WWE Stomping Grounds

WWE Stomping Grounds

Tacoma, Washington - June 2019

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Seth Rollins is the Universal Champion coming into the show, while Kofi Kingston holds the WWE Championship. The United States Champion is Samoa Joe and the Intercontinental Champion is Finn Balor. Bayley is the SmackDown Women's Champion while Becky Lynch holds the RAW Women's Championship. The Cruiserweight Champion is Tony Nese. Finally, the RAW Tag Team Champions are The Revival and the SmackDown Tag Team Champions are Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowan. The 24/7 Champion is R-Truth. Oh, and I almost forgot (because I think the WWE did), The Ilconics are the Women's Tag Team Champions.

COMMENTATORS: M. Cole, C. Graves, R. Young, B. Saxton


The first (and maybe last?) Stomping Grounds began with Becky Lynch defending her RAW Women's Championship against Lacey Evans. Interestingly, Michael Cole noted on commentary that Lynch's boyfriend is Seth Rollins (wrestlers' off-screen relationships were not always advertised). Evans actually had a ton of heat and Lynch was over with the crowd, so it wasn't a bad idea to start the show with this match. The first minute or two weren't bad, but the camera captured some blatant spot-calling and then a mistimed spot in the corner. They made up for a little with a vicious spot in which Lacey pulled Becky's hair and leg around the post from the outside. Lacey's heat stretch was quite good, targeting Becky's ribs while applying an armbar. Becky's selling was solid too, peppering all of her movements with winces and grabbing at her midsection. There was a goofy segment involving Lacey Evan's handkerchief that the crowd ate up and the match progressed with lots of good back-and-forth and a couple of nearfalls. Lynch eventually locked in the Disarmher for the win, Evans tapping immediately. I would've liked to see Lynch target the arm or shoulder earlier in the match to build up to her finish as it felt a bit out of nowhere. This was a decent marred by a rough opening. (2/5)

A bizarre Mustafa Ali vignette followed that was more puzzling than inspiring. Basically, Ali was just watching as a woman poured away a bottle of beer and got in an argument? And watched two guys bully some other guy? The voiceover was also classic "WWE speak" - lots of words strung together that I'm not sure made any actual sense or said anything.

Paul Heyman was shown leaving Baron Corbin's lockerroom and then Corbin himself was interviewed backstage. He says he's picked his Guest Referee for tonight.

Back to the ring we go for Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens vs. The New Day (Xavier Woods and Big E). Pretty standard tag match with Woods playing the face-in-peril for the first half and then the teams dishing out several fast-paced segments on the back end. I saw some really positive reviews of this match elsewhere, but I wasn't nearly as swept up in it. The characters involve just seem sort of cold and there was nothing at stake, not even a future title shot. This sort of "hamster wheel" wrestling is a major problem for the WWE as a clean finish like this should be used to propel Owens and Zayn into a new storyline or hot angle - but likely won't. What really is there motivation at this point? What is The New Day's? Average stuff. (2.5/5)

Samoa Joe defended his United States Championship against Ricochet in the next bout. I was excited for this match and while it started out a bit slow, it did pick up for its last third. Joe is not as dynamic a performer as he was 10-12 years ago, but hey, who is? His feud with Rey Mysterio was cut short due to injury and his one with AJ Styles suffered a bit, in my opinion, from the WWE refusing to give him at least a brief run with the championship (even if it meant switching it right back onto AJ in a rematch). Joe's booking aside, he's been very good on the mic and still feels like a bigger deal than most of the rest of the roster. Ricochet, meanwhile, was never the top guy in NXT but I'm glad he was called up before too much of the shine was off him. He is obviously insanely talented and agile and the two put on a solid bout that never quite got "great." Ricochet winning the title was smart longterm booking too as, if he is going to be taken seriously as a main event-level guy one day (and why shouldn't he?), giving him clean victories now is the right decision. There simply isn't any reason to put him on the backburner when there is seemingly nobody that is really capturing the crowd's attention. Another good, not great match. (2.5/5)

Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowan defended their SmackDown Tag Team Championships against the team of Heavy Machinery next. Bryan was mega-popular in front of his home-state fans and everything Otis and Tucker got booed mercilessly. There were also some clever chants of "Drive a Prius" and "Please Recycle" that lifted this fairly basic, not-that-special match into something memorable. To me, Heavy Machinery are somewhere above The Ascension and Cryme Tyme, but clearly not as good as The Usos or New Day or even as entertaining as The New Age Outlaws or peak-popularity Enzo & Cass. Otis is a beast, for sure, but The Caterpillar? Its recycled hack material. Tucker doesn't strike me as a blue chipper, just a bland dude, almost like a chubby Chuck Palumbo or something. The match was fine for what it was, but nothing I'd revisit. I'm happy we got a nice clean win from the champs too and there was at least one really good segment that saw Otis eat a ton of Yes Kicks and counter the last one into a T-Bone Suplex. (2.5/5)

Then it was time for Bayley to defend her SmackDown Women's Championship against Alexa Bliss. I found this match to be considerably better than the opener. It helps that these two probably wrestled dozens of times in NXT and on the main roster as they worked smoothly together and there weren't any of the hiccups we saw in the Evans/Lynch match. Extra half-point for Alexa Bliss charging up for a corner attack but then stopping dead in her tracks to slap the taste of Bayley's mouth. It was the kind of effortlessly awesome heel move that Bliss brought to her best matches and it was nice to see it again here. From there we got two crazy bumps - first, Bayley delivered a sunset-flip powerbomb onto Alexa into the turnbuckle and then, following a Bayley dive that connected with Alexa's second, Nikki Cross, a "Canadian Destroyer" from Bliss onto Bayley on the outside. It was a crazy risky move for Bayley to take and it looked absolutely vicious. Alexa tried to capitalize by hitting a Twisted Bliss back in the ring, but Cross distracted the ref for unclear reasons and Bayley was able to get her knees up to block her eventual attempt. A Belly-to-Bayley (or is it Bayley-to-Belly?) later and the champ retained in the first match I really enjoyed on this show. (3/5)

Ricochet was shown backstage posing with his US Championship. The Good Brothers showed up, trailed by AJ Styles, who congratulated Ricochet and told him he'd "see him tomorrow" on RAW. 

In a rematch from WrestleMania, Roman Reigns squared off against Drew McIntyre next. McIntyre was seconded by Shane McMahon, who is basically the top heel in the company now. They brawled outside of the ring to start things off, a nice change-up from every other match we'd seen on this show. I thought these two had a good match in a bad time slot at Mania so I was curious about how this would go. Roman Reigns hit a MASSIVE dive onto McIntyre on the outside, but then chased after Shane in the crowd. When he tried to dive the barricade, McIntyre cut him off with a big right hand. McIntyre took control (with Shane adding in some extra offense at times), the crowd chanting "Shane Is Awful" as Drew tried to wear down the Big Dog. I've always thought Reigns was an underrated seller and he showed it here too, really letting McIntyre twist him up and punish him with a variety of submissions. I'm not necessarily sure the live crowd was super excited to see these two spend so much time on the mat, but at least it was something a bit different than the previous matches on the card. Reigns hit Shane with a pair of Superman Punches but nearly cost himself the match in the process as McIntyre hit him with a face-first Inverted Alabama Slam into the announce table and then a chokeslam back in the ring. I'm not sure that shouldn't have been the finish. Up to the top rope they went where Reigns tried desperately to counter McIntyre's superplex but ended up suffering from one despite his efforts. McIntyre got another 2 but got back on his feet and started calling for the Claymore Kick. Reigns countered it with a backslide for 2, but got hit with a headbutt. McIntyre went for a clothesline off the top, but Reigns hit him with a Superman for 2. Both men sold on the mat for awhile, but Reigns got up first and attempted a spear. McIntyre blocked his first attempt, though, only to get hit one a few seconds later. Reigns got a 2 count as McIntyre kicked out and Shane McMahon broke up the count. Shane beat down on Reigns and sent him into the corner where he then hit him with his Coast to Coast dropkick. Shane tossed the referee back in the ring and McIntyre made the cover...but Reigns kicked out! The crowd response was interesting here as there were some noticeable boos. A "Roman" chant also broke out, to be sure, but I'm guessing part of the audience was just straight-up sick of the Superman booking. McIntyre called for a Claymore, but Reigns dodged it and hit another Superman punch. Shane came running in but got tossed out of the ring too. McIntyre was back on his feet, but Reigns hit him with a spear for the win! In most other eras, this sort of 100% clean victory would signal the end of a feud (and even the announcers talked it up as the story-ending chapter), but with Shane, you never really know. It definitely felt like the last time anyone would confuse Drew McIntyre as a legit threat. (3/5)

The WWE Championship was on the line as Kofi Kingston defended the strap against Dolph Ziggler in an old-fashioned cage match. The crowd was a bit flat at the start of the match - which was a recurring theme on this show. I liked the urgency that Ziggler brought early in trying to escape the cage as quickly as possible, but once he took control and started bashing Kofi into the cage, his gameplan changed a bit and the match fell into a bit of a morass as Ziggler started to go for pinfalls rather than the cage door. As one would expect, the crowd was lulled to near silence, barely even popping for Kofi's hope spots. Kofi and Ziggler eventually found their way to the top of the cage, Ziggler nearly all the way over except for his head (which Kofi had gripped in a facelock). Back into the ring they fell, but the crowd just didn't seem to care one bit. Kofi hit a beautiful SOS for 2 but missed on a Trouble in Paradise and Ziggler took over, working on Kofi's knee in an attempt to limit the Champ's climbing ability. As a cage match is No DQ, Kofi literally had to climb his way out of Ziggler's ankle lock, got hit with a superkick, and nearly fell out of the cage door for an unexpected victory. Ziggler pulled him back into the ring, though, keeping the ankle lock on. When they were planning this sequence I'm sure they figured the crowd would be at a fever pitch for this, but they were barely audible as Ziggler continued to find new ways to put pressure on Kofi's ankle. Kofi momentarily took control, but Ziggler cut him off with a Zig Zag for 2. That's his "finisher," remember. Ziggler went for a superkick, but Kofi blocked it and applied a front-facelock, trying to outwrestle the Kent State Record Holder. Ziggler tried to back out of the ring, but Kofi kept him in the ring. Kofi went for a suplex, but Ziggler escaped and crawled towards the door - which finally elicited a big response from the crowd. Ziggler kicked Kofi directly in the face and went crawling, but Kofi leapfrogged him, jumping out of the cage door with relative ease to win the match. Not a great ending as, to me, it felt like something Kofi could've done at any other point in the match and didn't really show any valor or toughness. The crowd eventually cared for Ziggler's near escape, but to my ears, was pretty dead for the rest of it. (1.5/5)

Main event time - Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin for Rollins' Universal Championship with special guest referee...Lacey Evans. You could hear the audience collectively groan when Evans was announced as the referee. This match was pretty much a disaster from beginning to end, though I wouldn't say it was quite as band as the Corbin/Angle from WrestleMania. Then again, that match wasn't the MAIN EVENT of a PPV (a note that Renee Young made as her and Cole *repeatedly* talked about how this match was a "disgrace"). This was a Vince McMahon-trolling-the-audience main event and because Seth Rollins is also simply not that likable as a babyface, it wasn't even executed in an entertaining way. I just reviewed SuperBrawl Revenge and the main event had the exact same shenanigans, albeit executed in much more entertaining fashion by Ric Flair (specifically the parts where Lacey Evans changed the rules of the match as the match went on just so that Corbin wasn't counted out or disqualified). Speaking of Corbin, he dominated most of the match, which could've worked if he had a really dangerous offensive moveset, but instead it was just ho-hum stuff. Rollins eventually got in a good spot in which he powerbombed Corbin off the apron and into a table, but that was the only moment worth seeing. Lacey Evans looked lost multiple times. The crowd erupted into chants of "Daniel Bryan" and "CM Punk" at various points, but also chanted for Becky Lynch to come in and save the day - which she did, but sadly not quickly enough. People talk about WWE wrestlers needing an "off-season" and needing to be shuffled in and out of the picture to be kept fresh - and I usually agree with that idea - but why are guys like AJ, Nakamura, Rusev, Andrade, Buddy Murphy, Asuka, Charlotte, and Cesaro the ones who have been "shuffled out" for the past 2 months? Here's hoping that this feud is officially over, but based on the speculated Extreme Rules card, that is not the case. One of the worst matches and storylines this decade. (1/5)


As a whole, Stomping Grounds was a sub-average show featuring just two matches that were slightly above-average and a bunch of "skippable" filler. Its unremarkable Kwang Score (2.25-out-of-5) says it all - this show was instantly forgettable and I actually feel a bit sorry for the (few) fans who were in attendance. On paper, the card was loaded with unnecessary rematches and, unfortunately, despite their efforts, the wrestlers and agents did not come up with enough creative spins to make this show an "unexpected hit" like last year's Great Balls of Fire! show ended up being. At least it wasn't 4 hours long?

FINAL RATING - DUDleyville