WWE TV review: Jason Jordan and Seth Rollins claim tag gold as Kevin Owens beats AJ Styles
The duo were thrown together at short-notice by Raw GM Kurt Angle, with Rollins’ regular partner Dean Ambrose ruled out with legitimate injury
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.There are new tag team champions on WWE Raw after the unlikely pairing of Jason Jordan and Seth Rollins captured the titles.
The duo were thrown together at short-notice by Raw GM Kurt Angle, with Rollins’ regular partner Dean Ambrose ruled out with legitimate injury – the Lunatic Fringe was written out of storylines this week as she prepares for surgery on a shoulder issue. In his absence, Rollins and Jordan beat The Bar in the main event of this week’s raw to take the tag crowns.
Smackdown, meanwhile, was headlined by a non-title match between WWE Champion AJ Styles and Kevin Owens as the long-term feud between Shane McMahon, Owens and Sami Zayn continued to play out. Owens took advantage of a melee caused by McMahon as he sought to remove Zayn from the affair, rolling up Styles for a sneak victory.
The US Championship appears to be vacant after Daniel Bryan ruled that the Show Off had relinquished his newly-won title following his impassioned speech the week before. Quite what’s next for Ziggler, whose contract with WWE is reportedly close to expiring, remains to be seen but its unlikely he’d have been handed a championship win if that exit was imminent. In the short-term, though, this week’s television saw the commencement of a tournament to crown a new US Champion, with Jinder Mahal and Bobby Roode claiming wins in the early rounds.
John Cena was at Raw for a rare appearance as he beat Elias in a lengthy opening bout, while Samoa Joe picked up a disqualification victory over an angry Roman Reigns. Matt Hardy’s rivalry with Bray Wyatt also finally turned physical as Hardy got himself an initial upper-hand.
2017 saw a huge influx of NXT talent into Raw and Smackdown and they continue to dominate. Raw’s Absolution were once again victorious over Bayley, Sasha Banks and Mickie James, while The Riott Squad on Smackdown needed to be chased off by Natalya and Carmella after they’d done a number on both Naomi and Charlotte Flair.
It was also confirmed on Tuesday’s Smackdown broadcast that Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin will challenge the Uso’s for the tag team championships after the in-form pairing picked up a victory over The New Day and Rusev & English.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments