Welcome to the Raw and SmackDown review. Enjoy
the read.
Raw Review | Pittsburgh, PA
Sierra, Hotel , India , Echo, Lima
They did the Shield fistbump for the last time and Seth Rollins
remained in the ring, who was interrupted by Paul Heyman, they hyped up the
upcoming Wrestlemania match, during this Shelton Benjamin ambushed Rollins with
multiple German suplexes.
I thought the Superstar Shakeup was next
month.
Rollins got revenge on Benjamin via the stomp
for the win.
Winner: Seth Rollins.
Next up was Finn
Balor vs. Bobby Lashley (Intercontinental Championship) the key moment of this match was
when Lashley was put in the drop zone by Balor, Lio Rush then caused a distraction,
Lashley speared Balor in mid air for the win.
Winner: and NEW Intercontinental Champion:
Bobby Lashley.
Ronda Rousey cut a heel promo while addressing
her actions at Fastlane. Dana Brooke wanted a title shot but that wasn't
happening because Ronda attacked Brooke, the referees and she walked
away.
She clearly doesn't give a damn about her
reputation...
Aleister Black and Ricochet vs. Bobby Roode
and Chad
The guys from NXT won again here. The Revival
attacked them after the match as I was writing this.
During the Moment of Bliss segment, it was
announced that Alexa Bliss will be the host of Wrestlemania. Speaking of
announcements: Harlem Heat are the latest
inductees in this years Hall of Fame class.
Nia Jax vs. Natalya never got going, backstage we saw Sasha and Bayley fight
Nia and Tamina as payback for what happened at Fastlane.
Batista will face Triple H at Wrestlemania in
a no holds barred match. It was announced during the face to face segment on
the show.
Kurt Angle addressed his future, saying he
will compete in a farewell match at Wrestlemania but first he wanted a match in
his hometown. His opponent? Apollo Crews. Kurt Angle
won via the Angle Slam.
Roman Reigns vs. Baron Corbin never got going after Drew McIntyre
attacked Roman prior to the match, hitting him with two Claymore kicks.
Backstage; Dean Ambrose approached Triple H
and said he wanted a falls count anywhere match. The Game made the match.
Dean Ambrose vs. Drew McIntyre (Falls Count
Anywhere) This was your usual
around the arena standard fight that we've all seen before many times with
different superstars.
Winner Drew McIntyre.
A very impressive win for the Scot here, with
a Claymore kick to Ambrose off the railing. As Ambrose was getting back up to
his feet, McIntyre hit him another Claymore as Raw went off the air.
It was a decent episode of Raw for once, which
is rare these days. I'll say no more. It's time to talk about events on
SmackDown.
Smackdown LIVE | Dayton, Ohio
Shane McMahon kicked off the episode for the
first time as a heel, explaining his actions from Fastlane, its basically your
usual heel promo that's been seen time and time again, its 2019! Create something
new! Anyway... Miz and Shane will meet at the
grandest stage of them all.
The commentary team said that Kofi will get a
Wrestlemania opportunity from Mr. McMahon later on.
Aleister Black, Ricochet + Hardys vs. The Bar,
Rusev + Nakamura (aka League of Nations 2.0)
There wasn't a winner here as a huge brawl
broke out, New Day joined the party and stood tall in the end to send a message
to everyone backstage that they mean business. I'm enjoying the serious side of
the New Day. Hope it continues.
Randy Orton was out next, running through his
and AJ Styles's history, says it's the house that Randy Orton built. AJ interrupted and mocked Orton's celebration
pose, called The RKO a fake Diamond Cutter, that was a great line. Orton vs.
Styles is happening at WM. it could be potential show steeler.
Asuka defeated Sonya Deville after Deville tripped up after a mistake from Rose. This was Rose's way of getting some payback from Sunday on Deville. Which could lead to the potential split.
I'm just going to skip past the Lynch and
Flair promo to the next match. because nothing new of note happened here.
Rey Mysterio + R Truth vs. Andrade + Samoa Joe
Rey pinned Joe by rolling him up for the win,
technically this earns him a title match down the line. Let's see if WWE mentions it in upcoming episodes.
Rowan and Bryan
Throughout the show, they were building up to Vince giving Kofi a opportunity. New Day said they always do what Vince wants without
complaints and they still don't get awarded for their efforts. Kofi gave an explanation why he is worthy of a
title shot, It was revealed that if he wins the gauntlet match (against, Orton,
Joe, The Bar and Rowan) then he will go to Wrestlemania.
Your typical scenario of a face needing to
overcome obstacles a heel authority figure puts in front of them. Kofi is heading to Wrestlemania (I think) but
it's good they are putting an element of doubt in our minds that it might not
happen. I have to say that for me, the Kofi story-line has overtaken
the Women's triple threat match as the most interesting and anticipated match
in the company right now. no offence to Rousey, Flair and Lynch. That's just
my opinion. You'll probably think differently, that's all good.
Its been a decent couple of nights of WWE TV.
Thankfully I've made the right decision not to write about this every week,
because there's going to be some weeks where it's dull and boring
television.
Catch you here again for the Wrestlemania
predictions in a few weeks time or maybe earlier than that if anything new happens.
Thanks for reading.