The Good, The Bad and The NXT: How Drew McIntyre and Daniel Bryan shone ahead of Extreme Rules
Thursday 12 July 2018 08:44, UK
Daniel Bryan and Drew McIntyre had a good week in the final build-up to Extreme Rules, but the Deleters did not.
It's Extreme Rules week and fans are hoping some of the seven WWE championships on the line will change hands this weekend.
The final Raw ahead of Extreme Rules was a strange episode which perhaps is not a good omen just six days before WWE heads to Pittsburgh for the start of SummerSlam season.
Good week
Drew McIntyre (Raw)
Since his return to the main roster, Drew McIntyre has been unstoppable and this week on Raw he proved that Vince McMahon had a good reason for wanting to push him to the top of the company when he defeated Seth Rollins.
This win means that McIntyre will be able to be at ringside for his friend Dolph Ziggler's Ironman match against Rollins at Extreme Rules, which definitely tips the scales in his favour.
Even though McIntyre doesn't have a match at Extreme Rules this weekend, he will be a force to be reckoned with as he supports Ziggler, who is responsible for bringing him up to the Raw roster and pushing him into a prominent position as part of the brand.
Daniel Bryan (SmackDown)
It was a huge 10-man tag team match that main evented this week's SmackDown Live since The New Day and Team Hell No had their own issues with Sanity and The Bludgeon Brothers. There were a number of combustible elements in this match but interestingly it was Daniel Bryan who picked up the win for his team after hitting the Busaiku knee on Eric Young.
Bryan and Kane are challenging for the SmackDown tag titles this weekend at Extreme Rules and it's hard to see past the former world champion and The Big Red Machine since they are currently in the form of their respective careers.
The Undisputed Era (NXT)
It was a fantastic week for the NXT trio since Adam Cole was able to quickly handle business in his match against Danny Burch which opened the show, before Roderick Strong and Kyle O'Reilly ensured that the NXT tag team championships returned to The Undisputed Era in the main event.
It was a hard-fought victory for O'Reilly and Strong, who went into the match with a game plan and after they targeted Trent Seven's injured knee, Tyler Bate threw in the towel for his team and handed the titles back to The Undisputed Era.
It's obvious that the issues between these two teams are not over, but at this moment in time, The Undisputed Era has the titles back around their waists and that's all that matters.
Bad Week
Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt (Raw)
The Raw tag champions will defend their titles at Extreme Rules on Sunday night against The B-Team but all of the build-up to this match in recent weeks has surrounded Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel.
The B-Team are still undefeated and take the momentum into their first championship match this weekend after Axel defeated Hardy on Raw.
The former Intercontinental champion took the victory in his stride as he and Dallas continued their recent dress-up charade in order to combat the usual mind games from The Deleters of Worlds.
Wyatt had already missed a week of wrestling through injuries that he sustained in a car accident and it has felt as though the champions have taken their foot off the pedal in recent weeks, which doesn't bode well for them this weekend.
James Ellsworth (SmackDown)
It was a shock when James Ellsworth appeared at Money in the Bank to aid his longtime friend Carmella in her women's title mask against Asuka, but this week on SmackDown it wasn't much of a shock that The Empress of Tomorrow was able to force Ellsworth to tap.
Ellsworth is a comedy wrestler in the women's division and has now become one of only a handful of male stars who have been forced to tap by a female wrestler.
It is unknown how this will impact on Carmella's title defence at Extreme Rules, but it appears that her plan failed since it was the perfect warm-up match for Asuka, who looks to have regained her most dominant form.
Aleister Black (NXT)
NXT are going to have to start paying Aleister Black danger money if they want him to come and cut a promo at Full Sail again in future since the last few times the NXT champion has been ambushed.
Last time it was Lars Sullivan who sent a message to the champ ahead of their clash at NXT Takeover: Chicago, but this week it was Tommaso Ciampa who attacked Black backstage before delivering a DDT on a concrete floor.
Black and Ciampa will clash on NXT in two weeks' time if Black is deemed fit, but if he isn't then this could easily be a feud that leads all the way to Brooklyn and his title reign could be in danger.
