Title change on RAW.
Liv Morgan attacked R-Truth and enabled Finn Balor and JD McDonaugh to win the World Tag Team Title.
Also, we have a stipulation for the World Heavyweight Championship match at Money in the Bank. If Damien Priest retains, Seth Rollins will be unable to challenge for the World Title again as long as Priest is champion. But if Rollins wins, Priest must leave The Judgment Day.
Good for my boy JD McDonaugh. He remains anchored to his trainer Finn, and I doubt he’ll ever win a singles title, but he carries off the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” rather well. He’s usually fodder for the main eventers, but he always does something sneaky to gain the upper hand and pounces when the opponent is vulnerable.
Well, he did win the NXT Cruiserweight Championship.
When Nikki brought the box addressed to Pat MacAfee to Michael Cole, I was cheering “It’s his head! It’s his head!”
Sika Anoa’i, one half of the Wild Samoans tag-team and father of Roman Reigns and the late Rosey, has passed away.
Many fond memories of watching The Wild Samoans, managed by Captain Lou Albano, destroy jobbers on Saturday morning TV, while waiting their turn to face Rick Martel and Tony Garea for the WWF World Tag Team Championships. Couldn’t afford the Garden shows, so I never got to see the payoff (and this was before I even knew of the Apter magazines). Rest in Peace, Sika. I will remember you fondly (even though I booed the TV when you came on).
Tonight on Smackdown, Paul Heyman refused to acknowledge Solo Sikoa as Tribal Chief and got put through the announce table for his trouble, all while the audience chanted “WE WANT ROMAN!”
Props to Heyman for being willing to take a bump like that at his age. I didn’t think this was possible a few years ago, but they’ve set the stage for Roman to be massively over when he comes back sometime between now and Summerslam and turns face against his own cousins. If Triple H manages to pull this off I will salute him as the greatest booker of this generation.
HHH has imported 3 relative unknowns into a major storyline, who weren’t molded through NXT. Sikoa himself didn’t spend too much time in NXT, and he’s now the top SD heel. All traces of Vince’s influence are slowly fading away.
Another tag-team title change, this time on SmackDown, of the WWE Tag Team Title.
NEW CHAMPIONS:
Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa (#DIY)
July 5, 2024
#DIY defeated Austin Theory and Grayson Waller on SmackDown to become the new WWE Tag Team Champions.
This is Gargano and Ciampa"s first reign with this title, both individually and collectively. They previously held the NXT Tag Team Title together from 11/19/2016 to 1/28/2017, defeating The Revival and losing to Authors of Pain.
This is also both men’s first titles on the main roster.
This win ends A-Town Down Under’s 90-day reign as WWE Tag Team Champions that started when they pulled down that particular set of title belts (then known as the SmackDown Tag Team Title) at WrestleMania XL, Night 1.
is it me or are the tag belts the "everyone gets them for a month or two so everyone can put a champ reign on their resume " titles
It’s often been that way. Occasionally a hot team would hold the belts for a long time but with multiple tag titles there’s usually one up for grabs now. With all the other titles out there a wrestler without one is going nowhere in their career.
I get the feeling that Hunter is trying to elevate the secondary titles in general so that they feel like an achievement or a mark of greatness, not just a prop that gets passed around every few weeks.
No objection here to DiY winning the belts. They somehow survived through VKM’s tenure and got rewarded for it. They contributed to NXT’s greatest moments, even when cast as opponents.
BTW: It was a very good classic tag team match.
At Money in the Bank, John Cena came out and announced his imminent retirement. The 2025 Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and WrestleMania will be his last matches.
Bron Breakker may have lost the match but he impressed me tonight. He is pretty clearly a future world champion.
Everyone has surely seen it by now: John Cena announced that he’s retiring next year. Royal Rumble 2025, Elimination Chamber 2025, and then WrestleMania XLI, and that’s it.
So I’m guessing that now we get Cody vs. Solo at Summerslam, and that’s when Roman makes his return to declare war on the Bloodline.
During the post-show, Drew McIntyre ranted about CM Punk and threw around a couple of referees and even RAW GM Adam Pearce, causing Wade Barrett to intervene and get him out of there before he cost himself his career.
and now Seth Rollins has a reason to hate CM Punk too. Color me intrigued.
I really liked the graphic scheme they had for MitB, with spies sneaking around and making quick grabs at the briefcase.