WWE Week in Review: Braun Strowman impresses, Battle Royal controversy

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

The Road to WrestleMania continued this week in WWE and while we didn’t quite have all of the excitement and title changes and such that we had a week ago, some storylines were still furthered and we got some decent matches. So let’s take a look at the week that was in WWE starting with the flagship.

WWE Monday Night RAW

I’m a little surprised there was so much love for George “The Animal” Steele and nothing for Ivan Koloff but Steele was probably a little better known to the casual fan, so we’ll go with that.

Kevin Owens is out in a suit to start the show and he’s sitting in a dark ring with a spotlight, which obviously signifies that with Jericho out of the way, the spotlight is solely on him now. Don’t you just love symbolism? Okay, he actually said that too, but still. The L.A. crowd is aching for him to talk about turning on Jericho but he doesn’t mention it at all. Instead, he opts to talk about how he never liked Goldberg watching him in his younger days and said that he’s out to prove that superheroes don’t exist. He brings up the match with Lesnar and says that certainly won’t happen to him (let’s hope not) and this entire promo is the real Kevin Owens. As much fun as I’ve had watching him and Jericho banter over the last nine months, this is the KO that WWE needs and it’s going to be a shame to watch him lose that title. Great opener.

A No. 1 contender’s match for the tag titles is up next between Cesaro & Sheamus and Enzo & Cass. The match — or what we saw of it anyway due to the commercial break — was decent enough with Cesaro mocking Enzo and his uppercut to cut off the tag in the best spot of the match. However, it was Cass getting the upset win with an East River Crossing on Cesaro. Following the match, Enzo was making fun of the losers in a promo but ate a fantastic Brogue Kick from Sheamus, which resulted in a “Thank you, Sheamus” chant. It’s good to see that the rest of the world is finally catching up with my way of thinking. Enzo is just not good and Cass needs to get as far away from him as he can. But I suppose that will have to wait for now.

Kevin Owens is leaving the building but Mick Foley stops him and tells him that he has a match with Sami Zayn, which usually I’d be all for but this one doesn’t feel quite natural.

Following a Bayley video package, Foley is back with Roman Reigns, who says he wants to get his hands on Braun Strowman but is interrupted by Gallows and Anderson, which obviously means we’re getting a rematch from a week ago. Okay then.

Brian Kendrick is out to face Akira Tozawa but the match never officially begins as Kendrick attacks the new guy during the pre-match handshake and they’ll give it another shot on 205 Live.

Reigns vs. The Club goes about exactly as I expect it to with Gallows and Anderson getting the edge early on but get a beating in the end. I’m not quite sure why the tag champs keep getting made to look like absolute fools but that’s what we get for the second week in a row. This isn’t helping anybody but Roman Reigns.

The New Day, who have been announced as the official hosts for WrestleMania 33, are set to take on Rusev and Jinder Mahal but first have to accuse Lana of stealing blueprints for their ice cream plans — yep, this is actually a thing — and get a win in under four minutes. Creative has nothing for any of these guys right now and it showed in this segment. Poor Rusev. This looks like it will be a filler match for Fastlane and possibly on the pre-show.

The contract signing for Neville and Jack Gallagher is up next with Austin Aries running the proceedings. Hey, at least they’re getting some time, am I right? It went about how most of these things go with a little banter back and forth that led to some violence between the two. I’ve seen better but I’ve also seen much worse. Again, at least this segment brought some attention to the division and it sorely needs it on Mondays right now.

Nia Jax squashed a local in about three minutes but then gave the best promo of her career with Charley and for the first time mentioned getting a title shot.

Bayley was out next to celebrate her title win last week but was thankfully interrupted by Stephanie McMahon, who told her that her win against Charlotte was tainted. Bayley goes to hand over the title but Sasha comes out and tells her not to do it. She calls Bayley a sister and Steph stirs the pot a bit by telling Bayley that the only reason Sasha wants her to stay champ is because she knows she can beat her. That naturally brings out Charlotte and she says she’ll get her use her rematch clause at Fastlane, which leads right into a match between Charlotte and Sasha, which is joined in progress once we’re back from commercial. The match wasn’t near as good as what we’ve seen from them in the past. Dana Brooke tried to get involved but Bayley stopped her and Sasha won with a Banks Statement. Interesting idea with Stephanie in there but some of the delivery was just off. Bayley is not strong on the microphone and it continues to show. I don’t see Charlotte’s pay-per-view streak ending at Fastlane so the good stuff is hopefully coming soon. Hurry.

Sami Zayn is interviewed and says that things with Samoa Joe are not finished and that rings true as Joe attacks him on his way to the ring to face Kevin Owens. Joe gives him a quick beating and then tosses him into the ring where he’s quickly dismantled by the Universal Champion. Stephanie and Triple H argue a bit backstage about The Game’s decision to sign Samoa Joe as Steph claims he could have an accident. Interesting.

Michael Cole goes backstage to interview Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar but The Beast scares him off immediately so I’m not quite sure what that was for. As usual, Lesnar stood there as Heyman talked but I was intrigued by how he put over Kevin Owens a little bit, even if the main premise was that the winner of Owens and Goldberg doesn’t matter.

It’s time for the big-boy main event with Braun Strowman taking on Big Show and WWE wants us to know just how big these guys are and have officials make sure the ring can withstand what’s about to happen. And while I didn’t expect much out of this match, these two actually put on a pretty solid match. They got technical for a second and Braun did a freaking kip-up out of a wristlock that literally made my jaw drop. Very impressive. The two battled it out for a few minutes before heading up top and the suplex to break the ring seemed imminent here but Braun fought it off but also ran right into the knockout punch but Show was unable to pick up the victory with it. They had a little trouble towards the end but Braun ended up winning with an impressive powerslam to get the 1-2-3 and not a second later, Roman Reigns hit the ring and got a few licks in but a dropkick stopped him in his tracks and Strowman hit him with a big powerslam to close out the show. Oh no, am I becoming a Braun Strowman fan?

There wasn’t a ton of positive to take out of this episode as I wasn’t a fan of some of the booking but at least the show opened nicely with the Owens promo and ended well with the Braun and Show match. Who can they feed to the big man next?

Seth Rollins and Goldberg are both scheduled for next week.