Welcome to this week’s Weekly Rassling Rundown. Let’s dive into this week’s WWE Raw, SmackDown, and NXT shows!
- Apparently, Stephanie McMahon & Triple H vs. Ronda Rousey & Kurt Angle is a dream match everyone has been waiting for. The only dream match people are waiting for is AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura.
- For the third time in a row, Brock Lesnar hasn’t showed up for work. Even when he isn’t around people still react to him.
- Roman Reigns’ promo was on point once again and calling Brock “Vince’s boy” was perfect. He’s microphone skills are getting better, and the crowd’s getting behind him very well.
- Roman confronting Vince McMahon in the production area?! Kayfabe broken!
- Vince responding to Roman’s comments by suspending him was another great way to gain heat against Brock and support for Roman. I’m really looking forward to seeing Brock no show for a fourth time despite Vince’s promise he’ll be there.
- Why is Bayley still accompanying Sasha Banks to the ring? It makes no sense especially when Bayley walked away from Sasha twice in two weeks.
- With every passing week, Mandy Rose is looking more like Trish Stratus.
- Kid Rock does a few songs for WWE, gets inducted into the Hall of Fame. I now know what I must do to be inducted.
- Finn Balor and Seth Rollins coming out for an interview in their wrestling attire? They’ll be wrestling later tonight.
- Miz’s face during Seth and Finn’s argument was gold.
- The low quality of the Raw Tag Team Division greatly disturbs me.
- Actually, the misuse of The Club and The Revival greatly disturbs me.
- John Cena decides to come back to Raw to cry about not going to WrestleMania. Remember when he said he doesn’t abuse his free-agent status? Yeah, me neither…
- Great, Cena wants to buy a ticket to WrestleMania and be part of the crowd. This tells me two things. One: Vince McMahon won’t give free tickets to his golden boy (sorry Brock). Two: Cena’s not content enough with burying wrestlers so he now wants to bury the fans.
- Wow… Way to treat Roman like sh*t, Cena, by encouraging the crowd to boo him. Seriously, can this guy’s cry for attention be any more desperate?
- Cena throwing down a challenge Undertaker is stupid. If Cena wins, he’ll be taking away Roman’s victory against Undertaker from last year’s WrestleMania.
- In his attempt to draw out the Undertaker, Cena berates him by accusing him of being old, a coward and an egomaniac. Cena’s attempt to call Undertaker out on these grounds and try to have the fans turn against him was pathetic. It’s completely hypocritical for Cena to call Undertaker “an egomaniac” when he has been abusing his power for the last two months to try and secure a WrestleMania match.
- We get a “special look” at Braun Strowman & Elias’ match from last week. And by “special look”, I mean “a replay”.
- Braun demands competition and wants a match at WrestleMania. There you go, Cena. Go take on Braun. Problem solved.
- Seth and Finn had a solid match and the ending was great. No one saw it coming which is why is worked beautifully.
- Good to see WWE holding a Women’s Battle Royale in honour of Fabulous Moolah – an ancient female wrestler who allegedly pimped out her students and other female talent. Thank God they had common sense to rename it after the huge backlash they received. Pissing off the major sponsor for WrestleMania would cause you to change the name as well, I guess.
- We get a “special look” at the upcoming Stephanie McMahon & Triple H vs. Ronda Rousey & Kurt Angle match. And by “special look”, I mean “a boring, five-minute video package”.
- Even Alexa Bliss knows Asuka’s microphone skills aren’t good.
- Both Alexa Bliss and Mickie James forget they were both beaten by Asuka in the past. Empress of Amnesia confirmed.
- Asuka picked Charlotte because she wanted a challenge. Ouch Asuka, ouch.
- The public backstabbing of Nia Jax by Alexa and Mickie was gold. Nia’s reaction and backstage outburst was spot on. Seriously, someone give this woman the Oscar for Best Actress!
- Poor Bray Wyatt. Of all the people in the Wyatt Family, who would’ve thought it would’ve been Bray’s career going nowhere? And it isn’t his fault! Blame the bad booking for ruining his career and character!
- After this “Ultimate Deletion Match”, please never let us see Woken and/or Broken Matt Hardy again.
- “Did I do something wrong?”, Referee who was appointed as the official of the Wyatt/Hardy match next week. Yes, even the referee knows this is going to suck.
- Braun enters himself in the Tag Team Battle Royale to determine who will face Raw Tag Team Champions, The Bar, at WrestleMania. The referee allows it, and Braun wins. I don’t know why this is allowed, but at least we finally get to see Braun hold a championship.
- MVP of the night goes to Johnathan Coachman, for answering all of Michael Cole’s stupid questions with basic common sense.
- AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura hype for WrestleMania… #sploosh
- AJ Styles comes out to a huge pop. Shinsuke Nakamura comes out to a bigger pop. Leave it to Rusev Day to come back to an even bigger pop.
- Solid match between AJ and Rusev. Rusev is so underutilised it’s depressing.
- Nice backstage promo from the survivors of the Bludgeon Brothers’s bludgeoning: Big E and Jimmy and/or Jey Uso. Smart decision to have them team up for revenge.
- I’m glad to see WWE didn’t have Big E come out to do his usual microphone stuff. Serious Big E is serious Big E.
- Harper & Rowan have hammers. Big E and Jimmy and/or Jey have chairs. All we need are some ladders and tables, and we got ourselves a great WrestleMania match!
- Sami Zayn’s character and microphone work over the last few months has been great. I really hope he continues his streak once this Kevin Owens/Shane McMahon feud is done.
- Really nice promo between Charlotte Flair and Asuka. You can tell both women are legitimately excited to be facing one another at WrestleMania. The excitement from the crowd was there throughout the entire segment… And was promptly killed by Randy Orton coming out randomly.
- Thanks for showing the world you can’t hold the WWE US Title correctly, Orton.
- Bobby Roode is going to retain the WWE US Title. I believe the word you were looking for there, Mr Roode, was “regain”.
- The crowd show their support for Bobby Roode, (a Canadian wrestler), by chanting “USA” as he wrestles against Jinder Mahal (a Canadian wrestler of Indian descent billed from India).
- Corey Graves really hates Byron Saxton. I honestly think there might be legit beef between the two backstage. There’s no way the two can be acting this well.
- What’s the bet ever female wrestler who tweeted about the Horrendous Moolah promptly deleted them after SmackDown?
- Shane McMahon comes out to remind us we’re in Indianapolis this week.
- Shane informs everyone he’ll be taking an indefinite leave from the WWE. I’d be excited about that news, but if I’ve learned anything from watching WWE for years it’s that he’ll be back in two weeks.
- Shane gives us a nice parting gift by booking Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens at WrestleMania. Yes, the two people he hates are freely given a match at WrestleMania. Take note, Cena.
- The Owens and Zayn beatdown of Shane was great.
- “You’re being very mean right now!” SmackDown Fan, 2018.
- Sanity beating Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss was predictable. Also, why are Tino & Moss teaming again? I thought they didn’t like each other.
- For a second week in a row, Tommaso Ciampa’s heat was nuclear. The crowd are strongly against Ciampa and he’s got them eating out of the palm of his hand without uttering a single word.
- Why is Shayna Baszler continuing to come out each week to beat up wrestlers? Why is she being rewarded for this by getting another shot at the NXT Women’s Championship?
- Not only does Baszler no-sell a very hard punch to the face from Ember Moon, she botches selling Ember’s finisher. If Baszler becomes the NXT Women’s Champion at TakeOver: New Orleans, you can kiss the NXT Women’s Division goodbye.
- Street Profits vs. Heavy Machinery was a bit fun. Didn’t think Street Profits would get the win here.
- Pete Dunne vs. Adam Cole was good, but not as good as the crowd thought it was. A few cool moves shouldn’t get fans automatically chanting “This Is Awesome” and “Fight Forever”.
- The contract signing for Aleister Black vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas was disappointing. No NXT Champion and the focus went from Black vs. Almas to Zelina Vega vs. Candice LeRae.
- For the first time in a while, this week’s NXT wasn’t the show of the week. I’m sure things will pick up steam in the weeks to come
That’s all for this edition of WRR! Let me know when you thought of this week’s shows. Feedback is welcomed too! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week!
W.F. Thorne 