WWE Week in Review: Goldberg vs. Owens is set, Cena vs. Orton one more time

A look back at the week that was in WWE with in-depth breakdowns of Monday Night RAW, SmackDown Live, 205 Live and NXT.

It was another big week in WWE as the Road to WrestleMania continues. But before we get to Orlando in early April, we’ve got a few pit stops to hit along the way with Elimination Chamber, Fastlane and TakeOver and each show this week did a good job of furthering storylines and setting up matches for those events. So let’s get right into it, starting of course with the flagship.

WWE Monday Night RAW

Portland was the host for Monday Night RAW this week and we kicked things off right where we left them a week ago with Samoa Joe, who joined Stepanie McMahon and Mick Foley in the ring for an amazing debut promo. Well, after teasing some more tension between Steph and Mick anyway. Joe was outstanding here, saying how it took him 18 years to get to this point and that while Foley had been pushing to sign him, it was Triple H that opened the door for him and if taking out Seth Rollins got him here, that’s just what had to be done. Perfect heel talk. He continues by putting the entire roster on notice and tells the WWE Universe that he will continue to beat down their heroes. So out comes Roman Reigns. I’m not quite sure if he qualifies as a hero to the fans right now but it works nonetheless as Samoa Joe and a Samoan named Joe stare each other down. Reigns continues to say that this is his yard, obviously another dig at The Undertaker, and begs Joe to threaten him, which allows Mick Foley to make Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns the main event of the evening. Excellent opener that really gave Samoa Joe the chance to shine and establish his place on the main roster.

Bayley will get a rematch against Charlotte next week for the title but she first has to go one-on-one with Nia Jax and she looked better than she has in weeks in this one. I don’t know she works as well as she does with Nia but it just seems to work. We got the expected run-in from Charlotte to cost Bayley the victory and I’m very interested to see how this rematch goes down next week. I thought they might wait a little while to do this but we’ll see how that goes. All signs are still pointing to a Fatal 4-Way match for the belt at WrestleMania.

Oh joy, we’re back to Braun Strowman squash matches. He quickly beat four guys in this one and demanded better competition from Mick Foley, who granted him a one-on-one match with Roman Reigns at Fastlane. Yawn.

Akira Tozawa is out to make his RAW  debut and defeated Drew Gulak in a short but decent match. They’re just not giving these guys enough time to make an impact but I enjoyed what I saw. Brian Kendrick came out to offer congratulations, which obviously led to what we saw on 205 Live.

Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho are out next. Owens says he continues to prove people wrong and Jericho gets the crowd going by putting Tom Brady on “The List”, which was very entertaining as usual. But then things got a little interesting. He hypes his United States Championship match with Sami Zayn later on and says that after he defends that title, the road is clear for a match between he and Owens at WrestleMania. Wow, they just went ahead and addressed it right there. But Owens can’t imagine fighting his best friend, even though he claims it would be the biggest main event in WrestleMania history. But before they could go any further, Goldberg hits the ring and accepts Brock Lesnar’s challenge. And while I’m not quite sure why people are cheering for this, it’s happening.

Owens beautifully interrupts by saying that Goldberg vs. Lesnar will be a great undercard match for KOMania 2, which leads Goldberg to challenging Owens for the Universal Championship at Fastlane. Jericho jumps in and goes to put Goldberg on “The List” for trying to make his own matches but Goldberg snatches it away from him and just does it himself, which I actually found to be pretty good. I’ve never pretended to be a Goldberg guy but his mic work has gotten so much better during this run. Jericho wasn’t happy about this and after berating Goldberg for a minute, he accepts the match on Owens’ behalf, which the champ certainly isn’t pleased with. While I enjoyed the segment and figured that Goldberg and Owens would happen at Fastlane, I can’t say that I’m going to enjoy where this goes. Sure, I like the build for an Owens vs. Jericho match but I just don’t want to see Goldberg and Lesnar close out WrestleMania for the title. And I don’t want Owens to get decimated at Fastlane. It wouldn’t look good for anyone besides Goldberg. It makes Owens look terrible and actually looks bad for Roman Reigns as well. How’s it going to look if this 49-year-old comes in and does in two minutes what Reigns couldn’t do in two months? That’s not the look you want right now. Perhaps Lesnar comes in and costs Goldberg the match and the title and saves us all the horror. But then again, why wouldn’t Lesnar want Goldberg to have the title at ‘Mania? Perhaps we get the squash we’re all expecting and Owens proceeds to snap on Jericho the next night on RAW. Who knows at this point?

A tag team title match with Anderson and Gallows taking on Cesaro and Sheamus is up next with Enzo and Cass sitting at ringside planning to challenge the winners for the belts. This match was decent enough but it wasn’t nearly as good as what we’ve been getting from these four. The Club got Cesaro and Sheamus disqualified by getting into it with Enzo and Cass at the end, which could lead to some sort of triple threat down the road. Not bad but not very good either.

We’re given an update on Seth Rollins’ injury and we’re essentially still not sure what exactly is going to happen with all of that. I think they’re just going to continue to wait before making a decision here on whether or not to officially rule him out and start something else.

The New Day is out to cut a promo on The Shining Stars (what a fall from grace) and basically mock CM Punk for talking about ice cream and then beat Epico and Primo in about five minutes. This whole segment and match were just there to be there. Certainly a few more minutes of cruiserweight action would be more entertaining than this but I understand how hard it is to take big merchandise movers like The New Day off of television. Just split these guys up already and be done with it. It’s run its course and it’s time for at least one of them to move on.

Owens and Jericho have made up and it’s time for the U.S. title match with Y2J and Sami Zayn. This was a really good match that furthered the Owens-Jericho storyline and didn’t completely bury Zayn at the same time. This was a nice back and forth and I really like how well these two work together, but that’s to be expected from two guys at this level. The end saw Y2J lock in the Walls of Jericho, but Zayn was able to reach the ropes forcing a break. As Jericho celebrated like he won the match, Owens hit Zayn with a kick and Jericho hit the Codebreaker for the 1-2-3. This should lead to a rematch at Fastlane and we’ll likely get an Owens vs. Zayn match in there somewhere as well, which is never a bad thing.

We see Charlotte run down Sasha Banks, who may just want to start getting her mail delivered to the trainer’s room.

Austin Aries is out to interview Neville and wants his thoughts on the number one contender’s match that will take place on 205 Live. Neville tells him that none of those guys scare him. Noam Dar, Cedric Alexander, Jack Gallagher, TJ Perkins and Tony Nese and his abs come out (Aries is amazing) to talk and we get the obligatory brawl that takes us right into a six-man tag match, which is won by Gallagher, Perkins and Alexander. I really don’t like the fact that we came back from commercial break and this match had already started. It just takes more TV time away from these guys that they really need right now. And they only gave them about five minutes anyway. But this was a pretty solid segment and match combo that was a nice preview of the following night’s action.

The Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns main event is next and Joe takes out Reigns as he makes his way to the ring. Absolutely loved this as it just adds another layer to Joe’s savagery. Good stuff. As for the actual match, I thought this was very well put together. You needed a physical guy for Joe’s debut and Reigns was the perfect person to match him up with. Both guys got some solid offense and while the finish was a little predictable with Braun Strowman coming in, it still worked. Joe got a win in his debut and they were able to add some more fuel to the Strowman-Reigns program.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty good episode with a little build for the cruiserweights and setting up and furthering some storylines for Fastlane. You’re never going to convince me that having Goldberg around is a good idea but even he was pretty good.