Pretty good show last night, I really enjoyed it. That might be a side effect that I no longer obsess over WWE and watch it in much smaller doses, but either way it's working for me.
Becky Lynch over Mickie James: about **1/4, a bit disappointing, I would have expected a livelier effort in the opening slot and Lynch usually has more crowd support than she got here.
Dolph Ziggler over Crews/Kallist: *1/2. Just an awful situation, with the fans chanting "Thank you, Dolph" for destroying Crews' ankles afterwards. I'm stunned over how botched this heel turn has been.
Tag Team Turmoil was the usual disaster that it is and made the entire tag team division look like jokes. It threatened to get interested when the Usos beat up American Alpha so badly that it seemed the Ascension were going to inexplicably get the belts, but a fluke tag and quick finish by Gable prevented it from going anywhere. I'd say * for the whole thing.
Nikki vs. Natalya was really good in that Natalya was putting on a clinic and Nikki was soaking in the hometown love. I'm irritated by the non-finish, as this would have been the right time and place to give Nikki a feel-good win, especially with her career winding down. **3/4.
Randy Orton vs. Luke Harper hit the ***3/4 or so mark due to the compelling story of Luke Harper being on the verge of scoring a huge upset win over the recent Royal Rumble winner and the fans being willing to get behind him. This also served as an excellent victory for Orton, making him look ready to be in another Wrestlemania main event (even if in reality, this title match will be 4th or 5th from the top).
Alexa Bliss dropping the Women's title to Naomi was stuck in the death slot and only managed to be ** or so. I don't agree with this title change as Bliss was still cruising as champion and now the entire division is kind of muddy. Naomi choking up from the "You deserve it" chants was a nice moment, though I'm not convinced that she actually does deserve the belt.
The New and Improved Elimination Chamber gets a **** for being fast paced, unpredictable, and creative with all the new ways the guys can interact with the structure. I would have gone higher, but I was disappointed by Miz not being responsible for taking Cena out of the match (seeing as the rumor is that he's in line to face Cena at Wrestlemania) but I loved how he was the last guy out of his chamber and therefore had witnessed all the carnage and was too scared to leave it. The final sequence with Bray Wyatt taking out Cena and AJ Styles was excellent as well, I am glad that he was able to take out the last two guys with his finisher and they didn't go with some sort of fluke finish. Wyatt looked like a credible, worthy WWE Champion here.
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