NXT and SmackDown recap

Hi and welcome back to the blog. It's a 2 for 1 special, I'll be recapping NXT and SmackDown. Let's begin with NXT right now.

NXT Recap

Tyler Breeze defeated Austin Theory in the opening match of the show.

Killian Dain defeated Tehuti Miles. 

Cameron Grimes defeated Tony Nese.

Up next was a qualifying match, for the number one contenders ladder match for the women's championship. Aliyah vs. Xia Li. The match should've taken place but Xia Li was taken out backstage and wasn't medically cleared to compete. Io Shirai returned to take Li's place. The winner of this match was Io Shirai. 

The North American Champion Keith Lee was up next to talk about recent events on NXT. Lee was interrupted by Dominik Dijakovik and then by Damien Priest. It seems to me that they are building up to a triple threat later down the road. Update: This match is official for this Wednesday. 

Adam Cole was up next to celebrate being the longest reigning NXT Champion. 

Tag team match time playas. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch faced Shane Thorne and Brendan Vink. The winners via submission were Lorcan and Burch. 

The other qualifying match for the number one contenders ladder match for the women's championship was Candace LaRae vs. Kayden Cross. The winner of this match was Candace LaRae. 

The ladder match and other matches originally scheduled for TakeOver Tampa will now be shown on NXT TV over the coming weeks.

The last match on this episode was Matt Riddle vs. Roderick Strong. The winner of this match was Matt Riddle. After the match, Matt Riddle was attacked by an unknown tag team.  

In the main event segment, Triple H addressed the situation between Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano. The Game announced that Ciampa and Gargano will face each other in two weeks. We then saw a vignette about Killer Kross which ended the show. 

SmackDown Recap

SmackDown kicked things off with Sasha Banks and Bayley, they talked about the now fatal five way elimination match for the SmackDown Women's Championship. They were interrupted by Lacey Evans, Naomi and Tamina, Tamina stood tall at the end of this segment. 

Drew Gulak vs. Shinsuke Nakamura was next. The stipulation was, if Gulak wins, Daniel Bryan receives an Intercontinental Championship Match at WrestleMania against Sami Zayn. The winner of this match was Drew Gulak. Daniel Bryan is going to WrestleMania.

Backstage, Otis tried to confront Dolph Ziggler but was stopped by officials. Ziggler challenged Otis to a match at WrestleMania.

Elias played a song about Corbin and was attacked by him afterwards. Elias was sent flying down to the floor. 

In the second match of the night Alexa Bliss defeated Asuka. 

They replayed Triple H vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Championship from WrestleMania 32. 

Up next was a brand new episode of the Firefly Funhouse. During this episode Bray challenged John Cena to a Firefly Funhouse match at WrestleMania.

The main event was a tag team match playa. The New Day vs. The Usos. The winners will get an opportunity for the SmackDown Tag Team titles at WrestleMania. The was no winner of this match because Miz and Morrison beat up New Day and Usos. 

Towards the end of the show, Michael Cole received news that Miz and Morrison will face New Day and Usos in a ladder match for the SmackDown Tag Titles at WrestleMania. That is it for the recaps. Hope you enjoyed, Until next time, thanks for reading.

Monday Night Raw Recap

Monday Night Raw was back again at the PC and here's a recap of what happened.
We saw a promo package to hype up the upcoming Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre match at WrestleMania. This started Raw this week. 

Paul Heyman and Brock were standing in the the ring. Heyman cut a promo to explain why Brock will remain champion after next weekend. They replayed a match going back to the 2015 Royal Rumble where Brock Lesnar defended the WWE Title against John Cena and Seth Rollins in a triple threat match. 

AJ Styles was up next, he cut a promo for his match vs. The Undertaker, this show is only an hour in at this point, we've got two more hours of this! Anyway, the main takeaway was that Styles challenged the Phenom to a boneyard match. 

It was announced that Street Profits will defend the tag titles against Angel Garza & Andrade. Before that, Garza and Andrade won their tag match against Ricochet and Cedric Alexander.

The tag team matches continued as the Street Profits defeated some random team from NXT. They showed footage from their YouTube Channel of R Truth winning back the 24/7 title again. Shayna Baszler joined Charly Caruso in the ring to further the build up her match against Becky Lynch. Lynch attacked Baszler from behind with a steel chair. 

Aleister Black defeated Leon Ruff. 

Kevin Owens called out Seth Rollins; Rollins responded. It was a good promo to watch like I'm sure their match will be. They showed another match to fill time. This time it was a match from WrestleMania 34 where Charlotte defeated Asuka to remain SmackDown women's champion. 

Randy Orton accepted Edge's challenge to a Last Man Standing Match. This segment closed out this episode of Monday Night Raw.

The first hour of this episode was a struggle but business picked up and overall it was a decent one to watch. The predictions for WrestleMania 36 will be available to read soon. There may or may not be a NXT recap as it depends what is shown on Wednesdays episode. There will be a SmackDown recap though, until then, Thanks for reading. 

SmackDown Recap

SmackDown kicked off with Michael Cole in the ring, with Mojo Rawley to interview WrestleMania host Rob Gronkowski. This segment was interrupted by Baron Corbin. who was interrupted by Elias. Elias played his guitar to mock Corbin. At the end of the segment, Gronkowski pitched a match for WrestleMania. Elias vs. Corbin. 

It was time for a tag team match playa....Sami Zayn joined Michael Cole on commentary for this one. Daniel Bryan & Drew Gulak vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro

Winners: Daniel Bryan & Drew Gulak. 

Paige returned to SmackDown via Skype, before she could talk, she was interrupted by Bayley and Sasha Banks. Paige announced Bayley will defend her title against Lacey Evans, Dana Brooke, Tamina, Naomi and Sasha Banks in a Six Pack elimination match at WrestleMania. 

They showed the match at WrestleMania 30 between John Cena and Bray Wyatt. John Cena, as we know, won this match. This match was shown as time filler for this SmackDown episode and as way to build up to their "rematch" at WrestleMania 36.

Backstage, Alexa Bliss challenged Asuka for a match on SmackDown next week. This was made official later in the show. 

SmackDown tag team champions, The Miz and John Morrison presented the "Dirt Sheet" segment, they did pre-recorded impressions of New Day, Usos and Heavy Machinery. 

Speaking of Heavy Machinery, it was time for another tag team match playa...Dolph Ziggler joined Michael Cole on commentary during this match.

The Miz & John Morrison vs. Heavy Machinery 

Winners: The Miz and John Morrison by DQ.

The Universal Champion. Goldberg and Roman Reigns had a contract signing ahead of their match billed as "Spear vs. Spear" at WrestleMania. This closed out the show. Not much to say about this to be honest.

That's it for the SmackDown recap, the road to WrestleMania continues on Monday for Monday Night Raw. I believe they will be taped shows and not LIVE. Despite that being the case, the content will continue. See you here for the Monday Night Raw recap. Thanks for reading. 

NXT Recap & Other News

Hi and welcome back to the blog. There's a lot to talk about so let's begin. 

NXT this week was hosted by Tom Phillips and Triple H. The show started off with the story of Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano, from rivals to tag team, to the present day as rivals again. A video package about Finn Balor aired, including Balor himself talking about his journey in NXT, to the main roster, back to NXT. 

We had an in depth look at the career so far of the current NXT Women's Champion. Rhea Ripley, leading up to her match against the women's Royal Rumble winner: Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania in April. 

Other News

Luke Harper from the Wyatt Family days is now in the other company, revealed as the Dark Order's Exalted One, he is now called Brodie Lee. Also. Matt Hardy was revealed as the final member of the Elite, for the cage match at Blood and Guts for the other company. I'm sure their fans will find that to be...wonderful?

WrestleMania News

Prior to NXT etc, we learned via social media that WrestleMania will be broadcast LIVE over two nights on the 4 and 5th of April. I hope to see that takes place, however, because of what's unfortunately going on in the world we live in, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't go ahead as planned. 

That is it for your recap of NXT including news from the other company. 

I'm very much looking forward to watching and writing about Friday night SmackDown because right now, with everything what's going on around us, wrestling is a very welcome escape from it all. Until the SmackDown review, be well and stay safe. Thanks for reading. 

Monday Night Raw | Recap

Monday Night Raw was LIVE from the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. It was 3:16 Day. Here's a recap of the events which took place on this episode.

Edge started off the show and we went straight to a video package from last weeks raw involving Edge and Randy Orton. You'll know what happened last week if you watched Raw. He continued with the promo talking about his history with Orton. Edge revealed his match with Orton will be a last man standing match at WrestleMania.

They showed footage of Becky Lynch arriving to the venue in a truck. The vehicle looked nice to be honest.

After the commercial break they showed the whole of the Men's Royal Rumble match (for time filling purposes) which was, as we know, won by Drew McIntyre. We saw a recap of what happened between McIntyre and Brock Lesnar two weeks ago on RAW.

It was contract signing time for the Undertaker vs.AJ Styles match at WrestleMania.

Undertaker made his entrance, looking like biker/American Badass 'Taker. There was no contract on the table which 'Taker flipped over. He stood in the ring when AJ's music hit repeatedly. AJ didn't walk out to the ring. He was backstage, holding the contract, with Gallows and Anderson cutting a promo about the Phenom. He signed the contract and then Gallows and Anderson walked out to give the contract to Undertaker, the lights went out and when they came back on, 'Taker was stood behind the two members of OC (not the tv show) 'Taker beat the two guys up. Signed the contract, put the document in Anderson's mouth, walked up to the ramp  and looked at AJ's face on the screen.

Up next was a match: Asuka joined the commentary team for this one.

Rey Mysterio vs. Andrade w/ Zelina Vega 

Winner: Rey Mysterio.

"The Man" Becky Lynch walked out the ring to talk about her match vs. Shayna Baszler (who was watching backstage) at WrestleMania. It was time for another recap recent events involving Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair as build up to their match continues.

Backstage, Kevin Owens challenged Seth Rollins to a match at WrestleMania.

It was main event.....segment time. The return of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin declared March 16th 3:16 Day. He spoke about the rules of what that day involves. commentator Byron Saxton was giving a rating from 1-10 when a rule was mentioned. Austin invited him to the ring to celebrate 3:16 Day. Austin then stunned Saxton after the beer toast.  While he was celebrating, Becky Lynch walked out a cooler and the two drank beer to celebrate 3:16 Day. Austin poured beer on Saxton and gave him another stunner to end the show.

This show felt like it was a rehearsal before the crowd comes in to watch the live show, if you know what I mean. It had the Tough Enough vibe to it also, very surreal to watch. Prior to this show, It was announced that WrestleMania will take place on April 5 at the Performance Center without any fans in attendance. You can't have a spectacle like Mania without a crowd. The crowd makes a show better, you can include Raw, Smackdown and NXT in that aspect. They should've postponed it and merge this event with Summerslam in August and called it SummerMania. (I'm claiming copyright right now for SummerMania) 

The recap is complete, I hope you enjoyed the read. I'll be back for the NXT review on Thursday. Until then, be well and stay safe. Thanks for reading.

WWE SmackDown | Recap

Friday Night SmackDown was LIVE from the Performance Center in Orlando Florida. Here is what happened on the show.

Triple H joined Michael Cole on commentary. Sasha Banks and Bayley kicked off the show to cut a promo then they were interrupted by Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross which led to a tag team match. (playa)

Sasha Banks and Bayley defeated Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross after Asuka took out Bliss in the closing moments of the match. Nikki tapped out to the Bank Statement.

Roman Reigns joined Michael Cole in the ring for an interview to hype the match vs. Goldberg for the Universal Championship. Backstage, Kayla Braxton interviewed the returning Jeff Hardy, who was interrupted by "King" Corbin to set up their match for later.

Another backstage segment took place, Drew Gulak and Daniel Bryan  were approached by Cesaro, Sami Zayn and Shinskue Nakamura where a match between Cesaro and Bryan was set up.They showed the SmackDown tag team Championship Match that took place at Elimination Chamber. This was there way to fill some time  on the show.

Back in the ring, John Morrison and Miz challenged any tag team to step up and take on the champions in the future. SmackDown rolled on with Daniel Bryan in a match vs. Cesaro. The match was won by Daniel Bryan. In the last match of the show, Jeff Hardy defeated "King" Corbin.

In the main event, John Cena returned to hype up his match against "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt, who was then joined in the ring by Bray himself. It was nice that they rewound the clock to six years ago where they had a match at WrestleMania 30. Bray told Cena to let him in as SmackDown went off the air.

This was an entertaining show, despite there being no crowd in attendance. Triple H was very fun and entertaining on screen and on commentary. Respect to those that competed in the ring. I thank the WWE and the superstars for keeping us fans entertained as well as keeping our minds off the current situation for a period of time.  Looking forward to Monday Night Raw which also will be LIVE from the P.C. featuring an appearance from Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Until next time, be well and stay safe. Thanks for reading

Elimination Chamber 2020 | Review-ish

Hi and welcome to the blog. Here are the match results along with my thoughts. Hope you enjoy the read.

Kick off Show Match

The Viking Raiders defeated Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins.

Main Card

Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak

This was a very good show opener, Gulak was impressive here despite the defeat. Winner: Daniel Bryan.

United States Championship Match Andrade (c) vs. Humberto Carrillo

Humberto holds another L here. He'll probably get another shot in April. Winner: And STILL United States Champion. Andrade.

SmackDown Tag Team Championship (Elimination Chamber) The Miz & John Morrison (c) vs. The Usos vs. The New Day vs. Heavy Machinery vs. Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler vs. Lucha House Party (Kalisto & Lince Dorado)

Everyone put on a great performance, there weren't any dull moments. Fun match. Can we have these teams compete for the titles in a ladder match next month? That would be awesome. Winners: AND STILL SmackDown Tag Team Champions. The Miz and John Morrison. lastly eliminating The Usos.

Aleister Black vs. AJ Styles (No Disqualification Match)

We did indeed see and hear from the Undertaker towards the end of the match. Winner: Aleister Black.

Raw Tag Team Championship Match - The Street Profits (c) vs. Seth Rollins & Murphy

Kevin Owens got involved in the match  as expected, this match was nothing special. Winners: AND STILL Raw Tag Team Champions. The Street Profits.

Intercontinental Championship Match - Braun Strowman (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn & Cesaro I was surprised to see a new champ crowned here, I thought this was going to be a "squash" match. Good to see Sami win though. Winner: AND NEW Intercontinental Champion! Sami Zayn.

Raw Women's Championship No. 1 Contendership for WrestleMania (Elimination Chamber) Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka vs. Liv Morgan vs. Ruby Riott vs. Sarah Logan vs. Natalya

We all knew Shayna was going to win this. She was so dominant, no one else stood a chance. It was like it was a video game on easy mode and opponents were going away in quick succession. There were awkward moments of nothingness where Baszler was just walking in the ring waiting for her next opponent to be released from the pod. Who booked the match this way? No fault or blame directed towards the ladies involved as they were just doing their job. Winner: Shayna Baszler lastly eliminating Asuka.

Becky vs. Shayna as expected is set for "Mania. Hopefully they'll do a good job in getting me interested in the event itself. Time will tell whether they will succeed in that. This was a 5/10 show. That's fair right? Elimination Chamber is now in the books. 

Disclaimer: This review-ish was late because I had doubts as to whether I'd miss anything of note. (title changes do not count) Those doubts were proven to be correct. It may sound harsh but it's all about opinions. This event really was a waste of time, I just hope WrestleMania doesn't follow the same path. 

Elimination Chamber 2020 | Predictions

Hi and welcome to the Elimination Chamber prediction blog. Here we go with the predictions.

Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak

Predicted Winner: Daniel Bryan.

United States Championship Match - Andrade (c) vs. Humberto Carrillo

How many times are they going to give Humberto Carrillo title opportunities? I think he's winning here to become a transitional champion, until WrestleMania where Angel Garza will become champion after winning a fatal four way match. Predicted Winner: Humberto Carrillo.

Raw Tag Team Championship Match - The Street Profits (c) vs. Seth Rollins & Murphy

The Street Profits just won the titles so they're not losing here. Seth is set to face Kevin Owens at Mania so there you go. Predicted Winners: The Street Profits.

Intercontinental Championship Match - Braun Strowman (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn & Cesaro The "monster among men" will win this match and go on to possibly face Sheamus at 'Mania. Predicted Winner: Braun Strowman.

Aleister Black vs. AJ Styles (No Disqualification Match) I believe we will hear from or see The Undertaker make an appearance and cost AJ this match. We will find out on Sunday. Predicted Winner: Aleister Black.

SmackDown Tag Team Championship (Elimination Chamber) The Miz & John Morrison (c) vs. The Usos vs. The New Day vs. Heavy Machinery vs. Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler vs. Lucha House Party (Kalisto & Lince Dorado) Miz and Morrison just won the titles so they're not losing here. Should be a fun match to watch though. Predicted Winners: The Miz & John Morrison.

Raw Women's Championship No. 1 Contendership for WrestleMania (Elimination Chamber) Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka vs. Liv Morgan vs. Ruby Riott vs. Sarah Logan vs. Natalya We all know who's winning, unless they "swerve" us. Predicted Winner: Shayna Baszler.

Admittedly, I'm not looking forward to this event considering we already know the title matches set for WrestleMania. This feels like a waste of time, I'll be watching anyway. Who knows? They may surprise with a good show. Let's see what happens. Thanks for reading.

Let's Talk | WrestleMania 36 matches | Part 3

It's time for part 3 of Let's Talk | WrestleMania 36 matches. There were developments regarding said event during SuperShowDown and SmackDown! Here we go! Let's begin.

The Miz and John Morrison defeated Kofi and Big E to become new SmackDown tag champions at SSD. On the same show, The Undertaker made a "surprise" appearance and won the Tuwaiq Trophy, defeating AJ Styles in quick fashion. It looks like they will be building to a Phenomenal One vs. The Phenom match for April after all. Plenty of merchandise will be sold for this match, that's for sure.

Goldberg defeated "The Fiend" to win the Universal Championship. It's crazy that they've dropped the ball with Bray Wyatt again. He went from kicking out from multiple stomps from Seth Rollins to losing quickly to the legendary Goldberg. No disrespect to Goldberg by the way or "The Fiend" as it's not their fault the match was booked like this.

On SmackDown they announced that Goldberg's next challenger at WrestleMania will be Roman Reigns and they began setting up a match between the returning John Cena and "The Fiend" Don’t forget that John Cena defeated Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 30 so Bray will wanna get some redemption from that loss. It would be cool if they mentioned this in the build up to the match.

Just a quick thought here, I think WWE will want to bring Tyson Fury back in for a special appearance or a match at WrestleMania now that he won the WBC Championship against Deontay Wilder last weekend & to bring in non-wrestling fans to boost audience ratings and PPV buyrates. In regards to opponents, Triple H and Big Show are two of the names I have in mind because if they lost to Fury, It wouldn’t effect there reputation in the ring since they rarely wrestle nowadays. That’s my logic anyway.

Five weeks to go until 'Mania & we already know majority of the matches, the Elimination Chamber feels like a waste of an event to be honest as we know Shayna Baszler will probably be winning the chamber match to set finally set up the match vs. Becky. Speaking of Elimination Chamber, I'll be back for predictions for that event. Until then, thanks for reading.