Coming from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, WWE hosted not Saturday’s but Sunday Night’s Main Event. When I wrote my previous article on Friday, at the time it was only a 4 match card that was confirmed and I suspected ‘Card Subject to Change’ would change that come showtime, and sure enough I was correct.
First of all, in a match that I had to rewind to catch all of since I wasn’t even watching the pre-show saw Dominik Mysterio taking on Joe Hendry (though if pre-show matches are something that returns long term, I’m not complaining). Joe Hendry has been back and forth with The Judgement Day over the last few weeks so this was finally a firm chance for both men to get their hands on each other in a One vs One match. Although, as can be expected from The Judgement Day, Hendry quickly found himself having to fight off the rest of the group alongside the AAA Mega Champion. Despite the numbers game, Joe Hendry managed to hold his own for a bit. But ultimately it proved too much as Liv Morgan would distract the official, allowing Hendry to prevent another attempted attack from The Judgement Day, which allowed Dominik enough time to recover and set Hendry up for a 619 & Frog Splash to secure not only the win, but his first win in a Singles Match in 4 months (which I couldn’t believe when I found out). Giving him some valuable momentum going into TripleMania in a few days where he will defend the AAA Mega Championship against El Grande Americano.
Opening the actual show (not counting the musical performance from QUAVO), we saw the match between Baron Corbin & Lil Yachty. As a reminder, this wasn’t a traditional match as all Lil Yachty had to do to “win” was survive/avoid defeat for 5 minutes to earn Trick Williams a rematch for the United States Championship he’d lost to Corbin at SummerSlam. Despite an early sneak attack from Yachty, Corbin as you can imagine quickly took control of the match, however Yachty managed to stay alive through support from his own entourage & bringing out the ‘Trick Stick’ (a kendo stick for any unaware) but nothing he did kept him in control for long. Corbin then eventually hit Yachty with not one but two ‘End of Days’ with about a minute and a half on the clock, so he could have easily pinned Yachty to win, but Corbin opted instead to inflict further punishment knowing exactly how much time he had left. So he brought out a Table to try and inflict further punishment, but Yachty was able to avoid a superplex which would have sent him through the table last moment with a low blow, which allowed the clock to run out and give Yachty the victory due to Corbin getting arrogant with the time he had left. Though Yachty would quickly end up being chokeslammed through the table regardless.
Unfortunately for Corbin, who had already been through 1 match already Trick’s earned rematch for the US Championship happened immediately following his match with Yachty. Despite having already been through one match, Corbin still did relatively well holding his own against a fresh Trick Williams. And despite hitting a chokeslam/Deep 6, Trick refused to stay down no matter what Corbin did, again likely an advantage of Corbin already having been through one match. Ultimately Corbin went to the outside to grab the US Championship to strike Trick, but a now recovered Yachty desperately grabbing the belt gave just enough time for Trick to recover and hit a Trick Kick to avoid a title shot. Corbin was still able to strike Trick with the title, but Trick still refused to give up. And ultimately he was able to reverse an attempted End of Days into hitting the Trick Shot to defeat Corbin and reclaim his United States Championship which proved a big hit with the Atlanta crowd and for Trick to be able to dethrone Corbin himself after his defeat at SummerSlam.
Next, we saw the battle for who would be ‘The Future of WWE’ with Bron Breakker squaring off against Oba Femi. Bron was looking to defeat Oba as he had something to prove as he was in a similar position to Oba momentum wise not too long ago before he got injured and then Oba fully stole the spotlight while he was away. Both of these men are known to often overpower & outclass opponents in their matches so seeing two dominating forces clash against each other was like watching two trains crash into each other on repeat with neither staying down. A particularly nasty moment came when Bron charged at Oba on ringside, only to eat a brutal chop that would give Gunther a run for his money. And, if Oba’s strength & power wasn’t clear it became clear when he effortlessly trounced attempted interference from ‘The Vision’, sending Austin Theory through the Announce Table and countering an attempt from Breakker to use Brass Knuckles after Maxxine Dupri snuck them to Breakker as Logan Paul was distracting the official. However, as Oba was setting up to hit ‘Fall from Grace’ to end the match, he was blindsided by a chair shot from a returning Bronson Reed who’d been away recovering from a bicep injury since late February. Both Reed & Breakker proceeded to decimate Oba after the match, with multiple chair shots, Tsunami’s & spears (which even leading up to a second spear, Oba was still trying to fight back after multiple chair shots/Tsunami’s and after the match he’d just had which again goes to show just how scary Oba Femi is). So despite Oba technically winning the match via DQ, it was a back to full strength Vision that stood tall. And Paul Heyman, who has been a key figure to the build up of this match wasn’t able to give his own input as to what transpired as he was interrupted by a phone call from a currently unknown individual who’d also seen what transpired so we’re left to wonder what Paul Heyman might be scheeming with this mystery individual.
Second to last, we saw Six-Woman tag action, with Charlotte, Alexa Bliss & Tatum Paxley teaming up to take on Jade Cargill, Michin & B-Fab. Early on in the match, Paxley shon holding her own against both B-Fab & Michin before Jade Cargill took her down to cut off her momentum. Later on in the match, when Charlotte Flair was tagged in, she also showed dominance holding her own against her opponents. However this was also cut off when Charlotte hadn’t noticed Jade Cargill tag herself in and caught Charlotte off guard, being able to hit a ‘Sandstorm’ and only a last minute breaking of the pin from Tatum Paxley prevented Cargill winning there & then. The match came to an end when Paxley & Charlotte went to try locking in stereo Figure-Eight Leg Locks however B-Fab desperately booted Paxley which knocked her directly into Charlotte, this allowed Cargill to quickly set up & hit ‘Jaded’ on Charlotte which was enough to score a pinfall victory for her & her ‘Baddies’.
And closing the show, we saw a Wrestlemania rematch with Cody Rhodes once again squaring off with Randy Orton. Both men had been prevented from laying a finger on eachother prior to the match so as you can imagine, Cody finally snapped when he caught Orton trying to sneak into the ring from behind to assault him and he ambushed Orton before the bell rang. Both men fought all over the arena, having free reign to do whatever they wanted as the bell had not yet rung but eventually they did get back into the ring & the match officially begun. Early in the match, Orton noticed Brandi Rhodes & Cody’s mother at ringside and mocked them, but when he got in their faces a second time, Brandi defiantly chucked her drink in his face which many years ago would have likely resulted in Orton RKOing her there & then, but he managed to resist any urge to do that (one wonders what Cody would have done in this scenario). The tide truly turned when Orton dodged away from Cody attempted to attack him in the corner, leading to Cody accidentally taking out the official, Orton then hit a quick RKO but of course there was no official so he was unable to even attempt getting a pinfall victory. Cody then dodged an attempted Punt Kick before hitting Orton with a Cross Rhodes with Orton wisely rolling out of the ring, Cody then dove through the middle rope after Orton which knocked out Charles Robinson for a second time (poor guy). Both men fought on the outside for a bit taking advantage of the lack of official with Cody notably busting open Randy Orton and there was a large amount of blood.
Eventually, Cody hit another pair of Cross Rhodes, but rather than picking Orton up for a third as he has been known to do before, Cody who clearly was still extremely frustrated & at his wits end with Orton saw an opportunity and set up to hit a Punt Kick of his own, knowing exactly how brutal that move is. But he stopped last moment when Orton noticed what was coming and begged Cody for mercy while bleeding on the floor, this got though to Cody and seemingly snapped him out of his unhinged state with him clearly stunned at what he was about to do. Orton then hit a low blow on Cody, showing his begging for mercy was clearly a clever ploy trying to get under Cody’s skin and he was able to hit a final RKO to secure a victory against Cody avenging his loss at WrestleMania. So the show closed with a bloodied Orton and Cody laid on the mat clearly lost for words that he had lacked the killer instinct to finish the job & just a momentary lapse was enough to cost him everything. Cody has shown a more ruthless streak in recent months, which started ironically at WrestleMania, so one has to wonder if Cody will be able to resist his own voices that are no doubt speaking in his head right now.
