WWE Week in Review: Undertaker returns for Fastlane fallout, Styles and Orton battle

WWE SmackDown Live

AJ Styles and Randy Orton were the main event of this week’s SmackDown Live and Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon opened the show to let us know that in a segment that went on WAY too long. They argued a bit about which guy should get Bray at WrestleMania with Bryan thinking that Orton should get it and Shane thinking that AJ should get it. In the end, this segment essentially served no purpose and to avoid the same mistake these two made on Tuesday, I’m just going to stop.

The mixed tag team match featuring John Cena and Nikki Bella teaming up for the very first time to take on Carmella and James Ellsworth was the first match of the night and it went about as you’d expect something like this to go. Miz and Maryse came down to ringside just as the match was getting underway, which did allow Carmella to take control early but the theatrics were bound to happen and they did. Cena was tagged in and Ellsworth wanted no part of it and this eventually led to a double Five Knuckle Shuffle and a double submission win. While the match was pretty predictable and certainly nothing special, the post-match festivities were solid as Miz and Maryse attacked their WrestleMania opponents. No, the match still hasn’t been officially announced but we all know this is happening. Miz sent Cena flying into the steps and Maryse shoved Nikki into the post and Miz followed up the beating with a promo calling Cena and Nikki’s relationship “a sham” and suggested it was only for branding purposes. Pretty good segment.

Curt Hawkins called out Dean Ambrose (yes, this actually happened) and got another beating for his troubles, which led the Lunatic Fringe to once again call out Baron Corbin, who appeared on the jumbotron and told Ambrose that things would be done on his time, which takes the Intercontinental Champion to the back to find his new rival. I really like the mind games that Corbin is playing here. He’s getting a nice push with a big star and he’s stepping up his game nicely. More on this in a moment as I certainly don’t want to forget about the new rivalry that apparently is going to happen between Dolph Ziggler and Mojo Rawley. Actually, strike that. I do want to forget about that. Moving on.

Ambrose looked for Corbin in the back for a while and accidentally attacked a security guard before The Lone Wolf made his move. He attacked Ambrose with a pipe and stomped him before lowering a forklift onto him, which is something we haven’t seen in a long time. I like the Corbin we’re seeing here and this match will be official pretty quickly.

I’ve been saying for a long time now how much I’ve loved the SmackDown Live women’s division. At one point, they had three different storylines going and were on an absolute role. Yes, it was extremely unfortunate what happened with Naomi but things were still going along nicely and then this “Blissertation” segment happened and the entire division took a hit because of it. Alexa Bliss and Mickie James hit the ring so the champ could announce her opponent for WrestleMania, saying it wouldn’t be Nikki or Carmella or Naomi and definitely not Becky Lynch, which naturally brings the Irish Lasskicker to the ring to claim her spot. But Natalya interrupts her and says that the shot is hers as she and Bliss had come to an understanding. Alexa gets her shots in and it’s just really bad, which was surprising as I think she’s been doing a great job with this character but this was not good. Mickie jumps in and says that Bliss was giving her the title shot, which apparently was news to the champ. But seriously, if it wasn’t anybody that she mentioned and not Nattie or Mickie then who was it going to be? I guess we’ll never know. Daniel Bryan comes out to try and save this disaster but just makes it worse when he announces that Alexa will face every single available competitor at WrestleMania for the title. These multi-person matches for the biggest show of the year are getting out of control. And then he went Teddy Long and made a quick tag match with Alexa and Mickie taking on Nattie and Becky. This segment was way too similar to the catty segments with the non-wrestling divas WWE had a few years back and did not represent a revolution at all. Awful. Just awful.

The match itself was able to save this debacle a little bit as the teams worked a nice back and forth before everybody just turned on one another. Nattie made sure Becky knew that they really weren’t friends and hit her with a German at the end of the match and Alexa tagged herself in to get the pin, which in turn made Mickie upset and she nailed Bliss with a kick following the match to set up all kinds of tension. I’m hoping I’m wrong and these ladies can give us a match similar to the Six-Pack Challenge we got to crown the first champion but this whole thing seems a little forced.

From the moment AJ Styles came to WWE, I’ve been waiting to see him go one-on-one with Randy Orton and after this match, I can’t wait to see more. These two put on a great show and told a great story throughout the bout. Styles worked the leg for a while in an attempt to soften Orton up for the Calf Crusher and actually never hit the Styles Clash or the flying forearm, which was a nice change of pace. We didn’t get all the finishers into near falls but instead some different tactics, including a very nice Full Nelson slam from Orton. The psychology was just a bit different than what we saw with Styles and Cena and it worked beautifully. Those things will certainly come down the road in future matches between these two, possibly at SummerSlam, but this match was very good and accomplished what it needed to accomplish. Orton got a win with a great finish and a kind of pop-up RKO to keep his momentum moving forward towards Bray and WrestleMania and while I’m still not a fan of the impending Shane vs. AJ match, that story continued as well with AJ confronting Shane afterwards.

This certainly wasn’t the best episode we’ve ever seen but the main event saved it a bit.