The Judgment Day Interrupted World Heavyweight Champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins and AJ StylesRollins' first night on Raw as World Heavyweight Champion was treated as a big deal, but this segment played out pretty predictably in order to set up the night's main event. Judgment Day interrupting Rollins made sense because they're basically the top heels on Raw when Brock Lesnar isn't around, but why Styles? He's a SmackDown Superstar and was beat clean by Rollins at Night of Champions. Yes, Adam Pearce acknowledged that Styles shouldn't be on Raw during a phone conversation backstage immediately afterward, but that doesn't make it much better. It's been a month since the WWE Draft and the Brand Split remains meaningless. Go figuree.
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Zero Hour: The Hardys and FTW Champion Hook def. The Firm ("All Ego" Ethan Page and The Gunns)Per the stipulation, The Hardys are now in control of Page's contract. Page and Matt Hardy developed great chemistry together when Hardy was a part of The Firm, but I have no desire to see this storyline continue. The match itself was perfectly fine as a pre-show match, but my top takeaway is that Jeff Hardy should not be in the ring anymore. It makes me sad to say that, and maybe it was a case of ring rust after a long layoff, but he did not look good here at all.
NXT North American Champion Wes Lee def. Joe Gacy and Tyler Bate in a Triple Threat MatchLee has consistently delivered as North American champ as all of his title defenses have been fun. I don't think there can be any argument that he's had the best North American title reign of anyone so far. I feared he might drop the belt here to Gacy before he can break the record for longest reign, so I was happy he retained. This was a very enjoyable opener with all three guys looking great (yes, including Gacy, whose super skilled in the ring despite having a bad gimmick).
Seth "Freakin" Rollins def. AJ Styles in the Finals of the World Heavyweight Championship Tournament to Become the Inaugural World Heavyweight ChampionFans were already arguing that the World Heavyweight Championship feels less than with Roman Reigns still holding two belts, and putting the tourney finals on first only reinforced that. Now seeing what they did in the main event, I can see why they positioned this in the opener, but it doesn't send a strong message and I hope it doesn't become the norm going forward. The match itself was excellent, as you would expect from these two. Styles getting the surprise win would have been cool, but I can't argue with making Rollins the inaugural champion. He's been Raw's uncrowned world champ for quite some time.
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