Sunday, May 3, 2020

RAW NXT & SmackDown | Recap #5

RAW was taped from the PC.
Samoa Joe returned to our screens as part of the commentary team. 

MVP hosted the "VIP Lounge" his guests were: Rey Mysterio, Aleister Black & Apollo Crews. They were interrupted by Andrade, Garza, Theory and Zelina Vega. When that happened I knew, and I'm sure you knew if you watched this, where this was going. A six man tag match. So predictable. 

The winners of this match were Rey Mysterio, Aleister Black & Apollo Crews. Crews pinned the US champion Andrade. This was a long match. 

There was a top ten rundown of Triple H's greatest moments as his 25th Anniversary "celebrations" continued. 

Andrade vs. Apollo Crews for the US Championship was set for later. 

Asuka vs. Nia Jax vs. Shayna Baszler ended with no winner with Nia Jax standing tall. A lot of people have been unfairly criticising Jax lately on social media. That's "keyboard warriors" for you. 

Bobby Lashley defeated Denzel Dejournette.

Liv Morgan defeated Ruby Riott.

Former WWE Champion, Jinder Mahal returned from injury & defeated Akira Tozawa. Good to see Mahal back on WWE TV. 

Andrade retained his US Championship against Apollo Crews. Crews was injured towards the end of the match. He was never going to win. I believe he is now unable to compete in the Money in the Bank Ladder match. His current push only happened because others are at home during the current situation. No offence to Crews. He's a good athlete. I'm just calling it as I see it.

UPDATE: Apollo is now out of the Money in the Bank Match and there will be a last chance Gauntlet Match on Monday to decide who takes Apollo's place. 

Street Profits vs. Viking Raiders is set for this Monday. This will probably end in a no contest and the rematch will take place at Money in the Bank to fill the card.

Cedric Alexander & Ricochet defeated Ever-Rise. I'm not a fan of Cedric and Ricochet as a makeshift tag team. They would better suited as singles competitors. Book these two in a match against each other, that would be fun to watch. 

MVP appeared on screen and said Alexander & Ricochet will face Shane Thorne & Brendan Vink in a rematch this Monday. Am I missing something here? Since when did he become RAW GM? Anyway. MVP also said that the match could be box office. MVP's got jokes now. 

The contract signing between Seth Rollins & Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship ended in a fight as expected, McIntyre gave Murphy a Claymore Kick and Rollins walked away. This ended RAW. Do contract signings ever end without fights? Nope! 

NXT started off with a match in Group B from the interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament. Which resulted in a win for Isiah "Swerve" Scott against El Hijo Del Fantasma.

Fantasma was attacked by some masked individuals but managed to get away from them. It'll be interesting to see who gets revealed as the leader. 

Dominik Dijakovic challenged Johnny Gargano to a match. This was confirmed later in this show.

Candice LaRae (with Johnny Gargano) debuted a new theme song and look as she defeated her former tag team partner Kacy Catanzaro. 

There was a Newly-Bros Show segment involving Timothy Thatcher & Matt Riddle hosted by Byron Saxton. Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner of Imperium put an end to the "comedy" by attacking the NXT Tag Team champions.

Adam Cole will defend his NXT Championship next week against Velveteen Dream.

Charlotte defeated Mia Yim. Io Shirai challenged Charlotte to a match for the Women's Championship on the next episode of NXT. This was made official.
Speaking of the next episode. We will see the debut of Scarlett Bordeaux & Karrion Kross. 

Also. Finn Balor will call out the person who attacked him last week. 

Dexter Lumis defeated Shane Thorne. 

Drake Maverick defeated Tony Nese in a Group A match from the interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament. 

Keith Lee successfully defended his North American Championship against Damian Priest.

SmackDown kicked things off with Daniel Bryan vs. Baron Corbin. Bryan won by DQ and Corbin had the last laugh with help from Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura.

Universal Champion Brain Strowman was in the ring and then he was interrupted by a new episode of The Firefly Funhouse. The build to Strowman vs. Wyatt at Money in the Bank continues. 

Sheamus defeated Leon Ruff. Looking forward to seeing his feud against Jeff Hardy. 

Carmella qualified for the Women's Money in the Bank match after defeating Mandy Rose who was distracted by Sonya Deville, after the match, Deville took out Rose. This feud is far from over. 

The Forgotten Sons defeated New Day. This will put them in contention for a future tag title opportunity. 

It was announced that the Men's & Women's Money in the Bank will take place at the same time. I've always had a sense that would happen and I was right. It will be cinematic that's for sure.

Otis defeated Dolph Ziggler to qualify for the Men's Money in the Bank match. 


This is it for for the recap, hope you enjoyed. Until next time, thanks for reading.