships
• titus o'neil
• Natalya
• miz tv
• wwe smackdown women's championship
• liv morgan
• rowan
• wwe extreme rules
• Shelton Benjamin
• RAW
• mickie james
• Rusev
• Money in the Bank
• billie kay
• wwe extreme rules 2018
• Kurt Angle
• mojo rawley
• rusev day
• Jeff Hardy
• ember moon
• no way jose
• The Usos
• aiden english
• Matt Hardy
• Carmella
• AJ Styles
• Alexa Bliss
• Bludgeon Brothers
• bo dallas
• WWE Raw tag team championships
• riott squad
• baron corbin
• ruby riott
• Chad Gable
• bobby roode
• sarah logan
• karl anderson
• apollo crews
• Jason Jordan
• luke gallows
• jimmy uso
• The Miz
• elias
• Dolph Ziggler
• WWE United States Championship
• Extreme Rules
• Ronda Rousey
• Finn Balor
• nia jax
• harper
• The Miztourage
• raw vs smackdown
• extreme rules 2018
• Sami Zayn
• Samoa Joe
• greatest royal rumble
• the iiconics
• Seth Rollins
• WWE Univeral Championship
• sunil singh
• the ascension
• curtis axel
• wwe intercontinental championship
• Bray Wyatt
• bobby lashley
• Shinsuke Nakamura
• Becky Lynch
• Randy Orton
• peyton royce
• Drew McIntyre
• Big Cass
• bayley
• Daniel Bryan
• Sasha Banks
• Smackdown
• the revival
• Asuka
• Charlotte Flair
• Jinder Mahal
• BRAUN STROWMAN
• KEVIN OWENS
• wwe

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