10 Impulse Reactions Following WWE Great Balls Of Fire

8. Deprived Kingdom

Braun Strowman
WWE.com

Here's a regularly scheduled reminder that Neville is the best thing going today.

'The King of the Cruiserweights' remains the most consistently outstanding performer on the entire roster, with economic brilliance in his offence matched only by his cartoonishly evil mannerisms and the unflinching master of his realm.

Typically, his efforts were shunted to pre-show duties, but in the WWE Network era, the spot means substantially more than it used to. Now less required to sell a pay-per-view, the spot actually becomes something of an epilogue for the whole show. Garnering similar responses to the opening match, the first glimpse of high profile action generates a enthusiastic response from the crowd, which is something the division rarely receives buried in the middle of Monday Night Raw.

Though game, Akira Tozawa was a lamb to the slaughter on this show. The two may feud again over the summer months, mainly due to Neville's complete and utter dominance over everybody else in the division. This first encounter was little more than a public workout for the grizzly titleholder, but he still resulted to beautifully cheap methods in order to retain. Though Tozawa hit his impressive Senton Bomb late on, Neville had the wherewithal to roll out to the floor, briefly halting the challenger's momentum.

Then crotched by Neville over the top rope, the champion followed up with a hard boot to the ropes, further disabling Tozawa for the easy victory.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett