Cody Rhodes: Not Sick Enough
Cody Rhodes may not be sick enough.
The story coming into Main Event’s main event was that Randy Orton could not seem to get the better of Cody with his patented mind games. On Friday, it was teased that Cody may have a sick side to him that Randy would hate to see come out.
We did not see that side in the beginning of this. Instead, we got a pretty standard match for a bit, which felt early on like a narrative disconnect. It’s what you’d expect between these guys but nothing that progressed the story
they were telling prior. That didn’t happen until the first Charles Robinson referee bump.
That allowed the story to pick up where it was last left – with Cody getting more and more ruthless attacking Randy. Shots to the head. Shoving him into the ring post. Hitting him with the stairs. This was an extended moment as Robinson took a second ref bump when Cody dove from the ring into Randy outside, pushing Orton in to Charles as he recovered. It was almost comedic and I chuckled. Just another night on the job for Lil Natch. Macho Man collapsed his lungin WCW so this is nothing.
It all lead to the main moment in this match. With Randy Orton blooded and beaten, Cody set up to punt his mentor. But before he connected, the Viper begged off, pleading with his former protege to stop. The announce desk repeatedly said this was akin to Orton giving up, which is a way to protect Rhodes in his eventual loss.
You may have guessed that Cody is still not demented like Orton. He didn’t have it in him to punt a helpless foe, especially a man who he considered a mentor. He’s not like Randy Orton – at least not yet. But you know who is like Randy Orton? Randy Orton.
With Eddie Orengo just on the scene to replace Robinson, Orton delivered a low blow to both he and Cody at the same time (a final, most hilarious ref bump). Then a RKO to Cody and recovered Lil Natch counted the pinfall.
This was more story than match. Yes, we got plenty of time with them in the ring, but really, it was building to that ref bump to see if Cody had what it took to truly pull the trigger on Orton. And as of September 6, he does not.
This feud isn’t over. Maybe it will sit for a bit and Orton will find himself facing CM Punk for the WWE title before they put this to bed, but it will eventually end with Cody on top. I’m interested to see how Cody reacts to not being able to go to a dark place enough to secure this match. Will he accept he’s just a true blue babyface? Or will he travel down a darker path to vanquish is mentor?
A Vision of the Future
This was the match I was most anticipating. I was really into the story between Randy & Cody, but this clash of future stars, two freak athletes, really was the sticking point for me.
The match started with posturing: Collar-and-elbow followed by some “Hit me,” “Now you hit me.” Some real solid pissing match challenges. Then the action got under way with both men showing that they could dominate. The match ended with shenanigans, but we were given a good amount of time with just these two studs beating the hell out of each other. Breakker held his own, which was the most important part here. You can argue that the man who dominated Brock Lesnar should have an easier go of it, but I’d retort with the fact that was far from an in-his-prime Lesnar (pushing 50), and it would serve Femi better to not dominate every match.
The match didn’t have a finish. Vision interferences saw to that. First it was Austin Theory, who was put through the announce desk in front of his home crowd. More like A-Town Down on your ass. Then Logan Paul distracted the referee as Maxxine Dupri handed Breakker brass knuckles. (Maxxine. Breakker. A lot of folks in the Vision with extra letters in their name – maybe should called it the Corre.) But the Ruler ducked the shot with the knucks and tossed his foe. Before he could hit the Fall from Grace, Bronson Reed returned, attacking Femi with a chair.
Normally I’d be a bit peeved with a DQ finish here. But I think it worked to protect both man so they can do this again down the road. This could be a rivalry they come back to for years to come. We got the match and that was a real fun battle. That’s what was important. Plus this was the second match on the card so it wasn’t a prime spot where a DQ finish left a worse taste.
Bronson Reed, who delivered a deluge of Tsunamis, looks fantastic. It’s great to have him back. Now Femi has a couple big dudes he has to fight in the Vision.
I totally understand folks who were disappointed with the finish, but I thought this was a good time and accomplished what it needed to with both men.
Are You Sure About That Five Minutes?
So Lil Yachty lasted the five minutes with Baron Corbin needed for Trick Williams to get a title shot. Trick made the most of it, winning back his furry prize.
First the Yachty part:
Yachty cheap shotted Corbin in the onset with a mic to the head to buy him some time early on. He had his posse try to protect him (developmental dudes who both took bumps from the champ). He used a surprised kendo stick. And even with all that, he still took two End of Days with well over a minute to go. Because Corbin should be able to put a non-wrestler down in the matter of minutes.
But then the Nomad got greedy. Instead pinning Lil to put this to bed, he got cute with a beat down. And then he decided to go for a superplex through a table, a plan he didn’t time out well because all it took was a low blow from Yachty to run the clock out.
So Corbin was protected – at least physically. He looked like a fool but he’s a heel and hubris is part of the deal. And the rapper took some moves and looked pretty crisp. So his video on SmackDown may have seemed like he wasn’t taking this seriously, but he put enough work in to make this come off well.
In general I felt this was booked rather well. Outside one thing…
This match was no countout and no DQ, but not once did Trick come out when it looked lik Yachty was going to lose. That could have been easily explained away with a “Trick Williams needs to stay in the back” but it wasn’t so it became a bit of a plot hole.
Then we got the actual title match, which was solid bout between Trick and Corbin. Neither are going to light the world on fire between the ropes, but this was fine. Corbin used the furry US title title when the referee was distracted, but unlike at SummerSlam, Wiliams kicked out and eventually hit the Trick Shot for the win.
I’m going to go on a tangent here – the Trick Shot is a terrible finisher. Half the time it doesn’t appear to connect. It never looks devastating. It’s an anticlimactic way to win a match. I’d rather him use the Book End for a finish or come with a kick that looks more legit.
That aside, I’m glad that Trick is the champ again. Midcard champ is a good spot for the rising star. We’ll see where Corbin goes next.
Also, if you got the reference to this section’s title, let me know in the comments.
6-Woman Fun
If the Oba/Bron match was the match I was looking forward to the most, this was one I had the least interest in. It just felt like buying time towards a bigger match with Jade Cargill & Charlotte Flair where this outcome really didn’t change anything.
But they ended up having a fun tag match. I continue to be impressed with Tatum Paxley, who is new to me as I don’t follow NXT. I actually think B-Fab has shown some improvement. Jade wasn’t really involved much until the end, but she looked good here. (At this point I think she’s going to have her sloppy moments no matter what.)
The match ended when Paxley and Flair were going for dual Figure Fours, but Tatum was kicked and knocked heads with Charlotte, setting up Jade to win with Jaded.
It’s an ending that hopefully will lead us to that Flair/Cargill match we need to finally get to plus it creates some issues with Flair & Paxley within the group.
This was a pretty fun two hour show. The main event was more about story than match for sure, but it served its purpose. I really enjoyed Bron/Oba, even with the non-ending. The Yachty/Trick bits to open were fine – I’m kind of whatever on those. And the 6-woman tag was a fun time.
Quavo opened the show and performed one of his new tracks which was only maybe three minutes and led directly into the first match, which really didn’t bother me. If they tossed five minutes of commercials between his performance and the opening bout that’d have been much worse. (Because we did get our typical WWE commercial breaks between all the matches, which is just commonplace now.)
This show could have used the greatest performer of all time in Sami Zayn, but I’ll deal. (I kid, I kid. But I was legit called the M Gomez for Sami Zayn in the SmackDown recap so I had to lean into it.)
Overall, this was a pretty fun two hours.
Grade: B
Let us know your thoughts below.
