A look back at the week that was in WWE with in-depth reviews of Monday Night RAW, SmackDown Live, 205 Live and NXT.
The road to WrestleMania 33 is getting shorter and shorter as we approach the biggest weekend in wrestling, and while the final card still isn’t completely set, every show this week furthered some storylines and whether good or bad, we’re at least a little closer to knowing what exactly we’re in store for come April 2. So let’s jump right into the happenings in WWE this week, starting with the flagship.
WWE Monday Night RAW
Paul Heyman is out to start the show and runs down the events of last week when Goldberg was finally made to look human. Oh yeah, Brock Lesnar is actually there but as per usual is just bouncing around and smiling. I keep doing that in my living room hoping some Lesnar-size checks will come but I think they’re getting lost in the mail. Anyway, Heyman does show some nice intensity in the promo but the point is quite obvious: Lesnar is going to destroy Goldberg. It was some of the same Heyman stuff but he’s still entertaining.
Mick Foley was in the back watching and he was quickly joined by Stephanie McMahon, who was looking to make a little peace but did so in a very condescending way as only a McMahon can do. She’s so great. She told Mick she would be his teacher and that he had to fire someone before the show was over. More on this in a bit.
Sasha Banks took on Dana Brooke next, and Bayley and Charlotte are at ringside for this one. Sasha got a quick win but the real story here came after the match. As we’ve seen so many times in the past, Charlotte got in Dana’s face for not getting the job done but this time around, Dana actually fought back and hit Flair with a big forearm. I think this is a good move, if it sticks anyway. It’s time for Dana to be out on her own and show what she can do in the division following WrestleMania.
Wait, what am I seeing here? Did the cruiserweights actually get more than a three-minute match on a Monday night? Okay, there was still a commercial break in there but I’ll take it. Tony Nese and Brian Kendrick teamed up to take on Akira Tozawa and TJ Perkins, who’s coming off of a nice performance on NXT last week against Shinsuke Nakamura. Tozawa looked good early and the pace was very solid throughout. Nese picked up the win for his team by rolling up Perkins and hanging onto the tights — always a classic heel move. Nice surprise match that I was expecting to just be there but they actually got some time and made the most of it.
Kevin Owens came out and delivered yet another solid promo on Jericho, which led us right into a tag match with KO and Samoa Joe battling Sami Zayn and Chris Jericho, which makes sense at this point. This match didn’t go very long and ended in a DQ finish after Owens and Joe mercilessly beat on Zayn until the ref called for the bell. There’s really nothing left for Zayn on Monday nights and I believe a change of scenery come WWE Draft time could do him some good. Owens and Jericho could be something very special at WrestleMania and Joe just continues to look extremely dominant. His role at WrestleMania hasn’t yet been clearly defined but he’s looked so strong since coming up.
Mick and Stephanie are in the back and she’s mulling over options on who Foley should fire, naturally bringing up Sami Zayn but they’re soon interrupted by Nia Jax, who isn’t happy about not being in the title match at WrestleMania so Steph books her against Bayley later in the night. Foley just looks distraught at this point and what better way to cheer himself up than to book Jinder Mahal against Roman Reigns after Jinder said he was a main-event talent. Sure.
In more pointless news, The New Day is interviewing Big Show about the new Jetsons flick and also announce Show for the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, thus confirming that the match with Shaq is definitely off now. But not to worry, we’ve got a different O’Neil (yes, I’m aware that it’s spelled differently but you see where I’m going) for Show to take on in the form of Titus, who’s very upset that he’s not in the movie. Ugh.
The number one contender’s match for the tag titles went on next as Enzo & Cass took on Sheamus & Cesaro and the finish here was pretty obvious. The match itself was nothing to write home about anyway and just served as the setup so Gallows and Anderson could come down and beat on both teams, leading them to think that since nobody won the match, then there could be no contenders. But apparently The Club has never watched wrestling before and the match at WrestleMania was made a triple threat. This actually could be pretty good if done correctly.
Roman Reigns vs. Jinder Mahal is next and this actually did not go down the way I saw it happening. Jinder actually got quite a bit of offense in, even with some of it coming from the distraction of The Undertaker’s music, and this did not make Roman look strong at all. I mean, he won but when building towards a match with The Deadman, this wasn’t the greatest way of showing off Reigns. In any event, as it was earlier in the night, the saving grace of the segment wasn’t in the match but what happened afterwards as Shawn Michaels made a surprise appearance to have a heart to heart with Roman about The Undertaker. HBK was fantastic here as he told Roman that ‘Taker was in his head and that he knows what that feels like. Roman responded by telling Michaels that ‘Taker was the one who retired him and that he would be the one to retire ‘Taker. I’m always going to get excited when Shawn’s around, especially this time of year, but I really liked Roman Reigns here. He sounded a lot more like a heel in this segment and is becoming a bit more like the guy (no pun intended) that he really needs to be. Dug it. And then Braun Strowman came out and attacked Reigns. Are they possibly still building towards a triple threat? I guess we’ll get closer to the answer when these two lock horns this Monday night.
Following another quick Stephanie-Foley moment, Austin Aries made his RAW debut and we’re back to the three-minute match. Okay, this one went almost four with Aries getting the win over Ariya Daivari in a decent little match. We’ll obviously get more into Aries once we get to the 205 Live portion of the review.
Big Show and Titus O’Neil were up next and it was exactly what you’d expect. Show hit a few chokeslams and that was that. Moving on.
Bayley and Sasha Banks are backstage and Sasha gets in a subtle jab about people thinking Bayley doesn’t deserve the title. Heel turn coming soon.
Backstage segments continue — there were quite a few this week — as Chris Jericho says he’s going to expose the real Kevin Owens on an episode of The Highlight Reel next week so that should be madly entertaining and “The List of Jericho” made its return this week as Y2J put “not Tom Phillips” on it. Always a good time.
In a repeat finish of what we got earlier in the night with Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe beating down Sami Zayn, Nia Jax did the same to Bayley after a bit of an awkward match between the two. Bayley hasn’t really looked strong at all recently, either in the ring or on the microphone, which I suppose works with the booking angle they’re going with. Nia certainly put herself in the conversation to be in the title match at WrestleMania and she really does deserve to be there. This should get sorted out next week.
Stephanie and Foley are in the ring for the final segment of the night and Mick tells Steph that he’s made up his mind on who he’s going to fire and it’s … her. They go into a nice back and forth for a minute until Triple H hits the ring and I’m right back in the year 2000 again. Man, I forgot what chemistry these two had. But things are different now and Triple H reminded us of that when he brought Mick’s kids into it. It’s always better with a personal element to it and this was fantastic. And just when it looked like Foley was going to do as Triple H told him to and hit the ramp and leave, Mr. Socko made an appearance (it’s a good thing he always has that on him) and I was really back in the year 2000 again. Stephanie got in a low blow to give Trips the upper hand but here comes Seth Rollins…crutch and all. Except when he gets closer, he holds it out, drops it and goes flying into the ring. He looked great and really got some nice shots in on The Game before getting whacked in the knee with his own crutch and did a little more damage to close out the show. This was a great surprise to end the show and Rollins certainly looks ready to go for WrestleMania.
This certainly wasn’t the greatest episode of RAW but I’ve seen worse. HBK showing up was a nice surprise as was Rollins at the end. Some might say that there was a little too much Stephanie in the show but you’ll never hear me say that. She remains one of the most compelling personalities in WWE and just does her job so well. I was glad that the cruiserweights got a little extra time this week and Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe as a team is amazing. Oh yeah, Brock Lesnar can still bounce around really well. I wonder if Goldberg will be able to get a spear in before WrestleMania. … said the FanSided writer sarcastically.