So the Elimination Chamber PPV has come and gone, and now should be the time when the tables start getting set for all the other matches for Wrestlemania, and we start to see that the tables are being set for some cool matches that should take place at the Showcase of the Immortals. Whether or not that happened this week is still up for some debate, especially after the wild night that was Elimination Chamber where a number of titles changed hands. So let's dig in!
It's important to preface Raw by stating that the news broke via ESPN early Monday morning that the first inductees into WWE's 2019 Hall of Fame would be the members of D-Generation X, and that's a big fucking deal for one very specific reason, and that's the long-overdue admission of the late Joanie Laurer aka Chyna. And let's face it: the only reasons Chyna hasn't been admitted prior to this is because of A: her relationship with Triple H, and B: she started doing adult films. You can make them look sexy and you can have them do extremely provocative things in the ring (bra and panties matches, anyone?), but do some porn and you've really gone too far, huh?
And that was part of how Raw kicked off as Triple H not only announced that DX would be getting into the HOF this year, but he did a recap of the Elimination Chamber, putting over Sasha and Bayley for being the first-ever Women's Tag champs, Finn Balor for winning the IC title, and also put over Kofi Kingston for his performances on SD and at the Chamber. He also talked about the situation with Becky Lynch and stated that the COO half of him will have her arrested if she were to do that again, but the wrestling half of him was really excited as to what she might do next. He also went on to confirm the rumors that were posted earlier on the dirt sheets that members of NXT would be making their main roster debuts this evening, despite the fact that they were basically a series of one-offs, and those performers were Ricochet, Aleister Black, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. Personally, I would have preferred some of these be surprises, but this is the first time that they really seemed invested in putting NXT over on any of the main shows by introducing them and having them compete at "top" level (we all know that NXT is a thousand times better than Raw or SD, but we also recognize that NXT has a much smaller but much more ferocious fanbase). Although, as the night went on, I felt that this was a mistake.
The first match was a rematch of Baron Corbin and Braun Strowman from Elimination Chamber and since Corbin, Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley all put Strowman through two tables, the stipulation for this match was making it a Tables match. Yay. This is the one thing that always pisses me off about WWE; when they know they've made some kind of serious error in taking away someone's heat or momentum, they make a rematch for the very next episode. They usually put some kind of weird stipulation on it and almost every time, it's 50/50 booking. And right now, I'm really longing for the days where Strowman wasn't an erzatz babyface but rather a monstrous tweener who got over on his own because he just fucking wrecked people and it didn't matter who they were. His heel turn against Roman Reigns was a mistake, but it did oddly elevate Ziggler and McIntyre. Anyway, this match was a real slog to get through, because Strowman had kinesio-tape all over his torso due to the damage he suffered from being put through two tables. Anyway, after some back and forth offense between the two, Strowman eventually put Corbin through a table in the corner for the win. Now to be clear, this was a no disqualification match, and I honestly couldn't understand why the fuck Lashley and McIntyre didn't come out to help Corbin, or at least to hurt Strowman. Also, it's that same kind of post-PPV 50/50 booking I referred to earlier. Just pointless stuff.
Then we got Strowman going into the back, but Paul Heyman had just come on stage, and Strowman grabbed him by the collar to let Lesnar know that he's not finished with him, and good ol' Paul had a rough go of it trying to start his promo. But his promo wasn't really a promo, but rather an introduction to a two-part video package of who Brock Lesnar was, is, and will be, and I'll tell ya, I couldn't have given less of a shit about this. It seemed like a very silly way to try to introduce Brock to the audience at home, and I would state that if you've ever seen a match with the guy, you know virtually everything about him because commentary loves to list off his achievements, but if this was your first episode of Raw, first off, I'm sorry this had to be your first experience with this show, and second of all, you'd probably also be asking, "Why isn't this guy there?". But at least this first part was capped off with Finn's entrance as we saw him for the first time with his shiny new IC title. He came out to the ring to cut a promo about how nice it was to finally have a belt again after over two years, and especially one that he didn't have to give up on the next night. Then Lio Rush came out and told Balor that he didn't deserve to have that belt, and Bobby Lashley did, which is when Lashley attacked Finn from behind and both of them stomped on him until Ricochet's music hit and he rushed out to make the save in typically spectacular fashion. Now, that would have been infinitely cooler if Ricochet's presence wasn't announced. But this would naturally lead to...
... a tag match with Finn and Ricochet vs Lashley and Rush. This was a really fun match to watch. It was pretty solid booking, and while personally I would have preferred to have Finn pick up the win over Lashley, it ended with Ric hitting the 630 Senton on Rush for the pin, and this was a great way to introduce The One and Only to people unfamiliar with him and his high-flying style, and having him tag with Finn, who also has a speed and aerial-based power set, was really pretty perfect. If they ended up making these guys a tag team in the future, I would not be unhappy with that at all. So this match served multiple purposes, and that was to get Ricochet introduced and over with the audience (not the Lafayette crowd at the Cajun Dome, though, because they were one of the worst crowds I've seen on Raw in a long long time, and might just be the new Corpus Christi), but also to keep Lashley somewhat protected if he's intending to continue to go after Finn. I just had so much fun watching this match, so I can't really complain about it. And it's ironic in a way because this weekend, I was watching the Ricochet/Will Ospreay match on NJPW World from 2016, and that's one of my favorite matches to watch from that promotion maybe ever. I stated it before and I'll do it again; give me a wrestler that looks and moves like Spider-Man or Daredevil, and I'll be there for that person every goddamn time.
Then we got a backstage segment with Drew asking Hunter for a match against Seth Rollins because he wants to take his spot at Mania against Lesnar, but Dean Ambrose appeared behind him, told him that he wasn't busy tonight, and slapped Drew right across the face and left and Drew naturally asked for Ambrose instead. I'm glad they're pretty much letting Deano do whatever the hell he wants at this point. If he wants to be the goofy silly guy again, they're going to let him do that. It's going to rub people (myself included) the wrong way because this guy was a heel two weeks ago, but he's getting the Big Show instant face/heel turn treatment right now. I'd care more if he weren't hopefully headed for greener pastures.
Then we got a match between Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado of Lucha House Party against Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder. I'd say that this was another completely meaningless match, but I think there's potentially a larger story at work. Of course, Dorado picked up the win over Hawkins with a 'rana into a roll-up, but I think that might be the story is the eventual redemption of Hawkins and Ryder. If I were booking this into Mania, I'd say they do an "I Quit" match for the Raw Tag titles, so that if Ryder and Hawkins lose, they leave, if they're looking at telling a story they plan on having us invested in. I hope so, because that could be a feel-good match at Mania. But I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.
Then came the weirdest and perhaps stupidest segment in a long time on Raw as Charly interviewed Heavy Machinery. They went on about their brotherhood and about Steaks and Weights, and then Lacey Evans came out for seemingly no reason at all, walked the proverbial catwalk and headed back. Then Tucky and Dozer did the same, but in their own goofy way. I know that they're trying to turn Heavy Machinery into a kid-friendly comedy tag team, but these guys can actually go, so to waste all three of these performers in this fashion just doesn't make any sense at all. Whatever. Vince is gonna Vince.
Then came the match that stole the show for the audience at home, anyway, and that was The Revival vs Ciampa and Gargano. Pre-match, the two male singles titleholders from NXT talked a bit about being on Raw together but were interrupted by Roode and Gable, who mused about why the former DIY tag pals were competing and not them, but Gargano and Ciampa reminded them that the two of them have been running NXT for the past few years, and then headed out for their match, and man, this crowd did not deserve this match at all, but thankfully, it still happened, and it brought back beautiful memories of 2016 in NXT when these two teams had the match of that year. The Revival came to work and to show that there's a reason these guys are finally champs, but Ciampa and Gargano also came to show that these two still work unbelievably well together. Of course, Raw almost completely ignored the kayfabe of Ciampa and Gargano not really wanting to work together, and hopefully this is something that will be addressed on this week's NXT, but I'm not counting on it. It was also a really weird thing to have the biggest, best male heel in WWE right now fight as a face in the match against The Revival. But this match... I almost want to cry at the beauty of Gargano and Ciampa working together again. That one spot where Dash and Dawson tried to double-team Johnny but he countered by kicking Dash and spiking Dawson with a tornado DDT; this is just one of the many reasons why Johnny is my favorite male wrestler, and it was just filled with all of Johnny's best spots. And while I may disagree with the booking of this match, I understand why they did it, because Johnny and Tommaso hit Dawson with their old Meet in the Middle tag finisher and got the win. I didn't fully understand in the moment why they allowed Ciampa and Gargano to go over, but again, this evening was partially a ploy to get people to tune in to NXT, but I also believe HHH wanted to keep his top two titleholders protected and make them look as dynamite as possible. Of course, if this does get people to tune into NXT, they're going to be really fucking confused as to why these two guys are tagging together, and for once, I actually agreed wholeheartedly with something Corey Graves said on commentary which was that having Gargano and Ciampa tagging together was "like having Batman join forces with The Joker", and that's something I really appreciated.
Then there was a backstage segment with Charly interviewing Finn and Ricochet that seemed to almost confirm that Ric was going to be part of the main roster, and when I heard that, I initially thought to myself that Ricochet better get his ass back to Full Sail post-haste, but at the same time, I can totally see Ricochet on the main roster as a really solid mid-carder.
Then we got another camera phone promo from Kevin Owens who was at the movies with his son, giving him a ribbing about giving him a $20 and getting no change from the concessions, but talking about being close to being ready to come back. I don't know about you, but I'm loving these promos, but I'll be a little suspicious if he comes back as a babyface, which it seems like that's the direction he's heading in right now. My fantasy booking for him is coming back to Raw, teaming with Finn against someone, them celebrating after a victory, and then KO gives Finn the Pop-Up Powerbomb and we have Finn's Mania match for the IC title.
Then we got a promo from The Boss 'N Hug Connection about making history at Elimination Chamber to become the first ever Women's Tag champs, and as a side note, it's really interesting to see that in the new Women's Revolution era that the newest introductory belts have all gone to members of the NXT Four Horsewomen (Charlotte winning the Women's Championship after it changed from the Divas title, Becky winning the first Smackdown Women's title, and now Sasha and Bayley winning the Tag titles), but because this crowd was so dead, no one gave a shit. Then Nia Jax and Tamina came out to piss on their feel-good parade, and they made their way to the ring, but were immediately kicked out by Bayley and Sasha, who stood tall in the ring. Again, this crowd didn't deserve Bayley and Sasha speaking from their hearts to what was essentially silence, but it's clear that they want to heat up this feud that will likely carry them to Mania. And Nia is just one of those performers that I feel was pulled up from Developmental way too fast because of the dearth of female talent on both rosters. And to be clear, I don't hate Nia; I just think she's not really ready for prime time for someone who's been on the main roster for quite some time.
Then we got the unfortunate match between Drew McIntyre and Dean Ambrose. Dean came in, got a bit of offense in, and then ate a couple of Claymores and Drew got the win. I know that Dean is still supposed to be this elite level competitor, but his last few months with WWE are going to be sad in the ring. He'll still have fun in his backstage segments and promos, but he's going to eat a shit-ton of pinfalls between now and when he leaves. And this match was just boring as hell. It didn't do much for Drew since he fought a guy who got beat in a roll-up by EC3 a few weeks ago, and the only thing it afforded Dean was to have a really weird interaction with the still-medically unclear Seth Rollins backstage who, when he asked why Seth didn't back him up, forced Seth to ask if Dean had gone completely insane, to which Deano just shrugged and walked away. So it's pretty clear from that interaction that Dean has turned back to full babyface for no reason whatsoever, and he's just not really giving much of a shit.
Then came Elias getting heat (which we have to credit him for trying to heat the dead crowd up a little) to being interrupted by Aleister Black. To be fair, these two had a pretty good match, but there wasn't much chemistry there, and this was not the person they should have used to get Aleister over. I know that a lot of Raw is resting holds, but Black works best with people who are agile, and Elias isn't one of those guys. I know that they didn't want to have Black go out there and destroy one of their decent mid-carders, but Black got to do a lot of his signatures, and of course he hit The Drifter with Black Mass for the win. I don't like the moniker of "The Dutch Destroyer" for Black though; it's just too generic. I much prefer Nigel McGuiness' nickname of "The Devil's Envoy" because it seems so specific to Black. Of all the NXT introductions, this was the one I felt didn't work as well from a matchup standpoint. And personally, I don't like Black speaking unless he has something really important to say. He should be the strong, silent ass-kicker, not the guy constantly throwing out a catchphrase. They've got two dozen people already doing that on the main roster.
Then we had our main event in the form of a second Elimination Chamber do-over as Ronda Rousey offered Ruby Riott another shot at the Raw Women's title. This was a much better showing for Riott, but interestingly enough, not a great showing for Rousey because, among other issues, there was one uppercut that she totally whiffed but Ruby did her best to save it and sold it nonetheless. It still lacked any real suspense because they weren't going to take the title off Ronda, so why the hell didn't they just have this match on Sunday? I know that Ronda has her traditional "open challenge" after a big PPV win, but at this point, it just feels like Vince getting his big draw out there to compete. But I do always like Ronda's step-up takeover into the armbar, which is how she picked up the submission win after getting hit by not one but two Riott Kicks. It wasn't terrible, and Ruby had a much better showing, but literally anything would have been an improvement over the 105-second match they had at Elimination Chamber.
There was a recap that was done by Brandon Stroud over at Uproxx that I absolutely adored, and it hit the nail on the head in regards to a tweet sent out by Beth Phoenix:
This is, in essence, WWE trying to gaslight us all into believing that we're being bad fans by criticizing this product. And I get Beth's point of view, because it would be a better world if we were all just happy with whatever we get and never engage in critical thinking about it. I'm joking, of course. This world would be a shit show if we never wanted something better than what we're being offered, and I think this point of view is just really wrong-headed because we know that WWE can do better work. Smackdown puts on a pretty good show almost every week, and creates storylines and characters that we can get pretty invested in, and NXT is such a miracle that I feel like I'm being a jerk any time I'm critical of it. So they can do it; it's just that they want things to seem so homogenized that anyone can potentially be a top talent at any time. To me, this is the same kind of bullshit I see when I criticize BATMAN V SUPERMAN online and all the Zack Snyder stans come out of the woodwork and tell me that I just didn't understand it or that I only like Marvel films or something to that effect. WWE has to come to terms that Raw is not working the way that it could and should, and that changes need to happen. But I don't know if those changes will start to happen unless we start changing the channel, and there's the rub. We're fans of this product despite ourselves and our better judgment, and unless we start to say, "I'm not watching again until something interesting happens", we're going to be trapped in this loop of mediocrity.
Anyway, onto Smackdown Live!
So the show started with Shane O'Mac addressing the crowd and a video package hyping up Kofi's performance from Elimination Chamber which is pretty much guaranteeing Daniel Bryan's Mania match, but then Shane announced that the introductions to the four NXT superstars on Raw were so exciting that they were bringing them back tonight, which I think may be part of whatever "special announcement" they're going to make on NXT tomorrow night, but I firmly believe also has very much to do with this ep of SD being in New Orleans, which is a much hotter town for WWE, and would pretty much guarantee bigger pops and better reactions. Then Miz interrupted to come out to apologize to Shane, and there was a palpable sense that Miz might turn heel as he stated that he was initially using Shane in order to make his father proud of him. He said that he wanted to make it up to Shane, but since there aren't automatic rematches any more, Shane could make a rematch with The Usos because he was a McMahon, and Miz appealed to the crowd to pop for a rematch, and The Usos came out and called Miz a loser, a fake and a crybaby, basically confirming they're full heel now. This incensed Shane, who made the rematch for Fastlane, which will be in Miz's hometown, so unless they're going to commit to 50/50 booking, expect The Usos to retain and expect Miz to turn heel again and make the Shane/Miz match we're all expecting.
But our first actual match was a real treat because we got Aleister Black vs Andrade in a rematch of TakeOver New Orleans from last year. Since learning of Aleister's marriage to Zelina Vega, any time I see that match (because I love watching old TakeOver matches), I always giggle a little to myself, because obviously they're very much in love, and Zelina is doing such an amazing job of being Andrade's manager that you can appreciate the meta aspect within these matchups. This is a much better matchup than against Elias on Raw because these two have mad chemistry together, and Andrade has that great combination of speed and power in his arsenal. This wasn't a out and out 5-star match, and we knew it wasn't going to be, but Black ended things up by countering the hammerlock DDT into Black Mass for the win as Zelina looked on angrily. Fun match.
Then we had a backstage promo with Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Freakin' Wrestling talking with Kayla Braxton about the war they had in this building they had last year in their unsanctioned match at TakeOver New Orleans, and how they've been running the show in NXT but The Bar sidles up and tell them that no one cares about that. So we're going to have babyface Ciampa and Gargano vs The Bar. This transitioned to Jeff Hardy looking to make peace with A.J. Styles understanding that Elimination Chamber was every man for themselves and they're going to be teaming in the main event to take on Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton and Samoa Joe, and then New Day strolls up and Kofi offers an olive branch of sorts as its entirely made of pancakes... and all the while, Xavier Woods is holding Big E in his arms like a baby and it's fucking hilarious.
Then we were treated once again to the presence of Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa against The Bar, and again, this match reminded me that Johnny is just the best right now. The crowd was super-hot for this matchup as much as they were for the Black/Andrade match, if not more so. And there were some amazing spots in this one as well, but my favorite was when Johnny used the headscissors takedown to get Cesaro out of the ring where he jumped over The Swiss Cyborg's attempt to pull him off the apron, hit the apron superkick, and a flying senton into Sheamus followed up by another headscissors to get Cesaro back in the ring followed up by a slingshot DDT for a close 2-count. It's just one of those moments where the fluidity of Gargano's movements just staggers the mind. It seems so simple compared to the bigger "spots" but he's just so goddamn good that he makes it look easy. It finished with Ciampa getting a schoolboy pin over Cesaro for the win, but I was extremely concerned for Ciampa when he attempted an avalanche Sunset Flip on Sheamus and Sheamus landed on Ciampa's knee, but thankfully not his bad knee, but I'm really hoping that this is not going to develop into something worse. But I'm still thinking that this uneasy alliance between Johnny and Tommaso is going to end violently, as well it should, but I'm sure we'll get more into that in my NXT recap.
Then we get a quick strategy sesh with Joe, Randy and D-Bry accompanied by Rowan, followed up with a video package for Ricochet, who will be battling Eric Young of Sanity! Hey, Sanity still exists, people!! And so does Asuka as she made her entrance! Asuka is interviewed in-ring about beating both Becky Lynch and Charlotte for the Smackdown Women's title, and is ready for a new challenge and cue... Mandy Rose? Really? She's joined by Sonya Deville (who should have been the competitor), and we've got a match.
This match just really befuddled me from the get-go and it didn't get better. Asuka is one of the premier ass-kickers in the Women's division on either show, but for some reason, they put Rose in this match and had her pick up the win by getting her with a schoolboy pin after feigning an eye injury. I guess they want to show Mandy's duplicitous side (a side we've seen over and over again) and potentially heat her up for a chance at the title. To Mandy's credit, I will say that if nothing else, she can take some serious bumps, but I don't buy this at all. I know that as The Road to Wrestlemania rolls on, we're going to see a lot of shitheel wins, but this seemed almost like a bridge too far. I'm not entirely sure why WWE seems to be giving Mandy Rose so much screen time on a weekly basis, but it feels like they're pushing her because she's blonde, hot and straight, as opposed to Sonya who is gay and not as classically "sexy" as Rose is. It also had another fucking walk-on from Lacey Evans who apparently is only really going to walk in and out for the next several weeks until they finally decide to have her actually compete. Now that would have made sense if that's what helped Rose get the win, but it didn't. I just did not want, need or most importantly, like this match at all.
But at least next we got a backstage segment with Charlotte who was watching the match and revealed the bruising she received from Becky's attack at Elimination Chamber (and that is either great makeup, or really painful shit, so kudos to Charlotte for taking that beatdown), and she continues to heel it up, calling Becky selfish and that the only reason that the match between her and Ronda Rousey at Mania will be the main event is because she's in it. Every great villain is the hero of their own story, and that's where Charlotte excels. And then we go to Miz and Shane as Miz tells his partner that he just got off the phone with his father who will be ringside for their upcoming rematch at Fastlane. I'm going to eat my hat if this doesn't end up with a Shane vs Miz match at Mania, and I'm increasingly interested in what will eventually motivate this confrontation.
Then we had Ricochet vs Eric Young that started during the fucking commercial break, and this was a short and sweet match, because it allowed Ricochet to go after all the members of Sanity thanks to most of Ric's greatest hits; the rollover into the headscissors takedown/kip up/standing dropkick, the springboard European uppercut followed up by the standing Shooting Star press, a beautiful plancha (I would have preferred a Sasuke Special, but you take whatever you can get from Ricochet and you fucking love it!), and finally the 630 Senton for the win. And credit where credit is due, Eric Young went blow for blow with Ric, even if he did get opened up by a back elbow. He's such a terribly underrated competitor and they need to get serious about using Sanity well, or they should just release them, because they're too goddamn good to be getting short-shrift all the time. But Ricochet is going to be a big star on the main roster. You just can't take your eyes off him for a second.
We then got another backstage segment with New Day as they were looking to get #KofiMania trending. And then we got the same video package from Kevin Owens that we did on Raw, which was confusing, because it seems like they don't know what to do with him yet as far as which show he's gonna be on.
Then came the main event with the six-man tag with the babyfaces of Elimination Chamber vs the heels. Daniel Bryan came out, massive welts on his chest from all the knife-edge chops in the Chamber, and he was on fire as usual, as he name-dropped Thomas Becket, Joan of Arc and Socrates (all historic martyrs), called the crowd ignorant, and claimed that he wouldn't be facing any of these competitors at Fastlane because he went in first at Elimination Chamber and came out on top. The match was pretty standard for the face v heel dynamic in 6-person tags, which is every time one of the faces gained momentum, a heel would bring them back down by doing underhanded shit, and that's fine. I'm not complaining, because this was a really solid match. And though Jeff Hardy took a lot of punishment, Kofi got bounced off the announce table twice by Orton. And all throughout, while I'm loving all the things Kofi is doing right now, I'm still really bummed that this spot was meant for Mustafa Ali. I'm certainly not saying that Ali would get the same level of momentum and groundswell that Kofi is getting right now, but it's still kind of sad and it does make you wonder "what if?". But all doubts were cast aside as Kofi rampaged his way through the match, hitting The American Dragon with Trouble in Paradise for the win. And Shane came out at the end, praising the match and declaring that Bryan would indeed face Kofi at Fastlane for the title.
That is a bit of a disappointment because I don't know why, after everything he went through at Elimination Chamber, they would have another title defense for Bryan. I'd get it if he were babyface, but he clearly isn't, so putting him through another title defense before Mania seems excessive, so they have a choice to make. I know that Kofi's match against Bryan at Fastlane seems set in stone, but it's not; there are a number of ways they can kayfabe their way out of this match. Kofi can be kayfabe injured by Rowan before Fastlane, and then he can face someone like Ali, and that's how I would book it in this case because it's a much stronger match to have at Mania and not waste it at Fastlane, or if they really insist on it, they can have a quick four or five minutes and then have Rowan get involved and cause a DQ, and then you have a better case for this match happening at Mania. I just think that WWE's got lightning in a bottle here and they don't want to waste it at Fastlane.
So that's Raw and Smackdown for this week. Stay tuned for my recap of NXT tomorrow and we'll discuss whatever this major announcement is supposed to be, and we'll discuss the North American title match between Johnny Gargano and Velveteen Dream!
Until next time, kids...
It's important to preface Raw by stating that the news broke via ESPN early Monday morning that the first inductees into WWE's 2019 Hall of Fame would be the members of D-Generation X, and that's a big fucking deal for one very specific reason, and that's the long-overdue admission of the late Joanie Laurer aka Chyna. And let's face it: the only reasons Chyna hasn't been admitted prior to this is because of A: her relationship with Triple H, and B: she started doing adult films. You can make them look sexy and you can have them do extremely provocative things in the ring (bra and panties matches, anyone?), but do some porn and you've really gone too far, huh?
And that was part of how Raw kicked off as Triple H not only announced that DX would be getting into the HOF this year, but he did a recap of the Elimination Chamber, putting over Sasha and Bayley for being the first-ever Women's Tag champs, Finn Balor for winning the IC title, and also put over Kofi Kingston for his performances on SD and at the Chamber. He also talked about the situation with Becky Lynch and stated that the COO half of him will have her arrested if she were to do that again, but the wrestling half of him was really excited as to what she might do next. He also went on to confirm the rumors that were posted earlier on the dirt sheets that members of NXT would be making their main roster debuts this evening, despite the fact that they were basically a series of one-offs, and those performers were Ricochet, Aleister Black, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. Personally, I would have preferred some of these be surprises, but this is the first time that they really seemed invested in putting NXT over on any of the main shows by introducing them and having them compete at "top" level (we all know that NXT is a thousand times better than Raw or SD, but we also recognize that NXT has a much smaller but much more ferocious fanbase). Although, as the night went on, I felt that this was a mistake.
The first match was a rematch of Baron Corbin and Braun Strowman from Elimination Chamber and since Corbin, Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley all put Strowman through two tables, the stipulation for this match was making it a Tables match. Yay. This is the one thing that always pisses me off about WWE; when they know they've made some kind of serious error in taking away someone's heat or momentum, they make a rematch for the very next episode. They usually put some kind of weird stipulation on it and almost every time, it's 50/50 booking. And right now, I'm really longing for the days where Strowman wasn't an erzatz babyface but rather a monstrous tweener who got over on his own because he just fucking wrecked people and it didn't matter who they were. His heel turn against Roman Reigns was a mistake, but it did oddly elevate Ziggler and McIntyre. Anyway, this match was a real slog to get through, because Strowman had kinesio-tape all over his torso due to the damage he suffered from being put through two tables. Anyway, after some back and forth offense between the two, Strowman eventually put Corbin through a table in the corner for the win. Now to be clear, this was a no disqualification match, and I honestly couldn't understand why the fuck Lashley and McIntyre didn't come out to help Corbin, or at least to hurt Strowman. Also, it's that same kind of post-PPV 50/50 booking I referred to earlier. Just pointless stuff.
Then we got Strowman going into the back, but Paul Heyman had just come on stage, and Strowman grabbed him by the collar to let Lesnar know that he's not finished with him, and good ol' Paul had a rough go of it trying to start his promo. But his promo wasn't really a promo, but rather an introduction to a two-part video package of who Brock Lesnar was, is, and will be, and I'll tell ya, I couldn't have given less of a shit about this. It seemed like a very silly way to try to introduce Brock to the audience at home, and I would state that if you've ever seen a match with the guy, you know virtually everything about him because commentary loves to list off his achievements, but if this was your first episode of Raw, first off, I'm sorry this had to be your first experience with this show, and second of all, you'd probably also be asking, "Why isn't this guy there?". But at least this first part was capped off with Finn's entrance as we saw him for the first time with his shiny new IC title. He came out to the ring to cut a promo about how nice it was to finally have a belt again after over two years, and especially one that he didn't have to give up on the next night. Then Lio Rush came out and told Balor that he didn't deserve to have that belt, and Bobby Lashley did, which is when Lashley attacked Finn from behind and both of them stomped on him until Ricochet's music hit and he rushed out to make the save in typically spectacular fashion. Now, that would have been infinitely cooler if Ricochet's presence wasn't announced. But this would naturally lead to...
... a tag match with Finn and Ricochet vs Lashley and Rush. This was a really fun match to watch. It was pretty solid booking, and while personally I would have preferred to have Finn pick up the win over Lashley, it ended with Ric hitting the 630 Senton on Rush for the pin, and this was a great way to introduce The One and Only to people unfamiliar with him and his high-flying style, and having him tag with Finn, who also has a speed and aerial-based power set, was really pretty perfect. If they ended up making these guys a tag team in the future, I would not be unhappy with that at all. So this match served multiple purposes, and that was to get Ricochet introduced and over with the audience (not the Lafayette crowd at the Cajun Dome, though, because they were one of the worst crowds I've seen on Raw in a long long time, and might just be the new Corpus Christi), but also to keep Lashley somewhat protected if he's intending to continue to go after Finn. I just had so much fun watching this match, so I can't really complain about it. And it's ironic in a way because this weekend, I was watching the Ricochet/Will Ospreay match on NJPW World from 2016, and that's one of my favorite matches to watch from that promotion maybe ever. I stated it before and I'll do it again; give me a wrestler that looks and moves like Spider-Man or Daredevil, and I'll be there for that person every goddamn time.
Then we got a backstage segment with Drew asking Hunter for a match against Seth Rollins because he wants to take his spot at Mania against Lesnar, but Dean Ambrose appeared behind him, told him that he wasn't busy tonight, and slapped Drew right across the face and left and Drew naturally asked for Ambrose instead. I'm glad they're pretty much letting Deano do whatever the hell he wants at this point. If he wants to be the goofy silly guy again, they're going to let him do that. It's going to rub people (myself included) the wrong way because this guy was a heel two weeks ago, but he's getting the Big Show instant face/heel turn treatment right now. I'd care more if he weren't hopefully headed for greener pastures.
Then we got a match between Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado of Lucha House Party against Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder. I'd say that this was another completely meaningless match, but I think there's potentially a larger story at work. Of course, Dorado picked up the win over Hawkins with a 'rana into a roll-up, but I think that might be the story is the eventual redemption of Hawkins and Ryder. If I were booking this into Mania, I'd say they do an "I Quit" match for the Raw Tag titles, so that if Ryder and Hawkins lose, they leave, if they're looking at telling a story they plan on having us invested in. I hope so, because that could be a feel-good match at Mania. But I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.
Then came the weirdest and perhaps stupidest segment in a long time on Raw as Charly interviewed Heavy Machinery. They went on about their brotherhood and about Steaks and Weights, and then Lacey Evans came out for seemingly no reason at all, walked the proverbial catwalk and headed back. Then Tucky and Dozer did the same, but in their own goofy way. I know that they're trying to turn Heavy Machinery into a kid-friendly comedy tag team, but these guys can actually go, so to waste all three of these performers in this fashion just doesn't make any sense at all. Whatever. Vince is gonna Vince.
Then came the match that stole the show for the audience at home, anyway, and that was The Revival vs Ciampa and Gargano. Pre-match, the two male singles titleholders from NXT talked a bit about being on Raw together but were interrupted by Roode and Gable, who mused about why the former DIY tag pals were competing and not them, but Gargano and Ciampa reminded them that the two of them have been running NXT for the past few years, and then headed out for their match, and man, this crowd did not deserve this match at all, but thankfully, it still happened, and it brought back beautiful memories of 2016 in NXT when these two teams had the match of that year. The Revival came to work and to show that there's a reason these guys are finally champs, but Ciampa and Gargano also came to show that these two still work unbelievably well together. Of course, Raw almost completely ignored the kayfabe of Ciampa and Gargano not really wanting to work together, and hopefully this is something that will be addressed on this week's NXT, but I'm not counting on it. It was also a really weird thing to have the biggest, best male heel in WWE right now fight as a face in the match against The Revival. But this match... I almost want to cry at the beauty of Gargano and Ciampa working together again. That one spot where Dash and Dawson tried to double-team Johnny but he countered by kicking Dash and spiking Dawson with a tornado DDT; this is just one of the many reasons why Johnny is my favorite male wrestler, and it was just filled with all of Johnny's best spots. And while I may disagree with the booking of this match, I understand why they did it, because Johnny and Tommaso hit Dawson with their old Meet in the Middle tag finisher and got the win. I didn't fully understand in the moment why they allowed Ciampa and Gargano to go over, but again, this evening was partially a ploy to get people to tune in to NXT, but I also believe HHH wanted to keep his top two titleholders protected and make them look as dynamite as possible. Of course, if this does get people to tune into NXT, they're going to be really fucking confused as to why these two guys are tagging together, and for once, I actually agreed wholeheartedly with something Corey Graves said on commentary which was that having Gargano and Ciampa tagging together was "like having Batman join forces with The Joker", and that's something I really appreciated.
Then there was a backstage segment with Charly interviewing Finn and Ricochet that seemed to almost confirm that Ric was going to be part of the main roster, and when I heard that, I initially thought to myself that Ricochet better get his ass back to Full Sail post-haste, but at the same time, I can totally see Ricochet on the main roster as a really solid mid-carder.
Then we got another camera phone promo from Kevin Owens who was at the movies with his son, giving him a ribbing about giving him a $20 and getting no change from the concessions, but talking about being close to being ready to come back. I don't know about you, but I'm loving these promos, but I'll be a little suspicious if he comes back as a babyface, which it seems like that's the direction he's heading in right now. My fantasy booking for him is coming back to Raw, teaming with Finn against someone, them celebrating after a victory, and then KO gives Finn the Pop-Up Powerbomb and we have Finn's Mania match for the IC title.
Then we got a promo from The Boss 'N Hug Connection about making history at Elimination Chamber to become the first ever Women's Tag champs, and as a side note, it's really interesting to see that in the new Women's Revolution era that the newest introductory belts have all gone to members of the NXT Four Horsewomen (Charlotte winning the Women's Championship after it changed from the Divas title, Becky winning the first Smackdown Women's title, and now Sasha and Bayley winning the Tag titles), but because this crowd was so dead, no one gave a shit. Then Nia Jax and Tamina came out to piss on their feel-good parade, and they made their way to the ring, but were immediately kicked out by Bayley and Sasha, who stood tall in the ring. Again, this crowd didn't deserve Bayley and Sasha speaking from their hearts to what was essentially silence, but it's clear that they want to heat up this feud that will likely carry them to Mania. And Nia is just one of those performers that I feel was pulled up from Developmental way too fast because of the dearth of female talent on both rosters. And to be clear, I don't hate Nia; I just think she's not really ready for prime time for someone who's been on the main roster for quite some time.
Then we got the unfortunate match between Drew McIntyre and Dean Ambrose. Dean came in, got a bit of offense in, and then ate a couple of Claymores and Drew got the win. I know that Dean is still supposed to be this elite level competitor, but his last few months with WWE are going to be sad in the ring. He'll still have fun in his backstage segments and promos, but he's going to eat a shit-ton of pinfalls between now and when he leaves. And this match was just boring as hell. It didn't do much for Drew since he fought a guy who got beat in a roll-up by EC3 a few weeks ago, and the only thing it afforded Dean was to have a really weird interaction with the still-medically unclear Seth Rollins backstage who, when he asked why Seth didn't back him up, forced Seth to ask if Dean had gone completely insane, to which Deano just shrugged and walked away. So it's pretty clear from that interaction that Dean has turned back to full babyface for no reason whatsoever, and he's just not really giving much of a shit.
Then came Elias getting heat (which we have to credit him for trying to heat the dead crowd up a little) to being interrupted by Aleister Black. To be fair, these two had a pretty good match, but there wasn't much chemistry there, and this was not the person they should have used to get Aleister over. I know that a lot of Raw is resting holds, but Black works best with people who are agile, and Elias isn't one of those guys. I know that they didn't want to have Black go out there and destroy one of their decent mid-carders, but Black got to do a lot of his signatures, and of course he hit The Drifter with Black Mass for the win. I don't like the moniker of "The Dutch Destroyer" for Black though; it's just too generic. I much prefer Nigel McGuiness' nickname of "The Devil's Envoy" because it seems so specific to Black. Of all the NXT introductions, this was the one I felt didn't work as well from a matchup standpoint. And personally, I don't like Black speaking unless he has something really important to say. He should be the strong, silent ass-kicker, not the guy constantly throwing out a catchphrase. They've got two dozen people already doing that on the main roster.
Then we had our main event in the form of a second Elimination Chamber do-over as Ronda Rousey offered Ruby Riott another shot at the Raw Women's title. This was a much better showing for Riott, but interestingly enough, not a great showing for Rousey because, among other issues, there was one uppercut that she totally whiffed but Ruby did her best to save it and sold it nonetheless. It still lacked any real suspense because they weren't going to take the title off Ronda, so why the hell didn't they just have this match on Sunday? I know that Ronda has her traditional "open challenge" after a big PPV win, but at this point, it just feels like Vince getting his big draw out there to compete. But I do always like Ronda's step-up takeover into the armbar, which is how she picked up the submission win after getting hit by not one but two Riott Kicks. It wasn't terrible, and Ruby had a much better showing, but literally anything would have been an improvement over the 105-second match they had at Elimination Chamber.
There was a recap that was done by Brandon Stroud over at Uproxx that I absolutely adored, and it hit the nail on the head in regards to a tweet sent out by Beth Phoenix:
This is, in essence, WWE trying to gaslight us all into believing that we're being bad fans by criticizing this product. And I get Beth's point of view, because it would be a better world if we were all just happy with whatever we get and never engage in critical thinking about it. I'm joking, of course. This world would be a shit show if we never wanted something better than what we're being offered, and I think this point of view is just really wrong-headed because we know that WWE can do better work. Smackdown puts on a pretty good show almost every week, and creates storylines and characters that we can get pretty invested in, and NXT is such a miracle that I feel like I'm being a jerk any time I'm critical of it. So they can do it; it's just that they want things to seem so homogenized that anyone can potentially be a top talent at any time. To me, this is the same kind of bullshit I see when I criticize BATMAN V SUPERMAN online and all the Zack Snyder stans come out of the woodwork and tell me that I just didn't understand it or that I only like Marvel films or something to that effect. WWE has to come to terms that Raw is not working the way that it could and should, and that changes need to happen. But I don't know if those changes will start to happen unless we start changing the channel, and there's the rub. We're fans of this product despite ourselves and our better judgment, and unless we start to say, "I'm not watching again until something interesting happens", we're going to be trapped in this loop of mediocrity.
Anyway, onto Smackdown Live!
So the show started with Shane O'Mac addressing the crowd and a video package hyping up Kofi's performance from Elimination Chamber which is pretty much guaranteeing Daniel Bryan's Mania match, but then Shane announced that the introductions to the four NXT superstars on Raw were so exciting that they were bringing them back tonight, which I think may be part of whatever "special announcement" they're going to make on NXT tomorrow night, but I firmly believe also has very much to do with this ep of SD being in New Orleans, which is a much hotter town for WWE, and would pretty much guarantee bigger pops and better reactions. Then Miz interrupted to come out to apologize to Shane, and there was a palpable sense that Miz might turn heel as he stated that he was initially using Shane in order to make his father proud of him. He said that he wanted to make it up to Shane, but since there aren't automatic rematches any more, Shane could make a rematch with The Usos because he was a McMahon, and Miz appealed to the crowd to pop for a rematch, and The Usos came out and called Miz a loser, a fake and a crybaby, basically confirming they're full heel now. This incensed Shane, who made the rematch for Fastlane, which will be in Miz's hometown, so unless they're going to commit to 50/50 booking, expect The Usos to retain and expect Miz to turn heel again and make the Shane/Miz match we're all expecting.
But our first actual match was a real treat because we got Aleister Black vs Andrade in a rematch of TakeOver New Orleans from last year. Since learning of Aleister's marriage to Zelina Vega, any time I see that match (because I love watching old TakeOver matches), I always giggle a little to myself, because obviously they're very much in love, and Zelina is doing such an amazing job of being Andrade's manager that you can appreciate the meta aspect within these matchups. This is a much better matchup than against Elias on Raw because these two have mad chemistry together, and Andrade has that great combination of speed and power in his arsenal. This wasn't a out and out 5-star match, and we knew it wasn't going to be, but Black ended things up by countering the hammerlock DDT into Black Mass for the win as Zelina looked on angrily. Fun match.
Then we had a backstage promo with Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Freakin' Wrestling talking with Kayla Braxton about the war they had in this building they had last year in their unsanctioned match at TakeOver New Orleans, and how they've been running the show in NXT but The Bar sidles up and tell them that no one cares about that. So we're going to have babyface Ciampa and Gargano vs The Bar. This transitioned to Jeff Hardy looking to make peace with A.J. Styles understanding that Elimination Chamber was every man for themselves and they're going to be teaming in the main event to take on Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton and Samoa Joe, and then New Day strolls up and Kofi offers an olive branch of sorts as its entirely made of pancakes... and all the while, Xavier Woods is holding Big E in his arms like a baby and it's fucking hilarious.
Then we were treated once again to the presence of Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa against The Bar, and again, this match reminded me that Johnny is just the best right now. The crowd was super-hot for this matchup as much as they were for the Black/Andrade match, if not more so. And there were some amazing spots in this one as well, but my favorite was when Johnny used the headscissors takedown to get Cesaro out of the ring where he jumped over The Swiss Cyborg's attempt to pull him off the apron, hit the apron superkick, and a flying senton into Sheamus followed up by another headscissors to get Cesaro back in the ring followed up by a slingshot DDT for a close 2-count. It's just one of those moments where the fluidity of Gargano's movements just staggers the mind. It seems so simple compared to the bigger "spots" but he's just so goddamn good that he makes it look easy. It finished with Ciampa getting a schoolboy pin over Cesaro for the win, but I was extremely concerned for Ciampa when he attempted an avalanche Sunset Flip on Sheamus and Sheamus landed on Ciampa's knee, but thankfully not his bad knee, but I'm really hoping that this is not going to develop into something worse. But I'm still thinking that this uneasy alliance between Johnny and Tommaso is going to end violently, as well it should, but I'm sure we'll get more into that in my NXT recap.
Then we get a quick strategy sesh with Joe, Randy and D-Bry accompanied by Rowan, followed up with a video package for Ricochet, who will be battling Eric Young of Sanity! Hey, Sanity still exists, people!! And so does Asuka as she made her entrance! Asuka is interviewed in-ring about beating both Becky Lynch and Charlotte for the Smackdown Women's title, and is ready for a new challenge and cue... Mandy Rose? Really? She's joined by Sonya Deville (who should have been the competitor), and we've got a match.
This match just really befuddled me from the get-go and it didn't get better. Asuka is one of the premier ass-kickers in the Women's division on either show, but for some reason, they put Rose in this match and had her pick up the win by getting her with a schoolboy pin after feigning an eye injury. I guess they want to show Mandy's duplicitous side (a side we've seen over and over again) and potentially heat her up for a chance at the title. To Mandy's credit, I will say that if nothing else, she can take some serious bumps, but I don't buy this at all. I know that as The Road to Wrestlemania rolls on, we're going to see a lot of shitheel wins, but this seemed almost like a bridge too far. I'm not entirely sure why WWE seems to be giving Mandy Rose so much screen time on a weekly basis, but it feels like they're pushing her because she's blonde, hot and straight, as opposed to Sonya who is gay and not as classically "sexy" as Rose is. It also had another fucking walk-on from Lacey Evans who apparently is only really going to walk in and out for the next several weeks until they finally decide to have her actually compete. Now that would have made sense if that's what helped Rose get the win, but it didn't. I just did not want, need or most importantly, like this match at all.
But at least next we got a backstage segment with Charlotte who was watching the match and revealed the bruising she received from Becky's attack at Elimination Chamber (and that is either great makeup, or really painful shit, so kudos to Charlotte for taking that beatdown), and she continues to heel it up, calling Becky selfish and that the only reason that the match between her and Ronda Rousey at Mania will be the main event is because she's in it. Every great villain is the hero of their own story, and that's where Charlotte excels. And then we go to Miz and Shane as Miz tells his partner that he just got off the phone with his father who will be ringside for their upcoming rematch at Fastlane. I'm going to eat my hat if this doesn't end up with a Shane vs Miz match at Mania, and I'm increasingly interested in what will eventually motivate this confrontation.
Then we had Ricochet vs Eric Young that started during the fucking commercial break, and this was a short and sweet match, because it allowed Ricochet to go after all the members of Sanity thanks to most of Ric's greatest hits; the rollover into the headscissors takedown/kip up/standing dropkick, the springboard European uppercut followed up by the standing Shooting Star press, a beautiful plancha (I would have preferred a Sasuke Special, but you take whatever you can get from Ricochet and you fucking love it!), and finally the 630 Senton for the win. And credit where credit is due, Eric Young went blow for blow with Ric, even if he did get opened up by a back elbow. He's such a terribly underrated competitor and they need to get serious about using Sanity well, or they should just release them, because they're too goddamn good to be getting short-shrift all the time. But Ricochet is going to be a big star on the main roster. You just can't take your eyes off him for a second.
We then got another backstage segment with New Day as they were looking to get #KofiMania trending. And then we got the same video package from Kevin Owens that we did on Raw, which was confusing, because it seems like they don't know what to do with him yet as far as which show he's gonna be on.
Then came the main event with the six-man tag with the babyfaces of Elimination Chamber vs the heels. Daniel Bryan came out, massive welts on his chest from all the knife-edge chops in the Chamber, and he was on fire as usual, as he name-dropped Thomas Becket, Joan of Arc and Socrates (all historic martyrs), called the crowd ignorant, and claimed that he wouldn't be facing any of these competitors at Fastlane because he went in first at Elimination Chamber and came out on top. The match was pretty standard for the face v heel dynamic in 6-person tags, which is every time one of the faces gained momentum, a heel would bring them back down by doing underhanded shit, and that's fine. I'm not complaining, because this was a really solid match. And though Jeff Hardy took a lot of punishment, Kofi got bounced off the announce table twice by Orton. And all throughout, while I'm loving all the things Kofi is doing right now, I'm still really bummed that this spot was meant for Mustafa Ali. I'm certainly not saying that Ali would get the same level of momentum and groundswell that Kofi is getting right now, but it's still kind of sad and it does make you wonder "what if?". But all doubts were cast aside as Kofi rampaged his way through the match, hitting The American Dragon with Trouble in Paradise for the win. And Shane came out at the end, praising the match and declaring that Bryan would indeed face Kofi at Fastlane for the title.
That is a bit of a disappointment because I don't know why, after everything he went through at Elimination Chamber, they would have another title defense for Bryan. I'd get it if he were babyface, but he clearly isn't, so putting him through another title defense before Mania seems excessive, so they have a choice to make. I know that Kofi's match against Bryan at Fastlane seems set in stone, but it's not; there are a number of ways they can kayfabe their way out of this match. Kofi can be kayfabe injured by Rowan before Fastlane, and then he can face someone like Ali, and that's how I would book it in this case because it's a much stronger match to have at Mania and not waste it at Fastlane, or if they really insist on it, they can have a quick four or five minutes and then have Rowan get involved and cause a DQ, and then you have a better case for this match happening at Mania. I just think that WWE's got lightning in a bottle here and they don't want to waste it at Fastlane.
So that's Raw and Smackdown for this week. Stay tuned for my recap of NXT tomorrow and we'll discuss whatever this major announcement is supposed to be, and we'll discuss the North American title match between Johnny Gargano and Velveteen Dream!
Until next time, kids...
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