WWE Week in Review: RAW stumbles, SmackDown shines

WWE SmackDown Live

So everything that Monday Night RAW wasn’t, SmackDown Live was and then some. Wow, what an episode. Yes, there were a lot of promos that took up a lot of the two hours but even the few matches we got were pretty entertaining — well, minus one anyway — so let’s get into it.

The show starts with Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon in the back reviewing the tape of last week’s battle royal, and maybe it’s just me but why did they wait a whole week to look at this footage? Anyway, AJ Styles walks in and thinks they should award him the title match at WrestleMania and makes fun of Luke Harper a bit, only to find out he’s standing right behind him. Harper thanks the powers that be and walks away. Decent opener.

The Miz and Maryse come out for a new edition of Miz TV with John Cena as their guest. Miz cuts Cena’s mic almost immediately, telling the 16-time champ that he can’t talk yet because Miz has a decade’s worth of things to get off of his chest. Miz is great here as he calls Cena a manipulator and makes all the right connections to get all the breaks and shots while he himself works 10 times as hard and gets nowhere because of guys like Cena. He continues to run down Cena for his past comments about The Rock leaving WWE for Hollywood because Cena is doing the exact same thing and that’s why he came back in last week’s battle royal to eliminate him. He wants Cena to know exactly how it feels to have everything taken away from him and then tells him he can finally talk. The Miz was fantastic here. Really great stuff.

More and more of these Cena promos are getting a bit heelish and I’m loving them. He says that if he really had the pull, if he was really a “black arts manipulator”, he’d be standing here with The Undertaker and not some guy named Mike who shortened his last name on a reality show and stole gimmicks from The Rock, Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles. Boom. After knocking him down a bit more, he tells Miz that he’s not The Undertaker but if he presses again, he’ll be a dead man. Great line. Cena goes to leave the ring but Maryse stops him and cuts her own promo, highlighted by “bigger the ego, smaller the package.” Oh, snap! She smacks him, which brings down Nikki Bella, and if you didn’t want to believe that this mixed tag match is happening at WrestleMania, believe it now. Miz and Maryse run out of the ring to close the segment as Cena and Nikki start making out in the ring.

I’ve gotta say that I really liked this bit. I’m still not crazy about the match, as I think both Miz and Cena could have something bigger but this actually got me interested. We’ll get to see how Cena and Nikki look together in the ring next week when they take on Carmella and James Ellsworth, which was made in a funny segment later in the show.

The first match of the night is a 2-Out-Of-3-falls match with Becky Lynch and Mickie James. There were two different commercial breaks during this match, which I really didn’t care for. I understand needing to get one in here and there but not two. But what we did get to see was really enjoyable. They fought another nice back and forth contest with Mickie James getting the first fall with her DDT after about seven minutes, and Becky evening the score about five minutes later. Alexa Bliss hit the ringside area for the finish, which saw Becky pick up the victory with the Disarmher. I’ll be interested to see where things go from here with the women’s division. Becky has put herself in line for a title shot but we’ll see if her program with Mickie has come to an end or not. Later in the show, Natalya interrupted Alexa Bliss’ interview backstage and told her she was going to take the title from her as well. We’re likely getting a Fatal 4-Way match from the ladies on RAW at WrestleMania so I’d be very surprised to see the blue brand do the same thing. Things should become a little more clear in the upcoming weeks but I like the direction they’re taking, especially given that they’ve had to rewrite everything due to Naomi’s injury. Once again, the women’s division on SmackDown Live got a good amount of TV time.

Luke Harper, Bray Wyatt and AJ Styles all cut promos ahead of the number one contender’s match, all of which were pretty solid. As for the match itself, I really had a good time with this one. I would call this a power vs. finesse matchup but it’s sometimes easy to forget how agile Luke Harper is. He used his strength early on to gain the advantage but showed off some of that agility as the match progressed, including a senton over the top rope back into the ring and a suicide dive but Styles was able to get the 1-2-3 following the springboard forearm. Harper’s foot was on the rope, though, which brought out Shane McMahon. The commish says that the match will be restarted and Styles isn’t happy about it, which is how we get that program started. Styles argues with McMahon as Luke Harper approaches for a superkick, which accidentally hits Shane-O, thus allowing Styles to get the upper hand. AJ sends Luke into the post and then back into the ring for the springboard 450 and gets the real victory. I really enjoyed the match but I’m going to save my thoughts on what’s next for everyone involved until the end so hang with me for a minute.

Dean Ambrose was all set for a match with Curt Hawkins but this one never got started as The Lunatic Fringe hit the ring and then hit Hawkins with Dirty Deeds so he’s out of there, giving Ambrose the chance to cut a promo on Baron Corbin. He tells The Lone Wolf that it’s a bad idea to keep going after him and he wants a fight. Corbin comes out and says that’s not happening, which leads Ambrose into making a few jokes about his tattoos, which doesn’t amuse Baron at all. I’m really liking what they’re doing with this feud. A lot of people probably think this a little below Ambrose leading into WrestleMania but I’m not one of the people in that camp. I think this is perfect for him as I’ve never seen him as a top guy anyway and this is going to do wonders for Corbin. This should pick up even more in intensity in the coming weeks.

Neville cuts a quick promo to run down Jack Gallagher ahead of their title match on Sunday and we’ll get more into this in the 205 Live portion of the review.

We’ve got a Chairs Match up next with Dolph Ziggler and Apollo Crews, which I thought could have been really good despite this whole storyline being a waste of time for everyone, including Ziggler and Crews themselves. The pace was decent at the start but it got really slow, really fast and I was just bored by the end. Oh yeah, Dolph got the win. Make it stop.

Bray Wyatt comes out to close the show but Randy Orton is not with him and we all know why now. He says that it didn’t matter if it was Harper or Styles to challenge him at WrestleMania because they’re mortals while he’s a deity. I don’t care how many times I’ve seen him cut promos like this; I’m still engaged every time. He says that AJ will end up like all of the rest but wait … there’s Randy on the jumbotron and he’s at the Wyatt compound. Bray’s rocking chair is right behind him and Orton is so great here. The segment is dark and the camera work is excellent as he says that this is Wyatt’s world … but it was never his. He says there was a time when he couldn’t beat them so he joined them but it’s now time to screw them. Yes, it’s a bit like the Daniel Bryan thing from a few years ago but it didn’t happen as quickly and was done 100 times better this time around.

Orton looks at the floor and says that this hallowed ground is where Sister Abigail was put to rest. Bray looks so mad in the ring at this point and it’s great. But that anger turns to fear when Orton pulls out a shovel and tells him that he’s going to burn the spirit of her and watch Wyatt die with her. Wow. Orton is the master now and Bray the servant and then he actually pulls out a freaking gas can and goes to town, dousing the cabin inside and out as Bray is pleading for him to stop. Orton is coming for Bray at WrestleMania and he burns it to the ground in an amazing scene to close the show. Not everyone is going to like what they did here but I dug it. Great close to a very good episode.

Okay, thanks for sticking with me here because I do want to get into this thing with Styles and Harper and how it plays in the title picture. While I originally thought I might want to see Harper included in the title match with Orton and Bray, I just don’t think you can do that now. While he’s looked great, he essentially got beat by Styles twice — sort of — in about three minutes and he’s already lost to Orton a couple of times as well. I think he may be involved somewhere in the finish of the match, perhaps also involving Erick Rowan’s return, but I think that might be it. Depending on what they decide to do with Strowman for ‘Mania, perhaps he could also win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. It’s a tough call for him right now.

As for AJ Styles, it looks as if he is on that collision course with Shane McMahon that we all feared. Things went even further on Talking Smack afterwards as he pretty much demanded that he still keep his title shot despite the fact that Orton has changed his mind. Could this possibly lead to yet another number one contender’s match in a dream matchup between Styles and Orton? Or does Shane just take it away from Styles? That would be the obvious call to lead into a match between the two in Orlando, wouldn’t it? And in case you’re wondering, I am in the camp that doesn’t want to see the best wrestler in the world right now wasted on the biggest show of the year. There’s a lot of ways that all of this could play out and SmackDown Live is doing a great job of keeping us guessing.