Before we get to the week that was in the WWE, let’s start with a few quick thoughts coming out of WrestleMania.
Holy Boneyard Match! Well done and a nice touch to both The Undertaker and AJ Styles for how it was laid out! Well executed and a great way to bring some strength back to UT and the returning American Bad Ass! Plus, who can not like Metallica on a big stage!
Bizarre doesn’t quite go far enough to describe that Firefly Fun House Match between John Cena and Bray Wyatt/The Fiend. You either loved it or hated it! I, for one, loved it! Showing all the twists, turns and chances that Cena had to go one way or another in his career was genius. The one-liners and inside ribs were tremendous. And oh yeah, loved to see Eric Bischoff back (I kid, I kid) after being fired a few months ago!
The WWE made the best out of a bad situation with the coronavirus pandemic and the lack of crowd for its biggest event of the year. For that, I’ll give them a round of applause!
Loved having the two-night 3-3.5 hour shows instead of the one-night 7+ hour extravaganza. Something to think about going forward!
The sight of Kevin Owens flying off the WrestleMania sign only made me want him jumping off the pirate ship at Raymond James Stadium even more. It has to happen down the road.
Edge vs. Orton was long, dramatic and worth it! The RAW emotion, pun intended, showed through. Count me as one who did NOT think it went too long.
Interesting that the WWE resisted scratching the itch on Bayley vs. Sasha Banks for the moment.
I guess now we get Charlotte Flair full time on Monday and Wednesday nights, right?
JBL back on commentary was a welcome listen!
Still, we get no reason why Roman Reigns didn’t wrestle at the company’s biggest event. That, my friends, is just lazy storytelling.
RAW
RESULTS
- Asuka defeated Liv Morgan
- RAW Tag Team Title Match: The Street Profits defeated Angel Garza & Austin Theory (DQ)
- Bianca Belair vs. Zelina Vega ended in no-contest
- Bianca Belair & The Street Profits defeated Zelina Vega, Angel Garza & Austin Theory
- Aleister Black defeated Apollo Crews
- Ricochet & Cedric Alexander defeated Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch
- Seth Rollins defeated Denzel Dejournette
- Nia Jax defeated Deonna Purrazzo
- Humberto Carrillo defeated Brendan Vink
- WWE Championship Match: Drew McIntyre defeated The Big Show
The good thing about Monday night’s first RAW after WrestleMania was that there was plenty of wrestling in it. The problem was that most of the matches didn’t involve any of the top tier talent, a trend that’s been more and more prevalent over the past few years.
We got a pretty good start to the night with Asuka winning over Liv Morgan. Then, for the next 45 minutes, we got three different versions of The Street Profits and Bianca Belair vs. Zelina Vega, Angel Garza and Austin Theory. It’s nice feud with the addition of Belair into the mix. But no, we did not need the better part of an hour of it. Anyway, I digress.
Good to see Ricochet and Cedric Alexander get a win as a team. It’ll be good to see if they actually get a push into the tag team title mix as well.
Nia Jax returned. Seth Rollins appeared for a few minutes as the run of opponents from NXT continued.
Not sure what to make of the Drew McIntyre vs. The Big Show main event other than this – it was a good plug for Paul Wight’s new show on Nextflix – “The Big Show Show,” which BTW is pretty funny having seen a few episodes so far. But here’s what makes the match make no sense. Why would Drew McIntyre come back out to the ring to do a promo in front on no one after the main event? Why would Drew McIntyre agree to a match right after WrestleMania’s main event with someone who hasn’t been around in months? Why would we believe any of this as fans? What, just because The Big Show tried to push his buttons and slap him in the face? Not buying it folks! There’s nothing in it for the new champion whatsoever! I understand that the WWE needed to tape things well in advance, but this one made absolutely no sense at all! Do another recap or show parts of a WrestleMania match for those who didn’t see it, just like they did for the Boneyard Match or Charlotte’s Flair win over Rhea Ripley.
And oh yeah, another thing – that video was in no way SHOCKING FOOTAGE!
NXT
RESULTS
- NXT Women’s Championship #1 Contender’s Ladder Match: Io Shirai defeated Chelsea Green, Dakota Kai, Mia Yim, Tegan Nox and Candice LeRae
- Indus Sher defeated Ever-Rise
- Johnny Gargano defeated Tommaso Ciampa
Kudos to the ladies! An awesome start to the night with Io Shirai outlasting Chelsea Green, Dakota Kai, Mia Yim, Tegan Nox and Candice LeRae to win a title shot with the newly crowned NXT Champion Charlotte Flair. It’ll be a fun underdog story as Shirai tries to take down The Queen in her first championship defense.
Nice tease by Candice LeRae too as she told her husband, Johnny Gargano that she was going home before his final match with Tommaso Ciampa later that night.
Indus Sher, Malcolm Bivens’ new tag team had their in-ring debut against Ever-Rise. Kind of flat if you ask me.
I could be wrong, but I expected more from Gargano vs. Ciampa – The End. It surely got enough time devoted to it – lasting the better part of the second hour of NXT. The commercial interruptions ruined the flow of the match I thought. Why not just give it to us commercial-free it it’s such an epic event as the last time they will EVER meet? Didn’t make much sense. But that seems to be the prevailing thought coming out of WrestleMania weekend. Granted, the similarities between Orton vs. Edge and Ciampa vs. Gargano were there. Plus, the fact that we saw Ciampa and Gargano just take down the Performance Center recently didn’t help matters.
The ending twist with LeRae coming back to seemingly betray her husband yet then turn on Ciampa as well to give her husband the victory was fitting. So, now we get the heel duo of Gargano and LeRae to take on the shortly debuting Killer Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux, who were seen watching Gargano and LeRae walk to their car to end Wednesday night’s show. Here’s hoping they play up Kross & Bordeaux in a huge way after all the hype leading up to it. Tick. Tock. Apocolypse.
SMACKDOWN
RESULTS
- Women’s Tag Team Championship WrestleMania rematch: Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross defeated The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane)
- Dolph Ziggler defeated Tucker
- The Forgotten Sons defeated Lucha House Party
- Sheamus defeated Cal Bloom
- Universal Title Non-Title Match: Braun Strowman defeated Shinsuke Nakamura
Let us just call Friday Night SmackDown what it really was this week: re-SmackDown. Instead of moving forward after WrestleMania, we just got more of the same.
A rematch for the Women’s Tag Team Titles between Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs. the former champions, the Kabuki Warriors is where we started. We got Dolph Ziggler vs. Tucker. A replay of the SmackDown tag team title ladder match from WrestleMania which gets us another triple threat match for the Smackdown Tag Team Titles as The Miz faces Big E and Jimmy Uso. Plus, another Nakamura vs. Strowman match.
What we didn’t get was more from Otis and Mandy in person. What we didn’t get was any reasoning or update on Roman Reigns. What we didn’t get was anything from Goldberg.
What we did get, and liked, was Bayley throwing her bestie, Sasha Banks under the bus to go and face Tamina one-on-one. The seeds are being planted there…
I wonder where the WWE is going with the Jeff Hardy retrospective. His contract is up soon, reportedly and with his brother already gone to AEW, you have to wonder how long he’ll stay with a full-time WWE schedule. It was a good look back though! Let’s see where part 2 goes.
The Fiend gets right back into the Universal Title picture by challenging Braun Strowman. That’s a very good thing! I just hope they don’t use The Fiend as a throw-away to make Strowman look better. The Fiend deserves more, especially after being a highlight of WreslteMania weekend. Plus, who can’t appreciate the twist on the line that usually comes from a parent to a kid – “I brought you into this World, I’m going to have to take you out.”
Next week, we get qualifiers for a Money In The Bank PPV that we’re not quite sure is going to happen, although we know now that it’s not going to happen in Baltimore now that the venue has announced its cancelation. It’s Daniel Bryan vs. Cesaro and Dana Brooke vs. Naomi. And further down the road we get Brooke & Carmella with tag team title shots against Bliss & Cross. I guess Dana wins the fill the time spots!
In two weeks, we get the 25th anniversary celebration of Triple H. Can you say time filler!
Parting shots:
The WWE give The Revival their official release. Honestly, good luck to both Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder . They are what they are – more pro wrestlers than sports entertainers. And in the end, that’s why they never really fit in the WWE. Still, they were tag champs in all three brands, so they were given a chance. They will do fine no matter where they end up, although it seems like AEW and NJPW are perfect fits for them.
I’m begging the WWE to please end the in-ring promos to no one! There are better ways to deliver these messages! Cut them down and make them more important with better delivery. You can be more creative than this! Now is the time to do it and take more risk. The rewards are there for the taking!
Thanks for letting us share our thoughts! Shoot me an email at jcrowe567@gmail.com. We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions! You can also check out my blog, The Crowe’s Nest as we delve into more pro wrestling, sports entertainment and the World of Sports. My apologies ahead of time – I AM a Patriots and Red Sox fan! If you’re not down with that, I’ve got TWO WORDS for you… NEW ENGLAND!
