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From the Sun National Bank Center, Trenton, NJ

Stardust vs. Sin Cara

The crowd was into this match more than you would think, considering how poorly these two are treated on TV week in and week out. Maybe the crowd was just excited for the show to finally get going? Either way, the crowd chanted “Cody” and “Lucha Lucha” a couple times throughout. Sin Cara pinned Stardust after a pretty basic back and forth match.

Mark Henry vs. Braun Strowman

Strowman was originally advertised for a tag team match with Luke Harper against Kane and Ryback. The match was just two big guys shoving into each other, headlock, bearhug, and shoving into each other some more.  Strowman eventually won when Henry passed out to Strowman’s standing triangle choke. That move never looked all that great to begin with, but it’s even worse when Strowman does it on someone as big as Henry who he can’t lift high into the air.

Bo Dallas vs. Goldust

All four Social Outcasts came out and did their basic spiel about how they’re not rejects or losers, but Trenton and the people in the audience were. Ouch. Goldust came out and the match was mostly Bo running from Goldust, and Bo and the other Outcasts would distract the referee and attack Goldust then. Goldust eventually pinned Bo, but the other Outcasts ganged up on Goldust and attacked him immediately.

R-Truth came out to make the save and he and Goldust cleaned house. Then R-Truth got the mic and asked the audience if the audience thought the two of them should be a tag team, which got a surprisingly loud and positive response considering how dead this angle seems on TV. R-Truth even asked what the team should be called, and again, a majority of the people yelled “Golden Truth.” R-Truth did his rap and he and Goldust danced for what seemed like forever. Maybe they had to kill some time.

U.S. Champion Kalisto vs Rusev

Alberto Del Rio was originally advertised to face Kalisto. Instead, Rusev and Lana came out waving the Bulgarian Flag with Rusev’s face on it. Lana told the audience to “shu-tup” as she always does and said Rusev was going to be the United States Champion once again. She also said she wanted to sing a song for her fiancee. It was “You are my Sunshine” except she replaced the word “sunshine” with the word “monster.” That’s not exactly complimentary, but Lana looked great as usual, so I doubt Rusev cared. 

Kalisto came out to what might have been the biggest pop of the night. (Either him or Big Show) Rusev started off by stealing the title, but Kalisto stole it back. The match itself was basically Kalisto getting in a few of his spots, and then Rusev overpowering Kalisto because of the size difference. Kalisto tried to body slam Rusev once, but Rusev stopped him. Kalisto eventually did slam Rusev later in the match, and it got a great pop. The match ended when Rusev ran at Kalisto in the corner but Kalisto jumped and Rusev hit an exposed turnbuckle, which Kalisto then turned into the Solida del Sol. 

There were many “Lucha Lucha” and “USA USA” (even though they’re both foreigners) chants throughout the match. This was probably the match the crowd was hottest for from start to finish during the whole night.

Summer Rae vs. Alicia Fox

Once Summer and Alica were both out, Summer starts getting in Alicia’s face, then yelling at the audience a bit, getting in Alica’s face again, and then yelling at the audience some more. During that time Alica gets the win with a surprise roll up. I’m being completely honesty when I say I think it took longer for their entrances than it did for this “match.” It was a comedy segment, the crowd laughed, and I didn’t have to watch these two attempt an actual match, so I think we were all winners here.

Ryback vs. Fandango

Like I said above, Ryback was originally advertised for a tag team match with Kane against Luke Harper and Braun Strowman, so this was another change due to Luke Harper’s knee. Ryback came out and cut a promo, but the mic and sound system weren’t that great, and he doesn’t have the best enunciation to begin with, so I have no idea what he said. 

I do know that the crowd didn’t really cheer for it, so either I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t understand him, or what he said was close to what he’s been saying on TV lately – which means it was some confusing promo that wasn’t really face or heel. Once the match got going it seemed like Ryback couldn’t decide whether he wanted to work as a face or heel. He worked over Fandango, dominating and tossing him around a bunch, and the crowd would cheer if Fandango managed to pull off a flip or kick.

However, Ryback kept doing all his babyface taunts to get his “Feed me More” chants, which the crowd chanted loudly. Then Ryback won with the Shellshock (minus the stomping around before hitting the move) and the crowd cheered the win, so I don’t know what was going on. After the win Ryback walked to the back, and then as Fandango walked to the back there was a CM Punk chant starting, and Fandango’s music came back on briefly which stopped the chant. He was the only person all night to lose their match but have their music play again as they walked to the back. 

Big Show and Kane vs. Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan

Bray came out with Rowan and Strowman, Big Show and Kane came out separately. Like I said before, Big Show got what might have been the biggest pop of the night. The match itself was average. Bray and Rowan got the heat on Kane, and Bray would pretty much only tag in when Kane was already hurt or on the ground. What a heel. The crowd was silent during most of the match, except they would really come alive the few times when Big Show would clap or stomp the steps to give Kane encouragement.

The match ended when Big Show choke-slammed Rowan and got the pin. Crowd popped. Strowman then got in the ring to attack Kane and Big Show, but Kane and Big Show worked together to give Strowman a double chokeslam. Crowd popped again. (It was a bit jarring to see Strowman flat on his back, as they’ve been very careful for the most part to keep him on his feet on TV.)

After that the action was done the crowd was quick to scurry out of the building.  The crowd seemed happy afterward, and all in all I enjoyed it more than I thought I would considering what the card was.