Dean Ambrose & The Hardy Boyz vs. The Miz (w/ Maryse), Cesaro, & Sheamus
Result: Dean Ambrose & The Hardy Boyz defeated The Miz, Cesaro, & Sheamus via pinfall
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Once the match got going, it was the basic WWE model of a trios match. With a pay per view less than a week away, no one wants to do anything to cause injury to themselves or their opponents, so itâs played on the safe side. Until the finisher barrage at the end of the match, it wasnât even particularly exciting.
Not for nothing, either, but that whole finisher barrage at the end of the match was really sloppy. The Hardys couldnât decide who was taking the hot tag from Ambrose, so he tagged no one and it looked weird. Sheamus thinks the Twist of Fate is a Stunner, so he sells it strangely. But heâs one-upped by Miz, who thinks the Twist of Fate is a neckbreaker. And Matt looks kinda zombie-ish out there, like heâs waiting for cues heâs either not getting or not seeing.
As for a huge missed opportunity, why wasnât this match used to further the âIf Ambrose gets DQed he loses the titleâ thing? There was no real reason for the Hardys to pick up a pinfall over Miz here. And theyâve beaten Cesaro & Sheamus like a billion times already.
So why not have Maryse kick Miz in the groin â a callback to how Ambrose kept the title last time he defended against Miz â to get the heel team a DQ victory? You could have done basically the whole match like you did, just tweak the ending a little bit. I know itâs a garbage finish that way, but this feud is going to have a garbage finish.
Kurt Angle Gets Some Bad News
After the match, Corey Graves bolted from the announce booth after seeing something on his phone. (In fairness, if I wasnât writing a review every week, there are times Iâd want to look at my phone and walk away from the show, too.) Turns out heâs got a CI out there giving him the down low on what people think of Kurt Angle, and he needed to show the GM what he found out. We, the audience donât know what it is, but it freaked out both Graves and Angle.
(If itâs the seeds to bring Stephanie McMahon back to Raw, Iâm going to be very upset.)