Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

By Nicholas Jason Lopez

Stomping Grounds (Or Stomping Ground? We had to literally look at the poster to remind ourselves) comes at a time when main roster television has become uninspired at best. Is it just Lesser Super Showdown aka Less Than And Not Equal To WrestleMania?

It only made sense that last night, the WWE app accidentally let out a notification that the show was “about to begin,” clearly meant for tomorrow night. It was quite a “universal” problem (wink, wink).

We almost wanted it to happen yesterday, just so we can get it over and done with already.

The Wild Card rule continues to drag down Raw and SmackDown in quality and has made both shows feel the same. We have started to forget who is on which show now. What’s the point of a brand split then?

This probably has to do a little bit with SmackDown’s move to Fox in October. Maybe Creative has saved their best stuff for then, but it’s a chore these days to watch. Give us something. Anything.

Outside of the imaginatively hilarious and outlandish Bray Wyatt vignettes, the storylines have become immensely repetitive – Shane McMahon says stuff, Drew McIntyre is angry, Sami Zayn loses, Alexa Bliss is a disgruntled Starbucks customer, R-Truth loses the 24/7 Championship and wins it back (although not this week), Ricochet may or may not win his match and Baron Corbin is simply terrible.

You have not missed much outside of the aforementioned. Shame.

The Card 

– WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship – Daniel Bryan/Rowan (Champions) Vs. Heavy Machinery – SmackDown’s dormant Tag team Division has since shown some life after Bryan/Rowan became Champions, but not many challengers have shown themselves to be a threat outside of Heavy Machinery, which that in of itself doesn’t say much. HM has transitioned from a pseudo-Bushwhackers to a “blue collar, down and dirty” duo that doesn’t mind muscle over matter. Bryan is good enough in the ring in that this shouldn’t be too forgettable, but HM aren’t ready to be Tag Champs. At least not now.

Prediction: Daniel Bryan/Rowan

– WWE Cruiserweight Championship – Triple-Threat – Tony Nese (Champion) Vs. Drew Gulak Vs. Akira Tozawa – Ever since he won the Title at WrestleMania over Buddy Murphy, Nese has been positioned as a strong, fighting Champion. He faces his biggest challenge (or challengers) yet in the form of the fiery, strike-happy, unorthodox Tozawa and the no-nonsense submission master Gulak, who has shined in recent weeks on NXT against Kushida. The sky is a little up in the air as far as who can win and this should be a fun encounter for all involved. Nese still has “momentum” and that should carry through for at least one more defense.

Prediction: Tony Nese

– Big E/Xavier Woods Vs. Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn – To make the ninth match on the card, this was added earlier in the week. Perhaps this is an extension of the TV main events we’ve seen the past two weeks. Zayn/Owens simply have the worst luck as pest heels and still couldn’t win even if their opponents were blindfolded, both hands tied behind their back and already laid out on the canvas. It has led way to predictable television and that’s the last thing we want in the main event. We were all for Owens’ nicely executed heel turn back when it happened, but seeing the long term effects, we would’ve preferred for him to stay a face. They simply should’ve gotten Dolph Ziggler sooner, then it really “could’ve been him.” More on that later. We’ll give this to Big E/Woods to follow the trend of recent TV. OWENS/ZAYN LOSE LOL.

Prediction: Big E/Xavier Woods

– WWE United States Championship – Samoa Joe (Champion) Vs. Ricochet – Joe was previously entangled in a feud with another well-known high-flyer named Rey Mysterio until he got sidelined with an injury. In a rare moment of well-booked intelligence on Raw, Ricochet outlasted four other competitors and earned a shot against Joe. We’re still confused on how a Fatal Five-Way Elimination Match is allowed a break halfway in between, but we’ll take this. This match was put together at a good time, because the rest of the card at the time were just Super Showdown rematches and who the hell wants that? It was definitely surprising because it seemed they were building to a Miz-Joe match. Ricochet-Joe stands out better on a card and lord knows this one needs it. At the same time, while Ricochet has this amazing opportunity, all we really know about him on the main roster is that he’s the “One And Only,” flies around a lot and wins 50 percent of his matches. That being said, he can get his first big meaningful win, but since Joe recently got his belt back and has suffered a Title loss recently, build him up as Champ a little more before he drops it again. We see great things in Ricochet’s future though, for sure.

Prediction: Samoa Joe

– WWE Championship – Steel Cage – Kofi Kingston (Champion) Vs. Dolph Ziggler – This feud is a strange one for us. While these two are no strangers in the ring and there’s passion in their work on the mic, something has just been underwhelming about this. Perhaps it is the lack of heels for Kingston to face outside of Zayn, Owens and this guy. Ziggler has delivered the exact same message in nine different ways – it should’ve been him. Maybe you caught that. You may have to watch closely to pick that up. It probably also doesn’t help that we saw these two fight at Super Showdown, so what more can they bring that we haven’t seen? A Steel Cage? Eh. We’ll go Kofi, just because. Ziggler as Champ does nothing for us right now with the character he has.

Prediction: Kofi Kingston

– Roman Reigns Vs. Drew McIntyre – We’ll give credit where its due. Shane McMahon’s role on TV has diminished greatly this past week, as we experienced the all-time record of 52 consecutive minutes on SmackDown without Shane. Before, he was almost involved in every other segment as this superhuman with what we’ll call Mean Street Posse 2.0 in the form of WWE Raw Tag Team Champions The Revival and McIntyre. Shane has since become more of a coward pest heel, which is a better fit. Since this match also happened at WrestleMania where Reigns got revenge for his fallen Shield brothers, there seems to be a build for Reigns-Shane at SummerSlam, so we think this plays out where McIntyre gets a dirty win with help from Shane & Co.. Whatever helps carry things along.

Prediction: Drew McIntyre

– WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship – Bayley (Champion) Vs. Alexa Bliss – Leave the kendo sticks at home. Where we last off was actually a strong segment on SmackDown where Bayley/Bliss got into a war of vocal jabs. Bliss is in this weird tweener role where she has strung Nikki Cross along for the ride as an unexpected ally. Bayley has had a “refresh” of sorts where she can prove herself as Champion, but not without detractors like Bliss, who claim she peaked in NXT, which rings true a little bit. Bayley argues that Bliss is manipulative and has stabbed friends in the back and alleges that Cross is just her new victim. Cross was on Bliss’ side in that segment and shined through nicely at a time when the Women’s Division needs it. Now with Bliss and Bayley, in the ring is another thing entirely and we just can’t being ourselves to look forward to it. This is one of those cases where the story outshines the action and we’re eager to see where it goes. Bayley should stay Champion here, but look for things to develop with the Bliss-Cross alliance. We think down the line, they’ll be big rivals. It’s a slow build.

Prediction: Bayley

– WWE Raw Women’s Championship – Becky Lynch (Champion) Vs. Lacey Evans – We don’t even know where to begin with this feud. It’s like we’ve seen the same segment play out over and over – Lynch talks in the ring, Evans talks on the ramp, Lynch mocks Evans and then there’s some physical action and that’s it. We were actually surprised Evans’ Marines background was brought up this week, but it doesn’t help her get over as a heel, so that was pretty stupid. In the ring, it’s all pretty meh. We just want Lynch to find a new challenger already. Evans is good on the mic, has a look all her own, the Marine background will help if she’s ever a face and shows great potential, but she’s not Championship material right now.

Prediction: Becky Lynch

– WWE Universal Championship – Special Guest Referee Selected By Baron Corbin To Be Announced – Seth Rollins (Champion) Vs. Baron Corbin – Things have gotten interesting at the right time here, because let’s face it – Corbin in the main event for the Universal Championship isn’t exactly must-see stuff. Corbin has a slight mental advantage of being able to select a Special Guest Referee, but every one of his choices has been thwarted by Rollins and his new BFF since Dean Ambrose “disappeared from Earth” (Hi, AEW!) in the form of a chair. We kind of like it just because of what it entails. We’re not sure if Rollins has studied old Edge And Christian footage, but kudos to him. The Eric Young attack was sort of unnecessary though. Also, Poor EC3. We’ll just say that. There’s also the dark cloud called Brock Lesnar and his Boombox Money In The Bank Briefcase to fear for Rollins, but we don’t see a cash-in until maybe SummerSlam or even Survivor Series. That being said, it would be pretty cool if Lesnar ended up being the Referee, but Creative isn’t that clever. We’ll leave that reveal up to them, but the match should be paint-by-numbers outside of these factors. Rollins retains because that’s just the way to go right now. Corbin as Champion may deplete WWE’s entire television audience so for the sake of business, they probably wouldn’t want to do that.

Prediction: Seth Rollins