Saturday, May 23, 2020

RAW NXT & SmackDown | Recap #8

RAW began with an excellent video package of Becky's greatest moments of her career, including her announcement last week.

Edge accepted Randy Orton's challenge for a wrestling match at Backlash. I have already made my prediction for the outcome of this match, however, you will have to wait for the predictions blog in a few weeks time. 

Seth Rollins talked about why he attacked Rey Mysterio last week, he said that it was unfortunate but necessary, a sacrifice for the greater good (his words not mine) he said it was a cathartic moment for clarity he needed to be the leader he was meant to be. (Who wrote this please?) he spoke to Rey through the camera and said what happened to him was a blessing in disguise and said Rey was welcome. Humberto Carrillo interrupted and said Rollins was a coward. An impromptu match between Carrillo and Murphy was made, Murphy went on to win. Before Murphy could beat up Carrillo, Aleister Black made the save. They will meet later on. 

Liv Morgan cut a backstage promo. 

Charlotte defeated Ruby Riott. 

MVP talked to Bobby Lashley backstage. Edge vs. Orton was made official for next month. 

Street Profits took on Viking Raiders in a Axe Throwing competition. There were clips shown throughout the show.

It was time for Asuka to celebrate becoming RAW Women's Champion. Nia crashed the party, Asuka went after Nia who then walked away. Standard face and heel segment here.

Bobby Lashley defeated R-Truth.

Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross successfully defended their Women's Tag Team Championships by DQ against the iiconics. 

Nia Jax attacked Kairi Sane backstage. Asuka took down Nia with a kick to the head as payback.

Shayna Baszler defeated Natalya in a submission match. 

Kevin Owens returned to RAW to host the "KO Show" his guests were Andrade, Austin Theory, Angel Garza & Zelina Vega. Apollo Crews ran out to start a fight which led to a tag team match. (playa) He miraculously recovered from his injury didn't he? The powers of script writing I guess. 

Apollo Crews & Kevin Owens defeated Andrade & Angel Garza. There was further dissension in  Zelina's group as Andrade & Garza took out Austin Theory. 

Aleister Black defeated Murphy by DQ after a run in by Austin Theory who has now joined Rollins and Murphy. 

Andrade vs. Apollo Crews for the US Championship is set for the next RAW. There have been rumours of Crews turning heel soon. This match may be step one in that happening. 

Drew McIntyre defeated Corbin in the main event. The WWE Champion challenged Bobby Lashley as RAW went off the air.

UPDATE: It's official. Drew McIntyre will defend his WWE Championship against Bobby Lashley at Backlash. 

On NXT Karrion Kross defeated Liam Gray and then Tommaso Ciampa returned to NXT after being taken out by Kross weeks ago. They will meet on June 7th at TakeOver. 

The Cruiserweight Championship Tournament continued with a match in Group B with El Hijo Del Fantasma defeating Akira Tozawa. 

Timothy Thatcher challenged Matt Riddle for a fight. 

Mia Yim defeated Santana Garrett. After the match Candice LeRae and Johnny Gargano walked out and had some choice words, Keith Lee ran out to even things up. I guess we're headed for a tag team match people. 

Roderick Strong defeated Dexter Lumis. After the match, Lumis put Strong in a submission hold, the rest of the Undisputed Era ran out to attack Lumis and then Velveteen Dream cleaned house. 

Oney Lorcan and Danny Birch defeated Ever Rise.

Matt Riddle accepted Timothy Thatchers challenge for a fight and upped the stakes to a cage match. This was made official later in the show.

Drake Maverick defeated Kushida In Group A of the NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament. Byron Saxton then said that General Manager, William Regal, made a triple threat match for the next episode of NXT. Jake Atlas vs. Drake Maverick vs. Kushida. Reason being, these three competitors have the same win loss record (2-1) so the winner of the match will go through to the tournament final.

Rhea Ripley vs. Io Shirai ended with no winner after Charlotte got involved. This is heading for a triple threat match at TakeOver for sure. 

SmackDown began with The Miz & John Morrison presenting "The Dirt Sheet" they talked about their loss last week against Braun Strowman & Otis. Which resulted in the Universal Champion interrupting the segment, this led to Strowman vs. Miz. The winner of the match was Braun Strowman.

After the match, John Morrison challenged Strowman to a 2 on 1 Handicap Match (this includes Miz obviously) for the Universal Championship at Backlash. Strowman accepted. To quote The Miz. Really??? 

The first round of the Intercontinental Championship continued as AJ Styles took on his longtime rival, Shinsuke Nakamura. with the "Phenomenal One" advancing to the next round, to face Elias. Michael Cole said that AJ was traded to SmackDown from RAW for superstars to be named later. 

It was "Champion vs. Champion" Charlotte vs. Bayley. Prior to commercial break, Charlotte got on the mic and challenged Sasha to get involved in this match, which never happened. Bayley won the match by using the ring ropes, impressive really as she didn't need "The Boss" help after all. Sonya Deville & Dolph Ziggler defeated Mandy Rose & Otis. Ziggler gave Otis a superkick to add insult to injury.

Jeff Hardy defeated Sheamus to advance to the semi-finals of the Intercontinental Championship Tournament. He will face Daniel Bryan next week. AJ vs. Elias will also take place on the same episode. That is it for the recap. Hope you enjoyed. Until next week. Thanks for reading. 





In Memory of Shad Gaspard. Thoughts and Prayers go out to his family and friends.