Welcome to this week’s Weekly Rassling Rundown. Let’s dive into this week’s WWE Raw, SmackDown, and NXT shows!
- For some reason, Kurt Angle doesn’t know what to do about Braun Strowman illegally entering and illegally winning a Tag Team Battle Royale. It’s simple – REDO THE MATCH!!!
- Roman Reigns breaking his suspense wasn’t surprising, the fact WWE allowed him to have a live microphone was.
- Angle might need to have his neck medically examined. It was getting redder the more he talked, and his veins tripled in size as well. That’s not a good sign…
- Three US Marshalls were beat up by Reigns while he was handcuffed. Either Reigns is overpowered, or US Marshalls are terrible at law enforcement.
- Brock Lesnar finally appearing on Raw to beat down on a handcuffed Roman Reigns was great. Brock was hated and Roman gained a lot of support from the crowd… Until they were highjacked by moronic fans chanting “You Deserve It”.
- Speaking of Lesnar’s beatdown of Reigns, why didn’t the locker room come out to stop Brock like they always do in these situations? It would’ve been great to see the entire WWE Raw roster come out to support Reigns.
- Why did I assume Braun Strowman was going to appear when Reigns was being loaded into the ambulance?
- For some reason, Mickie James now looks like she’s part of the cast of Desperate Housewives of New Jersey.
- I don’t understand why Alexa Bliss thinks talking sh*t about Nia Jax while standing in the middle of the ring is a smart idea, especially when she knows Nia will be coming for her.
- Asuka definitely picked the correct person to face at WrestleMania. Her match against Bliss was average at best.
- Did Nia have to slow down to allow Alexa to get away from her? Damn, looks really can be deceiving.
- Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax at WrestleMania was predictable. Hopefully Nia gets the win. After these past few weeks she really deserves it.
- Kurt Angle has allowed Braun Strowman to pick a partner in his match against The Bar at WrestleMania. Again, why was Braun allowed to win a match he didn’t have a right to be in?
- Matt Hardy’s kids seem just as uninterested in the Ultimate Deletion Match as I am.
- Within a week Coach has gone from being the most logical member on the commentary team to being stupid almost on a Bryon Saxton level.
- The Revival’s plan to prove how good of a tag team they are is to downgrade themselves to the WrestleMania preshow and be forgotten in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal (AKA the ARMBAR).
- Great to see Mark Henry being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. I hope the hand he fathered with Mae Young gets to induct him.
- The dragging out of the Sasha/Bayley saga continues with the two teaming up. Sasha Banks clearly explains the “every woman for herself” scenarios her and Bayley have been, yet Bayley still doesn’t understand why Sasha keeps turning on her during the matches. Though Sasha is meant to be coming off as the mean friend, this feud is making Bayley look like a bigger moron than usual.
- John Cena continuing to bash Undertaker for “being embarrassed” about his WrestleMania loss and for being a coward is already getting old.
- The crowd chants “Undertaker” when Cena asks them if they want to see him. This is apparently enough proof for Cena to prove people want to see the Deadman wrestle. To be fair, they’d be chanting for Stone Cold Steve Austin if Cena asked them if they want to see him wrestle again. Or the Rock. Or Mankind. Shawn Michaels…
- Why is Cena trying to make Undertaker look like the bad guy by saying he’s disrespecting people by not giving us an answer? Isn’t it disrespectful (and egotistical) to try and get a 53-year-old man, who’s suffering from many injuries, to come out of retirement for one night?
- Thank you Kane for choke slamming Cena! Also Cena, if you want Kane to give you an answer from the Undertaker, you shouldn’t move the microphone away from him.
- For some reason, The Miz broke kayfabe and asked the crowd if he’s a heel.
- Miz referred to Finn Balor as “Prince Nevitt” instead of his old wrestling name “Prince Devitt”. Devitt also happens to be Finn’s real surname. Maybe Miz has Neville on the mind.
- Balor flexed. I splooshed.
- Balor picking up two victories two weeks in a row means he’ll be losing at WrestleMania.
- The package they played telling us about Ronda Rousey’s history reminded me a lot about the video packages NXT ran for Roderick Strong – two wrestlers with no gimmick who are struggling to get over with the WWE audience. Wait, that’s mean for Strong. I should’ve said one talented wrestler (Strong) and one potential dud of a wrestler (Rousey). There, all fixed.
- All I took away from that Ronda video package was the fact she cried about losing two matches in UFC and couldn’t handle the losses, so she jumped ship to WWE. Great role model for young women and girls everywhere. If at first you don’t succeed, give up and try somewhere else.
- You just know the Ultimate Deletion match is going to be horrible when Michael Cole issues an apology to the WWE fans for what they’re about to watch.
- The Ultimate Deletion Match is just a “Falls Count Anywhere” Match held at Matt Hardy’s house filmed in the middle of the night. There was background music playing and the match resembled more of a bad Hollywood action movie than an actual wrestling match. It was terrible. I hated it. I seriously don’t understand why people like this Woken/Broken gimmick. Someone please, explain it to me.
- Bray Wyatt has now been ultimately buried… I mean “deleted”. What the hell did that guy do to deserve this? At least the rest of the Wyatt Family are doing well. Three out of four ain’t bad, I suppose.
- I’ve got mixed feelings about Daniel Bryan returning to the ring. While it’s good to see him wrestle again, I fear his popularity is going to hurt the pushes and popularity of other wrestlers. I might expand on this later in a separate post.
- Daniel thanks the WWE medical staff. That’s something you’ll never see CM Punk do.
- Another good match between Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura. AJ Styles taking his time to help him was good as well.
- Natalya Neidhart tells Charlotte Flair she senses the SmackDown Women’s Champion’s fear of losing to Asuka. Natalya’s mutant power confirmed.
- I seriously love the backstage taunting between Nakamura and Styles. WWE know they don’t have to do much to build their match at WrestleMania and it’s working well.
- When I looked at Baron Corbin’s opponent in the ring I thought “Hmm, looks like they’re using a local wrestler to job to Baron”. It was actually Tye Dillinger. Remember when he was just more than enhancement talent when he was in NXT?
- That was an ugly botch of Corbin’s End of Days finisher…
- Pretty good match between Natalya and Charlotte. Charlotte taking the loss from Carmella’s Money in the Bank cash in attempt was a nice touch. Maybe Natalya was right – Charlotte is afraid of her WrestleMania match against Asuka.
- Jesus Christ, Rowan’s steampunk sheep mask is terrifying.
- Randy Orton will now defend the WWE US Title in a Triple Threat Match at WrestleMania against Jinder Mahal and Bobby Roode. Called it.
- Glad to see Becky Lynch finally picking up a win instead of losing!
- Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are now best friends again, even after Zayn and Owens turned on each other to try and win the WWE Championship. They understood it was “every man for himself”. Take note, Bayley.
- Zayn and Owens getting fired by Bryan and their vicious beatdown of him was fantastic. All three men were great together and everything felt emotional. However, where the HELL was security? How were Owens and Zayn, two employees who were just fired, allowed to beat up their former boss without any interference? Not even the roster came out to stop them from beating down someone who was just medically cleared after two years of being benched!
- Between Raw and SmackDown, the EMTs are getting a lot of work.
- These Johnny Gargano signs are getting bigger by the week.
- That crowd pop when Gargano finally appeared and attacked Tommaso Ciampa was great.
- Gargano, a former NXT wrestler who was fired, illegally attacks Ciampa, a current NXT wrestler. Security immediately come out and remove Gargano from the building because he has no right to be there. Looks like NXT General Manager William Regal took note from what happened on Raw and SmackDown this week.
- Tyler Bate not being in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic makes me a sad panda. In all seriousness, it sucks to see Bate injured. Hopefully he isn’t out for too long.
- Why does Roderick Strong think he’s entitled to opportunities when he’s repeatedly lost?
- Not sure if I like Pete Dunne teaming up Strong. Dunne’s a lone wolf (sorry Corbin) so him teaming with Strong seems a bit off. He’d only have to be in it for the opportunity to capture more gold.
- Great to see Oney Lorcan complete again. I’ve missed his hard-hitting style.
- Not only is Shayna Baszler bad at interviews, she’s also bad on commentary.
- Baszler’s comment that “no one’s tried to stop her” from doing what she wants is technically true – and annoying. Regal told Baszler from the beginning her attitude wouldn’t be tolerated, so why does he allow her to get away with attacking women? Why does he continue to reward her bad behaviour by giving her title shots?
- Andrade “Cein” Almas angrily told us Aleister Black disrespected him last week. I’m really confused as to why Almas thinks this, considering HE was the one to no-show his contract signing last week.
- Lars Sullivan is coming back! I can’t wait to hear that theme again!
- Kassius Ohno and Adam Cole’s match was great from start to finish. I sh*t myself twice when Cole hit his Last Shot neckbreaker to the much heavier Ohno. Cole hitting Ohno with repeated superkicks was a nice way to end the match as well.
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 