The thirty-fifth Showcase of the Immortals is over, but if Wrestlemania is Christmas for WWE fans, the Raw and Smackdown Live after Wrestlemania are our first looks at Baby New Year. What new storylines will they create? What incoming stars are poised to take the spotlight? Which champions and superstars will leave their mark, and which will get lost in a morass of meaningless or boring feuds? Well, we're gonna find out eventually, but let's try to peep through the keyhole that are these all-important shows. Naturally, we'll start off with Raw!
The show opened with what was a bit of a surprise from my perspective and that was with Seth Rollins, new Universal title belt around his waist. A lot of his promo consisted of putting over the support of the WWE Universe, and also pumping up the fact that he was going to be a full-time fighting champion, as opposed to the vanquished beast of Brock Lesnar and his stranglehold on the Universal title. We were also informed that he and Paul Heyman left for Las Vegas after his match, and he hopes that Lesnar stays there, so the danger of Heyman interrupting him was gone. But that interruption would come and it would come from an unlikely source, and that was from The New Day who came out to celebrate Kofi Kingston's victory over Daniel Bryan to capture the WWE Championship. And while it was fun for a bit, the fun and games were only part of why Kofi was out there. Kofi thought that the idea they had for both Women's titles to be up for grabs at Mania was a good one, and that maybe he and Seth could have their own Winner Take All match on this episode. Seth accepted his challenge, and the match was made for the main event. I really had only one thought, and that was that there was no fucking chance in hell that this match would end with one of these two newly-minted champions being a dual champ. Someone was absolutely going to come in and schmozz this up. So this was generally a bad idea on WWE's part. Fans know the way they work us, and sometimes we love to be worked. But the only good that might potentially come out of this is that either a returning star or a brand new call-up from NXT would be the ones to schmozz up this main event. Still, both champs had solid promos, and it was a fun segment. But going back to the surprise that I mentioned at the outset, I would have bet money that Becky Lynch was going to open the show, being a dual champion and the winner of the historic match from the night before.
Next up was a rematch between The Revival and the newly-minted Raw Tag Team champs in Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder. I wouldn't say that this match was in almost any way a solid competition, but rather a prolonged swerve on the audience. Those of us who remember Wrestlemania 32 remember that great ladder match for the IC title that Zack Ryder won only to lose it the next day back to The Miz. And clearly The Revival is the better tag team much in the way that Miz was a better talent than Ryder, so they must be doing it again to Ryder and the perpetual loser Hawkins so they can get those straps back. Well, that turned out to not be the case this time as Dash and Dawson hit the Shatter Machine on Ryder only to lose in a roll-up to the legal Hawkins. Hey, I'm not complaining. It was a fun match, and it'll be interesting to see how long they decide to keep the belts on Hawkins and Ryder, and which team will take those belts off them. It's really a waiting game at this point in time, because Hawkins and Ryder had their feel-good moment and the moment is over.
Next was Baron Corbin coming out to an even longer introduction by Mike Rowe adding that Corbin defeated Kurt Angle in his farewell match. Say what you will about Corbin; he knows how to get that good cheap heat. I happen to find this Corbin and his waitstaff outfit to be really funny as a character. The things he says are stupid, and he can't achieve that Elias brand of heat, but he does know how to work the crowd. As he listed off the things that he should be granted after beating a fifty-year-old man (among them was a gold medal of his own), Angle showed up for what must be his final appearance. He came to the ring and congratulated Corbin on his win, and wished him luck in the future. The wish naturally was for bad luck as he hit him with the Angle Slam and put him in the ankle lock. But as his theme music was playing him out while he was still in the ring, a different entrance music started playing. And it was entrance music I knew I had heard but couldn't quite place it. And then they cut to the Tron, and it was Lars Sullivan, apparently comfortable enough to go out there, and that's a great thing, because Sullivan is really talented and I know how bad panic attacks are. He started down Angle and hit Kurt with the Freak Accident and then did a diving headbutt from the top rope. No words, no real fanfare, just action. I truthfully would have preferred this with an in-ring performer that wasn't, you know, about to fall apart, but we know how WWE loves to send their retirees out on their shields, so it makes sense and it made a statement that no one would be safe from The Freak. Good stuff.
Then we had a match between Bayley and Alexa Bliss officially returning to competition, which had a weird enough backstory in a work/shoot between Alexa and Sasha Banks in a Twitter war where apparently Alexa said she would compete in a match against either of them or both of them at once. Sasha and Alexa had a bit of a back-and-forth, and Alexa ended up blocking her. I, for one, am a fan of in-ring feuds extending to Twitter. So this match happened, and Alexa ended up winning with her finishing snap DDT. It worked well enough to get Alexa back on track and make her look competitive, and Bayley is good enough to sell it.
And then The Man finally came around to talk about being both the Smackdown and Raw Women's Champion. She cut her typically fired-up babyface promo, and talked about her awareness that she's got a massive target on her back since she's a dual champ, and then the klaxon went off to announce the arrival of Lacey Evans, who strutted down all the way to the ringside and Becky looked amused until Evans unleashed the Women's Right on Lynch's kisser. It didn't take her out, but rather fired her up. They brawled up the ramp and onto the stage and it was clear that Evans was waiting to pick her spot. I almost wished they had kept Evans completely off the show until this moment because that would have actually made more sense, but I get that they were building this swerve until Becky had at least one of the two titles when Evans actually fucking did something. But Lacey has got her work cut out for her because she's not exactly a stellar in-ring competitor, and she's going to have to pull out all the stops to get over as a heel. This was a good start for her though.
The foundation of WWE continued to change in the next match when we had Ricochet and Aleister Black vs Bobby Roode and Chad Gable. The match was low-stakes but still looked good because when you have Ricochet, Black, and Gable in the ring, there's going to be some good stuff. But after Ricochet hit a Codebreaker to get the win, Roode attacked Ric from behind confirming that he and Gable were turning heel, and the only word I could say was, "Finally!" Roode has been languishing in relative obscurity and his face run since his call-up from NXT has been extremely unremarkable despite him being a tag champ and former US champ. Maybe now we'll finally get the heel Roode we've all been waiting for.
Then we got what was to be the final match of Dean Ambrose's WWE career and that would be against Bobby Lashley with Lio Rush. At the outset of the match, Lio had the mic but couldn't seem to get any words out, but Bobby grabbed the mic and told Dean not to worry because after he left, he would take care of his wife. Of course, before the bell could even ring, Dean started beating the shit out of Bobby and this brawl carried up to the top of the stage and to the announce table. Thanks to Rush, Lashley would get the upper hand and ended up putting Deano through the table. Renee rushed to her husband's side and urged someone to get medical out there. So we have a Shield member going out on their shield. This was still weird that they used Dean's final "match" to put Bobby over, but they're going to keep trying to make Bobby look like a contender. And at least this wasn't the end for Dean, but we'll get more into that later.
And then we got something that I've been waiting for for a long time and that was the return of the Underdog from the Underground, Sami Zayn. He came out to the ring and he seemed like the lovable weirdo he's always been, and asked for a return match from anyone who was willing to answer the call, and it turned out to be the new Intercontinental Champion, Finn Balor. Finn decided to make it a match for the title, and they went to work. Sami looked good in his return and was clearly having a good time with his old buddy Finn, but he would fall to Finn after an attempted Helluva Kick that inadvertently set him up for a Coup de Grace to get Finn the win. After the loss, Sami picked the mic back up and said that the crowd was obviously happy to see him, but that he was absolutely not happy to see any of them. He said that the problem with the WWE were not actually the McMahons or anyone backstage, but rather the fans who were the problem. He said, basically, that wrestling fandom is more toxic now than it ever has been and that every fan would rather be a critic than just enjoy it. He said that he was back to save us from ourselves and that he would continue to say what needed to be said for as long as it takes to hold all of us accountable.
While it's kind of a bummer to see Zayn return as a heel, this version of Zayn might end up being the best one yet. To some this might seem like a bit of a repeat of what Daniel Bryan has been doing since his heel turn, but this is turning the meta of the IWC up to eleven. Yeah, online wrestling fandom has been pretty shitty when it comes to the trolls, and even those of us who aren't (or at least try not to be troll-ish) are still complaining about the things we do and don't get that are contrary to what we want. So hopefully this means that all the "Bobby Lashley's Sisters" garbage is out of Vince's system and we're getting a Sami Zayn that has a legitimate gripe about the fanbase and can speak to those things writ large while being a heel. And yes, I know that it's super easy to be critical of WWE, despite all the things these performers do for our entertainment week in and week out. They're out there risking their health and sometimes their careers and in very very rare occasions, their lives just to entertain us and make better lives for themselves, and many of us, myself included, know nothing about the things they have to sacrifice in order to make all these things happen and very few of us know what it's like to do what they do. It's easy to hide behind a keyboard and say "This thing over here is good but this other thing is bad", and believe me, I get what Sami's saying and all I can do is hope that I'm not contributing to the level of toxicity that seems to be permeating all levels of fandom over the past few years. Even though he'd rather see me in Hell, I'm glad you're back, Sami.
Then came Elias. He was back to do a solo performance and was pissed off to no end about how the Doctor of Thuganomics interrupted his "historic" set at Mania, and he decided that, instead of playing a tune for the crowd, he was going to show John Cena just how easy rapping could be. He finished up with saying that the next person who interrupts him is a "dead man".
Cue the gong.
It couldn't have been a more obvious setup if they had said that The Undertaker was going to be on Raw, but it was a total surprise and everyone, including myself, went bugfuck insane. This was one of those epic moments that I felt I've been due from Taker since starting to watch in 2015. Since then, I've watched him beat Shane in a Hell in a Cell match at Mania 32, seen him lose to Roman Reigns in a lame attempt to establish him as top guy at Mania 33, and saw him squash Cena at 34. Thanks to the network, I have gone back to see some of the legendary matches he's had against Shawn Michaels and CM Punk, but this was the first time that I was watching live and was just fucking stoked to see him. He came in and chokeslammed Elias first and then hoisted him up for the Tombstone Piledriver and put him down. Is this the same legend that he used to be? Not even a little bit. But this is one of those moments that really drives home why he is a legend. Great stuff.
Then came the main event with Rollins and Kofi facing off for a Winner Take All match. Again, we just knew that this was going to end with a swerve. Of course, the majority of people, including myself, were hoping we'd get one really awesome call-up from NXT to schmozz it up, and I personally, even knowing how unlikely it would be, was hoping it would be Undisputed Era. But alas, it was not them. It wasn't even a call-up from NXT. It was... The Bar. WHY?? What would The Bar bring to this? Nothing! It's not like The Bar would be involved in a feud that would have any meaning whatsoever. And all this did was set up a tag match between The Bar and Rollins and Kingston. This was so incredibly ho-hum that I was shocked that they would pull this shit at the Raw after Mania in front of the smarkiest crowd on the planet. But I guess if they were looking for a time to let the fans throw around a beach ball or start The Wave, this was the time to do it. It wasn't even a good enough match to maintain most people's interest. And naturally Seth and Kofi won. It was just a really bad way to end up a really good show.
At least, a bad way to end it on TV. I only say that because there was a really awesome sendoff for Dean they did after the broadcast ended. You can catch it here if you haven't seen it. I'd say that Dean leaving is no longer a work.
Now onto Smackdown!
The Blue Brand opened with The New Day coming out to celebrate Kofi's title win, and this time it felt a lot more important than what they did on Raw. Without saying it explicitly, they were talking about how important this was for all African-American wrestlers. A lot of the verbiage that was being used was very smartly in saying what an important thing this is for all minority talent. Of course to continue the story from the previous night, The Bar came out again and told Kofi that he should be thanking them for causing the No Contest because he would've lost his match against Rollins, and then they proposed a 6-man tag match with a friend they brought from Raw: Drew McIntyre. If this is a hint of what's going to happen next week in the Superstar Shake-Up, this would actually be a good move. Drew's pretty much plateaued for now on the Red Brand, and he should be going after top tier gold, so Drew going after Kofi is a good call.
Not to be outdone, another 6-man tag was up next and that was Rusev, Nakamura and Andrade vs Ricochet, Aleister Black and Ali. Goddammit, I hate referring to him as just "Ali". It makes even less sense than making Almas just "Andrade". But this was a fun match, and it had most of the competitors hitting their big spots, and Ali hit the 450 splash on Andrade for the win. And as he was celebrating his win, Randy Orton hit him with the RKO outta nowhere. As he walked to the back, Rusev was in the ring and suddenly, not to be outdone, Kevin Owens was out there and hit The Stunner on the Bulgarian Brute, and he walked off to the back. This was a weird finish but if Ali's next rivalry will be against Orton, I'm down with that if it's done well. I'm not sure what's in store for KO, because he seems to be pretty rudderless right now and that's a miserable place to have KO in. He needs a rivalry and he needs one very soon. As far as Ali, I would at least like for Kofi to offer an opportunity at the title on a future Smackdown because Kofi has to realize that literally everything that's happened for him in the last few months was catalyzed by Ali's injury. It's a good sportsmanship thing like when Roman finally won the Universal title and offered Finn a shot at the title immediately following. I don't know if we'll get that, but that would be a strong statement to send that Ali is and should be huge. Fucking hell, Ali doesn't even have a shirt yet, and AOP does.
Next up was R-Truth and Carmella coming out to celebrate Mella's Women's Battle Royal win (as well as their historic dance break), hilariously described by Truth as her "beating Andre The Giant to win the Royal Rumble". But their joy was interrupted by Samoa Joe, who had beaten Rey Mysterio at Mania in 55 seconds, and he was looking to continue to make more statements by getting Truth in the Coquina Clutch. He grabbed a mic and bragged about his win over Rey and said that he would continue to do what he just did to any superstar.
Enter Braun Strowman.
The Monster Among Men made a beeline towards the ring and Joe was ready for him. After a little back and forth, Joe put Braun in the Clutch, but he escaped and tried to powerslam Joe, but he slipped out and grabbed his US title and headed to the back with Strowman standing tall. So we have more hints of what might come in the Superstar Shake-Up next week. I would love to see a good rivalry between these two over the title. I can see Strowman taking it off him, and just having Strowman on Smackdown would be a nice change of pace. So all of this made me happy.
Then The IIconics came out for their celebration of winning the Women's Tag titles at Mania, and said that they would be fighting champions and selected a team for their first title defense, and that was the undefeated 45-0 Brooklyn Belles. The local talent were handily defeated despite getting in a few seconds of offense. This was some goofy fun to poke fun at the babyface persona of being fighting champions and it really works for a team like The IIconics. I hope this title reign is good enough to keep them in the conversation and really get them working on the main roster. There was some backstage stuff with Kayla wondering why Paige was back there watching the match, to which Paige told Kayla that she was coming back next week with a great new tag team. First of all, always happy to see Paige and how WWE is keeping her involved. Secondly, I'm very curious as to who she's planning on bringing. There are some rumors flying around about Kairi Sane and Candace LaRae being called up, and even rumors about Sky Pirates being the team Paige would be bringing. I don't know if I'm fully behind both Sky Pirates being called up because I'd have liked to see Io in NXT a little longer, but she seems very ready for prime time, and having Paige as their manager would go a long way with helping with promos and getting them over in a big way on the main roster. And I don't know if I want Candace to come up yet because I want her and Johnny to stay together in NXT! I just love them so much!
Then came the utter slog of Shane McMahon celebrating his victory over The Miz. Of course, he got to call Mr. Miz a "potato face" again (like Shane's never looked in a mirror), and he kept forcing Greg Hamilton to do his intro better and pulled him all the way from the ring to the stage as he kept retrying it. Greg also said that he didn't do it "right" because he had been threatened by fans, which is a stupid way to try to cast aspersions on the Brooklyn crowd and cast Shane as a potentially misunderstood superstar. This didn't work not only because the "threat" angle was stupid, but because he dragged Greg all the way up to the stage and no one attacked him from behind, which is the only reason you should ever do that. There's a later segment on this show that showed how to do that better, but we'll get to that.
Next up was a rather impromptu match for the Smackdown Tag titles between the Hardy Boyz and The Usos, who successfully retained on Sunday. This was a really good match between the two teams, but for the life of me, I cannot understand why, after what The Usos went through, they decided to book the titles to Matt and Jeff at this time. Now, if there's Jimmy and Jey end up going over to Raw and that's why they booked the Hardys to win, it takes a bit of the sting out of it, because that will freshen up the tag division on Raw. But still, why the Hardys? It's starting to seem like the nostalgia league out there. And this title has changed hands way way too many times in the last three to four months. Shit, it's changed hands four times now just since the Rumble. But their victory was not the end of this segment, because after their win, Lars Sullivan entered and laid out both Hardys decisively. Sadly, this was met with derision with the super-smarks in the Brooklyn crowd who were chanting "You can't wrestle" at Lars, which is not true at all, particularly if they've ever seen Lars on NXT. He's not the greatest talent ever, but he most certainly can wrestle. Brooklyn is a weird crowd. Sometimes they're the best fans in the world, and sometimes they are the absolute worst. This is one of those examples of them being the worst.
Next up was The Man coming to celebrate being "Becky Two Belts". The difference between this promo and Raw's was that she had to address being decked by Lacey Evans and put her over as having a "rocket" of a right hand. She also further acknowledged that she was now more of a target than before, but she will defend against anyone on either brand. She went back up onto the stage triumphantly, and this time, Lacey was behind her and decked her again with the Women's Right, but since this time it was a surprise, Becky sold the hell out of it and really had a hard time getting back to her feet. See what I mean about a good on-stage segment? It wasn't a complete surprise, but at least it played. I don't think this is in any way a good first match for Evans, because that's being elevated to a top spot far too soon for her, but we'll see what they have to offer.
Then we got our main event 6-man tag between The New Day vs The Bar plus Drew McIntyre. This was a really weird match on TV because McIntyre looked dominant as hell going into the commercial break, but when the match came back from the commercial, I didn't see the Scottish Psychopath for the rest of the match. I don't know if there was a "blink and you missed it" moment where he got taken out, but I had my eyes on this match the whole time, and Drew was just... gone. I know that I've been giving The Bar some shit in this column, but frankly, that's not their fault. They keep doing pretty terrific work, and this was a match for Kofi to get the pin and celebrate more with his adorable family on stage. So I'll give Sheamus and Cesaro full props for doing the work they did in matches designed to put the other team over. And also props once again to Sami Zayn, continuing to heel it the fuck up as he came out before the beginning of the match and simply said, "You're not worth it" and heading back in while still getting huge pops from the crowd.
So I'd have to say that Raw had the right momentum and the better returns and intros, but you could tell that by Smackdown, not only were the performers but the crowd was just plumb tuckered out. There was a lot of wrestling in New York this weekend, and knowing these marks, a lot of them probably went to all of the shows. I'm looking forward to seeing the G1 Supercard on AXS whenever it's on.
That's it for this edition! Look out for my NXT recap (which is just the pre-show from TakeOver New York plus video packages for the matches that blew our collective minds) tomorrow as well as a recap for another surprise Worlds Collide event that will include stars from Raw and Smackdown, as well as a Women's event and a Tag Team event! So that'll be a fun surprise! And of course come back next week for my recaps of Raw and Smackdown Live as well as one for NXT!
Until next time, kids...
The show opened with what was a bit of a surprise from my perspective and that was with Seth Rollins, new Universal title belt around his waist. A lot of his promo consisted of putting over the support of the WWE Universe, and also pumping up the fact that he was going to be a full-time fighting champion, as opposed to the vanquished beast of Brock Lesnar and his stranglehold on the Universal title. We were also informed that he and Paul Heyman left for Las Vegas after his match, and he hopes that Lesnar stays there, so the danger of Heyman interrupting him was gone. But that interruption would come and it would come from an unlikely source, and that was from The New Day who came out to celebrate Kofi Kingston's victory over Daniel Bryan to capture the WWE Championship. And while it was fun for a bit, the fun and games were only part of why Kofi was out there. Kofi thought that the idea they had for both Women's titles to be up for grabs at Mania was a good one, and that maybe he and Seth could have their own Winner Take All match on this episode. Seth accepted his challenge, and the match was made for the main event. I really had only one thought, and that was that there was no fucking chance in hell that this match would end with one of these two newly-minted champions being a dual champ. Someone was absolutely going to come in and schmozz this up. So this was generally a bad idea on WWE's part. Fans know the way they work us, and sometimes we love to be worked. But the only good that might potentially come out of this is that either a returning star or a brand new call-up from NXT would be the ones to schmozz up this main event. Still, both champs had solid promos, and it was a fun segment. But going back to the surprise that I mentioned at the outset, I would have bet money that Becky Lynch was going to open the show, being a dual champion and the winner of the historic match from the night before.
Next up was a rematch between The Revival and the newly-minted Raw Tag Team champs in Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder. I wouldn't say that this match was in almost any way a solid competition, but rather a prolonged swerve on the audience. Those of us who remember Wrestlemania 32 remember that great ladder match for the IC title that Zack Ryder won only to lose it the next day back to The Miz. And clearly The Revival is the better tag team much in the way that Miz was a better talent than Ryder, so they must be doing it again to Ryder and the perpetual loser Hawkins so they can get those straps back. Well, that turned out to not be the case this time as Dash and Dawson hit the Shatter Machine on Ryder only to lose in a roll-up to the legal Hawkins. Hey, I'm not complaining. It was a fun match, and it'll be interesting to see how long they decide to keep the belts on Hawkins and Ryder, and which team will take those belts off them. It's really a waiting game at this point in time, because Hawkins and Ryder had their feel-good moment and the moment is over.
Next was Baron Corbin coming out to an even longer introduction by Mike Rowe adding that Corbin defeated Kurt Angle in his farewell match. Say what you will about Corbin; he knows how to get that good cheap heat. I happen to find this Corbin and his waitstaff outfit to be really funny as a character. The things he says are stupid, and he can't achieve that Elias brand of heat, but he does know how to work the crowd. As he listed off the things that he should be granted after beating a fifty-year-old man (among them was a gold medal of his own), Angle showed up for what must be his final appearance. He came to the ring and congratulated Corbin on his win, and wished him luck in the future. The wish naturally was for bad luck as he hit him with the Angle Slam and put him in the ankle lock. But as his theme music was playing him out while he was still in the ring, a different entrance music started playing. And it was entrance music I knew I had heard but couldn't quite place it. And then they cut to the Tron, and it was Lars Sullivan, apparently comfortable enough to go out there, and that's a great thing, because Sullivan is really talented and I know how bad panic attacks are. He started down Angle and hit Kurt with the Freak Accident and then did a diving headbutt from the top rope. No words, no real fanfare, just action. I truthfully would have preferred this with an in-ring performer that wasn't, you know, about to fall apart, but we know how WWE loves to send their retirees out on their shields, so it makes sense and it made a statement that no one would be safe from The Freak. Good stuff.
Then we had a match between Bayley and Alexa Bliss officially returning to competition, which had a weird enough backstory in a work/shoot between Alexa and Sasha Banks in a Twitter war where apparently Alexa said she would compete in a match against either of them or both of them at once. Sasha and Alexa had a bit of a back-and-forth, and Alexa ended up blocking her. I, for one, am a fan of in-ring feuds extending to Twitter. So this match happened, and Alexa ended up winning with her finishing snap DDT. It worked well enough to get Alexa back on track and make her look competitive, and Bayley is good enough to sell it.
And then The Man finally came around to talk about being both the Smackdown and Raw Women's Champion. She cut her typically fired-up babyface promo, and talked about her awareness that she's got a massive target on her back since she's a dual champ, and then the klaxon went off to announce the arrival of Lacey Evans, who strutted down all the way to the ringside and Becky looked amused until Evans unleashed the Women's Right on Lynch's kisser. It didn't take her out, but rather fired her up. They brawled up the ramp and onto the stage and it was clear that Evans was waiting to pick her spot. I almost wished they had kept Evans completely off the show until this moment because that would have actually made more sense, but I get that they were building this swerve until Becky had at least one of the two titles when Evans actually fucking did something. But Lacey has got her work cut out for her because she's not exactly a stellar in-ring competitor, and she's going to have to pull out all the stops to get over as a heel. This was a good start for her though.
The foundation of WWE continued to change in the next match when we had Ricochet and Aleister Black vs Bobby Roode and Chad Gable. The match was low-stakes but still looked good because when you have Ricochet, Black, and Gable in the ring, there's going to be some good stuff. But after Ricochet hit a Codebreaker to get the win, Roode attacked Ric from behind confirming that he and Gable were turning heel, and the only word I could say was, "Finally!" Roode has been languishing in relative obscurity and his face run since his call-up from NXT has been extremely unremarkable despite him being a tag champ and former US champ. Maybe now we'll finally get the heel Roode we've all been waiting for.
Then we got what was to be the final match of Dean Ambrose's WWE career and that would be against Bobby Lashley with Lio Rush. At the outset of the match, Lio had the mic but couldn't seem to get any words out, but Bobby grabbed the mic and told Dean not to worry because after he left, he would take care of his wife. Of course, before the bell could even ring, Dean started beating the shit out of Bobby and this brawl carried up to the top of the stage and to the announce table. Thanks to Rush, Lashley would get the upper hand and ended up putting Deano through the table. Renee rushed to her husband's side and urged someone to get medical out there. So we have a Shield member going out on their shield. This was still weird that they used Dean's final "match" to put Bobby over, but they're going to keep trying to make Bobby look like a contender. And at least this wasn't the end for Dean, but we'll get more into that later.
And then we got something that I've been waiting for for a long time and that was the return of the Underdog from the Underground, Sami Zayn. He came out to the ring and he seemed like the lovable weirdo he's always been, and asked for a return match from anyone who was willing to answer the call, and it turned out to be the new Intercontinental Champion, Finn Balor. Finn decided to make it a match for the title, and they went to work. Sami looked good in his return and was clearly having a good time with his old buddy Finn, but he would fall to Finn after an attempted Helluva Kick that inadvertently set him up for a Coup de Grace to get Finn the win. After the loss, Sami picked the mic back up and said that the crowd was obviously happy to see him, but that he was absolutely not happy to see any of them. He said that the problem with the WWE were not actually the McMahons or anyone backstage, but rather the fans who were the problem. He said, basically, that wrestling fandom is more toxic now than it ever has been and that every fan would rather be a critic than just enjoy it. He said that he was back to save us from ourselves and that he would continue to say what needed to be said for as long as it takes to hold all of us accountable.
While it's kind of a bummer to see Zayn return as a heel, this version of Zayn might end up being the best one yet. To some this might seem like a bit of a repeat of what Daniel Bryan has been doing since his heel turn, but this is turning the meta of the IWC up to eleven. Yeah, online wrestling fandom has been pretty shitty when it comes to the trolls, and even those of us who aren't (or at least try not to be troll-ish) are still complaining about the things we do and don't get that are contrary to what we want. So hopefully this means that all the "Bobby Lashley's Sisters" garbage is out of Vince's system and we're getting a Sami Zayn that has a legitimate gripe about the fanbase and can speak to those things writ large while being a heel. And yes, I know that it's super easy to be critical of WWE, despite all the things these performers do for our entertainment week in and week out. They're out there risking their health and sometimes their careers and in very very rare occasions, their lives just to entertain us and make better lives for themselves, and many of us, myself included, know nothing about the things they have to sacrifice in order to make all these things happen and very few of us know what it's like to do what they do. It's easy to hide behind a keyboard and say "This thing over here is good but this other thing is bad", and believe me, I get what Sami's saying and all I can do is hope that I'm not contributing to the level of toxicity that seems to be permeating all levels of fandom over the past few years. Even though he'd rather see me in Hell, I'm glad you're back, Sami.
Then came Elias. He was back to do a solo performance and was pissed off to no end about how the Doctor of Thuganomics interrupted his "historic" set at Mania, and he decided that, instead of playing a tune for the crowd, he was going to show John Cena just how easy rapping could be. He finished up with saying that the next person who interrupts him is a "dead man".
Cue the gong.
It couldn't have been a more obvious setup if they had said that The Undertaker was going to be on Raw, but it was a total surprise and everyone, including myself, went bugfuck insane. This was one of those epic moments that I felt I've been due from Taker since starting to watch in 2015. Since then, I've watched him beat Shane in a Hell in a Cell match at Mania 32, seen him lose to Roman Reigns in a lame attempt to establish him as top guy at Mania 33, and saw him squash Cena at 34. Thanks to the network, I have gone back to see some of the legendary matches he's had against Shawn Michaels and CM Punk, but this was the first time that I was watching live and was just fucking stoked to see him. He came in and chokeslammed Elias first and then hoisted him up for the Tombstone Piledriver and put him down. Is this the same legend that he used to be? Not even a little bit. But this is one of those moments that really drives home why he is a legend. Great stuff.
Then came the main event with Rollins and Kofi facing off for a Winner Take All match. Again, we just knew that this was going to end with a swerve. Of course, the majority of people, including myself, were hoping we'd get one really awesome call-up from NXT to schmozz it up, and I personally, even knowing how unlikely it would be, was hoping it would be Undisputed Era. But alas, it was not them. It wasn't even a call-up from NXT. It was... The Bar. WHY?? What would The Bar bring to this? Nothing! It's not like The Bar would be involved in a feud that would have any meaning whatsoever. And all this did was set up a tag match between The Bar and Rollins and Kingston. This was so incredibly ho-hum that I was shocked that they would pull this shit at the Raw after Mania in front of the smarkiest crowd on the planet. But I guess if they were looking for a time to let the fans throw around a beach ball or start The Wave, this was the time to do it. It wasn't even a good enough match to maintain most people's interest. And naturally Seth and Kofi won. It was just a really bad way to end up a really good show.
At least, a bad way to end it on TV. I only say that because there was a really awesome sendoff for Dean they did after the broadcast ended. You can catch it here if you haven't seen it. I'd say that Dean leaving is no longer a work.
Now onto Smackdown!
The Blue Brand opened with The New Day coming out to celebrate Kofi's title win, and this time it felt a lot more important than what they did on Raw. Without saying it explicitly, they were talking about how important this was for all African-American wrestlers. A lot of the verbiage that was being used was very smartly in saying what an important thing this is for all minority talent. Of course to continue the story from the previous night, The Bar came out again and told Kofi that he should be thanking them for causing the No Contest because he would've lost his match against Rollins, and then they proposed a 6-man tag match with a friend they brought from Raw: Drew McIntyre. If this is a hint of what's going to happen next week in the Superstar Shake-Up, this would actually be a good move. Drew's pretty much plateaued for now on the Red Brand, and he should be going after top tier gold, so Drew going after Kofi is a good call.
Not to be outdone, another 6-man tag was up next and that was Rusev, Nakamura and Andrade vs Ricochet, Aleister Black and Ali. Goddammit, I hate referring to him as just "Ali". It makes even less sense than making Almas just "Andrade". But this was a fun match, and it had most of the competitors hitting their big spots, and Ali hit the 450 splash on Andrade for the win. And as he was celebrating his win, Randy Orton hit him with the RKO outta nowhere. As he walked to the back, Rusev was in the ring and suddenly, not to be outdone, Kevin Owens was out there and hit The Stunner on the Bulgarian Brute, and he walked off to the back. This was a weird finish but if Ali's next rivalry will be against Orton, I'm down with that if it's done well. I'm not sure what's in store for KO, because he seems to be pretty rudderless right now and that's a miserable place to have KO in. He needs a rivalry and he needs one very soon. As far as Ali, I would at least like for Kofi to offer an opportunity at the title on a future Smackdown because Kofi has to realize that literally everything that's happened for him in the last few months was catalyzed by Ali's injury. It's a good sportsmanship thing like when Roman finally won the Universal title and offered Finn a shot at the title immediately following. I don't know if we'll get that, but that would be a strong statement to send that Ali is and should be huge. Fucking hell, Ali doesn't even have a shirt yet, and AOP does.
Next up was R-Truth and Carmella coming out to celebrate Mella's Women's Battle Royal win (as well as their historic dance break), hilariously described by Truth as her "beating Andre The Giant to win the Royal Rumble". But their joy was interrupted by Samoa Joe, who had beaten Rey Mysterio at Mania in 55 seconds, and he was looking to continue to make more statements by getting Truth in the Coquina Clutch. He grabbed a mic and bragged about his win over Rey and said that he would continue to do what he just did to any superstar.
Enter Braun Strowman.
The Monster Among Men made a beeline towards the ring and Joe was ready for him. After a little back and forth, Joe put Braun in the Clutch, but he escaped and tried to powerslam Joe, but he slipped out and grabbed his US title and headed to the back with Strowman standing tall. So we have more hints of what might come in the Superstar Shake-Up next week. I would love to see a good rivalry between these two over the title. I can see Strowman taking it off him, and just having Strowman on Smackdown would be a nice change of pace. So all of this made me happy.
Then The IIconics came out for their celebration of winning the Women's Tag titles at Mania, and said that they would be fighting champions and selected a team for their first title defense, and that was the undefeated 45-0 Brooklyn Belles. The local talent were handily defeated despite getting in a few seconds of offense. This was some goofy fun to poke fun at the babyface persona of being fighting champions and it really works for a team like The IIconics. I hope this title reign is good enough to keep them in the conversation and really get them working on the main roster. There was some backstage stuff with Kayla wondering why Paige was back there watching the match, to which Paige told Kayla that she was coming back next week with a great new tag team. First of all, always happy to see Paige and how WWE is keeping her involved. Secondly, I'm very curious as to who she's planning on bringing. There are some rumors flying around about Kairi Sane and Candace LaRae being called up, and even rumors about Sky Pirates being the team Paige would be bringing. I don't know if I'm fully behind both Sky Pirates being called up because I'd have liked to see Io in NXT a little longer, but she seems very ready for prime time, and having Paige as their manager would go a long way with helping with promos and getting them over in a big way on the main roster. And I don't know if I want Candace to come up yet because I want her and Johnny to stay together in NXT! I just love them so much!
Then came the utter slog of Shane McMahon celebrating his victory over The Miz. Of course, he got to call Mr. Miz a "potato face" again (like Shane's never looked in a mirror), and he kept forcing Greg Hamilton to do his intro better and pulled him all the way from the ring to the stage as he kept retrying it. Greg also said that he didn't do it "right" because he had been threatened by fans, which is a stupid way to try to cast aspersions on the Brooklyn crowd and cast Shane as a potentially misunderstood superstar. This didn't work not only because the "threat" angle was stupid, but because he dragged Greg all the way up to the stage and no one attacked him from behind, which is the only reason you should ever do that. There's a later segment on this show that showed how to do that better, but we'll get to that.
Next up was a rather impromptu match for the Smackdown Tag titles between the Hardy Boyz and The Usos, who successfully retained on Sunday. This was a really good match between the two teams, but for the life of me, I cannot understand why, after what The Usos went through, they decided to book the titles to Matt and Jeff at this time. Now, if there's Jimmy and Jey end up going over to Raw and that's why they booked the Hardys to win, it takes a bit of the sting out of it, because that will freshen up the tag division on Raw. But still, why the Hardys? It's starting to seem like the nostalgia league out there. And this title has changed hands way way too many times in the last three to four months. Shit, it's changed hands four times now just since the Rumble. But their victory was not the end of this segment, because after their win, Lars Sullivan entered and laid out both Hardys decisively. Sadly, this was met with derision with the super-smarks in the Brooklyn crowd who were chanting "You can't wrestle" at Lars, which is not true at all, particularly if they've ever seen Lars on NXT. He's not the greatest talent ever, but he most certainly can wrestle. Brooklyn is a weird crowd. Sometimes they're the best fans in the world, and sometimes they are the absolute worst. This is one of those examples of them being the worst.
Next up was The Man coming to celebrate being "Becky Two Belts". The difference between this promo and Raw's was that she had to address being decked by Lacey Evans and put her over as having a "rocket" of a right hand. She also further acknowledged that she was now more of a target than before, but she will defend against anyone on either brand. She went back up onto the stage triumphantly, and this time, Lacey was behind her and decked her again with the Women's Right, but since this time it was a surprise, Becky sold the hell out of it and really had a hard time getting back to her feet. See what I mean about a good on-stage segment? It wasn't a complete surprise, but at least it played. I don't think this is in any way a good first match for Evans, because that's being elevated to a top spot far too soon for her, but we'll see what they have to offer.
Then we got our main event 6-man tag between The New Day vs The Bar plus Drew McIntyre. This was a really weird match on TV because McIntyre looked dominant as hell going into the commercial break, but when the match came back from the commercial, I didn't see the Scottish Psychopath for the rest of the match. I don't know if there was a "blink and you missed it" moment where he got taken out, but I had my eyes on this match the whole time, and Drew was just... gone. I know that I've been giving The Bar some shit in this column, but frankly, that's not their fault. They keep doing pretty terrific work, and this was a match for Kofi to get the pin and celebrate more with his adorable family on stage. So I'll give Sheamus and Cesaro full props for doing the work they did in matches designed to put the other team over. And also props once again to Sami Zayn, continuing to heel it the fuck up as he came out before the beginning of the match and simply said, "You're not worth it" and heading back in while still getting huge pops from the crowd.
So I'd have to say that Raw had the right momentum and the better returns and intros, but you could tell that by Smackdown, not only were the performers but the crowd was just plumb tuckered out. There was a lot of wrestling in New York this weekend, and knowing these marks, a lot of them probably went to all of the shows. I'm looking forward to seeing the G1 Supercard on AXS whenever it's on.
That's it for this edition! Look out for my NXT recap (which is just the pre-show from TakeOver New York plus video packages for the matches that blew our collective minds) tomorrow as well as a recap for another surprise Worlds Collide event that will include stars from Raw and Smackdown, as well as a Women's event and a Tag Team event! So that'll be a fun surprise! And of course come back next week for my recaps of Raw and Smackdown Live as well as one for NXT!
Until next time, kids...
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