WWE Stomping Grounds Recap

Lacey Evans vs. Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch kicked off tonight's first Stomping Grounds event from Tacoma, Washington.  After Lynch started off with a flurry, Evans took control with a kick to the mid section.  Lynch battled back with a corkscrew leg whip, but Evans connected with a forearm shot to Lynch's mid section and worked her over from there.  Lynch was able to escape a pinfall attempt with a bridge and landed a springboard kick to Evans, but Evans was able to battle fight back and hit a springboard stunner and a kick to the face for a two count.  Evans looked like she was going for a moonsault, but Lynch was able to drop Lacey face first and put her in the disarmher for the tapout.

Big E and Xavier Woods of The New Day faced Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in the second match of the night.  KO started the match by landing a superkick on Big E as he stood on the apron, and landed one on Woods as well before going to the top rope for a senton for a two count.  Owens tagged in Zayn and hit another superkick before Zayn hit a Blue Thunder Bomb for a two.  Woods would continue to fight off their onslaught and try to make it to Big E, but his attempts were to no avail early on as Owens and Zayn would knock Big E off the apron.  Big E eventually got in and changed the momentum with a couple of overhead suplexes and a splash to Zayn.  It looked like Big E and Woods were going to put Zayn down for the count until KO came in and ran interference to save his partner.

Big E would take himself and Zayn out of the match with a spear through the middle ropes leaving KO and Woods as the legal men.  After Woods escaped a stunner attempt, it looked like he was going for a top rope elbow before he was spiked on the turnbuckle and KO hit a stunner for the win.

Samoa Joe defend The United States Championship vs. Ricochet and Joe started off with mind games as the two competitors grappled for a test of strength, only for Joe to hit Ricochet with quick jabs.  Joe took over the match using his power advantage with a big chop and knees to the gut.  Ricochet took an enormous amount of punishment in this match including a powerslam, a snap German Suplex, a sit down powerbomb and a clothesline that turned him inside out.  Ricochet got back into the match with an enziguri and a corkscrew flip over the top rope.  Ricochet eventually would counter Joe's Kokina Clutch attempt by snapping his neck into the ropes and hit a codebreaker knee to the face.  This led to Ricochet hitting the 630 splash to win his first championship on the main roster.

Heavy Machinery got their first shot at The SmackDown Tag Team Championships when they faced Daniel Bryan and Rowan.  Bryan tried to use his speed advantage with kicks to the quadriceps of Otis, but the big man's power was too much as he lifted DB up and made the tag simultaneously to his partner Tucker for a double team suplex.  DB got back into the fight by working Tucker's leg over by repeatedly whipping it into the ring post.  Rowan came in and landed a back elbow and a crossbody on Tucker who desperately needed to make a tag to Otis following a missed monnsault attempt on Bryan.  Otis and Rowan appeared to be at a stalemate when neither could knock the other one down after multiple attempts at trying to overpower each other.  Bryan made a blindsided tag and caught Tucker off guard following a dive onto Rowan for a small package roll up pin.

Alexa Bliss tried to become a six time Women's Champion when she faced Bayley.  Bayley showed early on that she is more aggressive than previous years by getting directly into Alexa's face when the bell rang.  Alexa had control of the match until she smacked Bayley and lit a fire under her.  Bayley would take Alexa down and land punches, but things went to the outside and Bayley let the presence of Nikki Cross distract her.  Alexa would ram Bayley's shoulder into the ring post and tried to take advantage of the situation.  Bayley would eventually attempt a suicide dive, but took Nikki out by accident and turned around to a sunset flip piledriver by Bliss.  Alexa looked like she was going to finish Bayley off, but Cross entered the ring and distracted her by going after Bayley.  As the official removed Cross from the ring, Bayley took advantage of the slight distraction to hit the Bayley to Belly for the three count.

Drew McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns was up next in a WrestleMania rematch.  Reigns had to do battle with McIntyre while having to worry about the threat of Shane McMahon on the outside.  After initially gaining an advantage over McIntyre, Roman let Shane's presence distract him and he chased Shane around the crowd only to run into a big right hand from McIntyre.  Drew took control with a belly to belly overhead throw early on and worked Reigns over with an armbar and an STF submission attempt.  Reigns brought the fight to McIntyre, but he let his hatred for Shane get the best of him.  After landing two Superman punches to Shane, Drew hit Reigns with a reverse Alabama slam on the commentators' table.  Reigns also survived a superplex from the top rope too and had McIntyre down for the count after a spear until Shane got involved pulling the ref out of the ring.  Shane's attempts failed and Reigns eliminated the threat, dodged a Claymore kick and hit a spear for the win.

Dolph Ziggler tried to capture his first WWE Championship when he fought Kofi Kingston inside of a steel cage.  The match started with both guys going for their finishers as Kofi dodged a superkick and Ziggler dodged a Trouble in Paradise.  Kofi and Dolph tried to use their speed to escape the cage, but neither was able to succeed.  Ziggler took control when Kingston charged him in the corner, but he was flipped over the top rope and hit back first into the cage.  Kingston was able to change the momentum when he threw Dolph face first into a support beam in the cage.  Ziggler tried to stop Kingston from escaping the cage, but got hit with a springboard crossbody and kicked out at two.  Ziggler worked over Kingston's leg with a heel hook, and it looked like Kofi's run was over.  Kingston changed his fortunes with an ankle lock, but got hit with a Zig Zag and kicked out.  As Ziggler tried to escape by crawling out of the cage, Kingston leaped over him and threw the cage to retain.

Baron Corbin vs. Seth Rollins for The Universal Championship was the main event with the challenger picking a special guest referee.  Corbin chose Lacey Evans and he seized an opportunity as she was arguing with Seth about him having a steel chair.  Corbin attacked Rollins with the chair until he felt like he did enough damage, then Evans rang the bell for the match to start.  Corbin looked like he had the perfect plan with Evans using a fast count to try and gift wrap The Universal Championship for him, but Seth fought back with a sling blade and drove Corbin through a table on the outside with a  powerbomb.  The fix was in against Seth as Evans did a slow 10 count after Corbin was driven through the table and stopped counting at eight then changed the match to no count outs.  Corbin got back into the match with a chokeslam on the apron to Rollins and used the chair, but he was not disqualified as Evans changed the rules mid match again.

Rollins hit a Falcon's Arrow on Corbin, but Evans refused to count, slapped Rollins and hit him with an uppercut below the belt.  This led to Becky Lynch making her way to the ring to attack Evans which was legal since the no disqualification stipulation was announced.  Evans was unable to make it back into the ring following Lynch's attack and Corbin would turn around to a superkick and a curb stomp to win.