AJ starts the show by calling out Nakamura, but we get Aiden English and Rusev instead, and it turns into an AJ vs. Rusev match. Rusev almost taps right away to the Calf Crusher before English makes the save for a DQ, beginning a beatdown of Styles, until Daniel Bryan comes out to help. This reeks of giving the appearance of Vince trying to kill Rusev day, which I don’t think is actually the case at all. Backstage Paige does a terrible Teddy Long impression and makes a main event match of Rusev and Aiden vs. DB and AJ.

SHELTON BENJAMIN DEMANDS BIG COMPETITION
Disappointingly, Randy Orton responds… at first. Then comes the real response in new United States Champion Jeff Hardy, moving the SmackDown as I predicted. They have a really good match that harkens back to 10-15 years ago. Both guys still look terrific in the ring. A Twist of Fate and a Swanton Bomb ultimately give Jeff the win.

The Miz cuts a promo from home in LA and says next week SmackDown will be AWESOME. It’s also announced that Absolution is coming to SmackDown (again, as I predicted).

LUKE HARPER W/ERICK ROWAN VS. JEY USO W/JIMMY USO
A quick squash for Harper after Jey gets involved with Jimmy and Rowan on the outside. The Usos take a beating after the match. The Bludgeon Brothers pick up their hammers until Naomi comes down and begs them to leave them alone. They oblige. Interesting.

SAMOA JOE is on SmackDown! I flipped back from commercial and saw Joe’s face and flipped away again because I thought they were doing a Raw promo. I’m happy to gloat about getting my previous predictions correct, but I’ll admit this one blindsided me. I expected a lengthy Raw feud between him and Roman.

SAMOA JOE VS. SIN CARA
Joe destroys Sin Cara, then runs down the SmackDown roster before once again cutting a promo on Reigns. He says he will bring the Intercontinental and Universal championships to SmackDown.

PROMO: Sanity is coming to SmackDown! Problem, it looks like it’s sans Nikki Cross.
Backstage: Big Cass returns! He insults Daniel Bryan’s height and says YOU’RE what all the fuss is about?! Heel Cass.

‘MELLABRATION
Carmella brags about beating Charlotte all by herself, and says her win is the biggest moment in women’s history. She plays a video tribute to herself. She says she will miss her briefcase “Frankie”, but says she will replace it with the women’s title, “Cleopatra”. Charlotte interrupts. She congratulates Carmella for taking advantage of an opportunity, and says “game respects game.” Another interruption by the bitch squad, the Iconics. I can’t watch this. Becky comes out to help Charlotte and we get a match

CHARLOTTE FLAIR W/BECKY LYNCH VS. BILLY KAY W/PEYTON ROYCE
I’ll give these tampons one thing, they can wrestle. The match was really good. Mostly controlled by Billie Kay, who has a pretty impressive offense. Charlotte pulls out the win with a Figure Eight. Carmella attacks after the match and the three of them beat down Charlotte and Becky until the new member of SmackDown’s women’s division shows up: ASUKA! She lays waste to the heels and stands tall with Becky and Charlotte.

Gallows and Anderson have moved to SmackDown. Alliance with Shinsuke?
The Bar is coming as well. I’m liking what’s happening with the SmackDown tag team division. Weird backstage segment with New Day, R Truth, and Tye Dillinger that I won’t even begin to try to figure out.
Andrade “Cien” Almas and Zelina Vega are movin’ on up. I look for him to be put into US Title contention very soon.

DANIEL BRYAN & AJ STYLES VS. RUSEV & AIDEN ENGLISH
A split crowd for this match. It goes without saying, but Rusev Day is massively over. As DB is taking care of business against Rusev, Shinsuke arrives out of nowhere and once again hits AJ with a low blow. Bryan turns around to a big boot to the face from Big Cass, ending the match in DQ. Cass stands tall over DB as his new music plays. Renee tries to ask Shinsuke why he continues to attack AJ, and he once again responds he doesn’t speak English. That was funny last week, and now they’re probably going to run it into the ground.

I had predicted Jeff Hardy, Asuka, Absolution, Alexa Bliss, Finn Balor, The Revival and Apollo Crews coming to SmackDown. A little less than 50% correct. Samoa Joe is the biggest surprise to me. We’ll get a lot of fresh feuds throughout the year and I look forward to it. What feuds do you want to see with the revamped rosters?

JEFF HARDY VS. JINDER MAHAL FOR THE UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP
What a start to raw! Jeff Hardy greets the newest member of the Raw roster, Jinder Mahal, by taking his United States Championship. Jinder comes out and says he’s better than every other superstar on Raw, and Kurt Angle makes him prove it. It’s not often that we get such a clear-cut heel vs. face match these days, and this was a really good match with an interesting mix of styles. Jinder wrestles a slow, powerful heel style with a lot of rest holds and an offense designed to slow someone like Jeff Hardy down. It works here, as it brings the crowd to its feet when Jeff makes his furious comeback. Great way to warm up a crowd that was already excited for the shakeup show.

BAYLEY VS. SASHA BANKS
A brutally personal match is interrupted by the arrival of the Riott Squad. Great way for them to make a statement in their Raw debut and, even more importantly, extend the Sasha and Bayley feud. It needs more build and a better payoff than the second match on Raw with no stipulation. Make it even more personal. Let’s see some backstage attacks. They need a PPV match.

HEATH SLATER & RHYNO VS. THE AUTHORS OF PAIN
Slater and Rhyno get a decent amount of offense in but Authors of Pain are too much and take the victory, as they should. I recently wrote that AOP could either go the way of the Bludgeon Brothers or the Ascension, and although it’s only been a week, this is hopefully a start down the Bludgeon path.

MIZ TV SEGMENT
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are announced as new members of Raw, and Kurt announces Miz has been traded to Smackdown, without the Miztourage. That was fun. It’ll be interesting to see where Axel and Dallas go from here, if they stay together or go back to singles competition. I’d like to see them split.

DELEATER OF WORLDS VS. THE REVIVAL
I love that tag team name. The Bar is on commentary and say they never want to hear the name Nicholas again. Matt and Bray win the match to set up a tag team title match vs. The Bar in Saudi Arabia. I think Matt and Bray will win that mach.

Backstage, we find out Breezango and Natalya have been moved to Raw. I like that move for Breezango, as the Fashion Files segments can be much-needed filler instead of taking up valuable time on Smackdown. An interaction with Breezango insulting and citing The Bar for their fashion crimes leads to a match later tonight.

MICKIE JAMES VS. EMBER MOON WITH NIA JAX ON COMMENTARY
Quality match that ended with an awesome Eclipse. I love that move and this was one of the best. Great sell by Mickie. From the back, Alexa continues to accuse Nia of being a bully. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Alexa on Smackdown tomorrow.

SmackDown staple Dolph Ziggler has moved to Raw. Lukewarm reception for Titus Worldwide. It seems that gimmick has run its course. The real story: DREW MCINTYRE IS ON RAW! He’s aligned himself with Ziggler, seemingly as a heel. Not in this segment though, as the crowd cheered the hell out of their beatdown of Titus and Apollo. I think it’s only a matter of time until Ziggler turns on McIntyre and they have a PPV match, which I very much look forward to.

IN RING SEGMENT: ROMAN REIGNS AND SAMOA JOE
The crowd is especially hostile towards Roman tonight. Still can’t understand why they want a good guy to fail. Anyway, Joe comes out and runs down Roman’s failures vs. Lesnar, and Roman tells Joe to get his fat, lazy ass to the ring. Joe pusses out.

MANDY ROSE W/SONYA DEVILLE VS. NATALYA
If we go by this match, it seems Natalya will be a face on Raw. Nattie has a pretty quick win over Mandy, and as expected, a beatdown from Absolution comes after the match. Unexpectedly, Ronda Rousey comes out to makes the save and squares off with another former MMA fighter in Sonya Deville. That was cool.

A huge blow to SmackDown as Baron Corbin is announced as a member of the Raw roster. As AJ Styles once said, “SmackDown makes ’em and Raw takes ’em.”

BREEZANGO VS. THE BAR
Breezango comes away with a shocking upset win over the multi-time Raw Tag Team Champions. I don’t expect this to become a trend.

Backstage, Elias refuses to play in a rinky-dink town like Hartford, then cuts a promo on Bobby Lashley. He tries to give Renee a personal concert but she cuts him off.

MIZ, MIZTOURAGE, SAMI ZAYN, & KEVIN OWENS VS. FINN BALOR, BRAUN STROWMAN, BOBBY LASHLEY, SETH ROLLINS, & BOBBY ROODE
Bobby Roode is the big reveal as the face team’s mystery partner. I was expecting Big Cass. Lashley shows off his power. He is a beast. Strowman hit a bitchin dropkick on Miz, who is then abandoned by Axel and Dallas when he tries to tag them in, and is left alone in the ring with Braun. Power slam and pin follow. Bye bye Miz. I’m looking forward to seeing him feud with Daniel Bryan on SmackDown.

I have to believe Jeff Hardy will move to SmackDown tomorrow because if not, it would put both the IC and US titles on Raw. We know Miz is going. If I had to guess at some other names, I’d say Asuka, Absolution, Alexa Bliss, Finn Balor, The Revival, and Apollo Crews. We’ll have to see tomorrow how many I get right.

What did you guys think of Raw tonight? Who do you want to see move to SmackDown?

Welcome back! After attempting to pound out decent Wrestlemania week content every day, it was time for a break. Now here we are again, it’s a new “season” of WWE with new and returning characters. Let’s take a look at who is new, who is back, and what each one brings to the table, starting with the Raw side.

Ember Moon is awesome. I’ve loved her since she debuted in NXT, which I witnessed live at Takeover Brooklyn II (I’m sure she wrestled at house shows before this, let’s not get technical here). Her NXT feud with Asuka is one of the best feuds in recent memory, and the matches were incredible. It would seem that Asuka is moving to Smackdown and Ember will likely stay on Raw, but hopefully at some point down the road we get to see him go at it again. I feel like Smackdown would be a better fit for her, I would love to see the matches she could put on with Asuka, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch. I’m not quite sure where she fits into the Raw women’s roster. Maybe those will both be shaken up this week, and Becky and Charlotte move to Raw. As the rosters stand, I could see a good feud with Sasha or Alexa. I would think she starts off wrestling the non-main event women’s talent like Mickie James. Ember has the in-ring ability and the charisma to be a pillar of the women’s division for a long time.

I think No Way Jose is going to be used just like Adam Rose. A fun entrance, matches that don’t showcase his upper-quality in-ring ability, a badly-executed heel turn, and ultimately a release (though hopefully not due to DV arrest). He’s a very talented wrestler and oozes charisma, but unfortunately I don’t see much of a future for the gimmick as a face or a heel. Enjoy him while he lasts and hope that I’m wrong.

Hopefully Jeff can keep his personal life in order after his latest DUI to stick around for a while. I’d like to see him join up with Matt and Bray, I’m really starting to enjoy this Woken/Broken Universe and am very intrigued to see how Bray ties into it, and adding Jeff into that mix would be cool. I’m not sure exactly what he would do as a singles competitor at this time, at least not on Raw. If he’s not going to be part of the team, a move to Smackdown may be the best thing for him. I think he could have really good matches with guys like AJ and Shinsuke.

Wasn’t impressed with Bobby Lashley before, and I doubt I’m going to be impressed with him now. This really doesn’t do anything for me. I think of Bautista’s last WWE run when I think about how he’s going to be used and how it’s going to end. In other words, not good. Again, I hope I’m wrong, but I just don’t see a ton of potential positives here.

When thinking about different directions for AOP, I think of two possible outcomes. First, and the one I hope for, is the Bludgeon Brothers. Dominating, brutal, squashing opponents, tag team champions. People just want to see them destroy and conquer. Second is the direction of the team that dominated NXT more than any other tag team then hit a brick wall on the main roster: The Ascension. Their segments with Breezango were entertaining, but that team was ruined. They were brutal destroyers in NXT, similar to the Authors of Pain, but now have been reduced to comedy act jobbers. Obviously these are two extremes, and AOP could end up somewhere in the middle, but I’d like to see them used more like the Bludgeon Brothers. Don’t be surprised to see some squash matches against jobbers for a few weeks, but I expect to see them in the tag team title mix sooner rather than later.

We have seen what Samoa Joe brings to the table. I expect his match with Roman at Backlash to be for the Universal Championship after Roman takes it from Brock in Saudi Arabia. If he stays healthy, which is a big IF, I think he will be in the main event picture if not Universal Champion for most of this year. He and Roman seem to work well together and their promos seem personal. People get behind him even though he’s a heel because he’s just brutal in the ring and has a ton of charisma. I wonder how much he has left with him seemingly injured fairly often and also about to turn 40. This may be his last run.

Taking a look at the Smackdown side, here’s the perfect segue:

Paige retires on Raw, and one night later is named the new GM of Smackdown. It is a cool moment and obviously mirrors Daniel Bryan’s path. I honestly have no idea how this is going to work out. She’s good on the mic, and I don’t know if she’ll work better as a face or heel. I have a feeling a turn is coming, we’ve spent the last year with face authority figures on both shows for the most part, and usually that changes every few months or so. Let’s see where this goes.

No. Next.

Seriously, I hate these girls. They’re obnoxious. Maybe it’ll be fun to see them get their faces smashed in, but I doubt that’s what will happen. They’ll win and win and win and I’ll be forced to eat cyanide from listening to them brag about it. Make it stop.

I still expect to see Sanity debut and Big Cass return very soon. Until then, what do you want to see from these returnees/new arrivals?

Time to take a breath after seven hours of wrestling. I love it, but I’m glad it’s only once a year. God damn. Before I have too much time to sit and ruminate and overthink all of it, here’s my instant reactions to this year’s matches:

Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
My prediction: Matt Hardy
Actual winner: Matt Hardy

This was a fun match. I was a bit surprised not to see any NXT wrestlers in it, but that didn’t take away from a good opener. I was pleasantly surprised with Bray Wyatt’s appearance and his alliance with Woken Matt, I’m really looking forward to seeing how that storyline develops. That’s my main take away from this one: give us more Matt and Bray.

Cruiserweight Championship Tournament Finals: Cedric Alexander vs Mustafa Ali
My prediction: Cedric Alexander
Actual winner: Cedric Alexander

This was a good match that I thought would be much better. I thought on the grand stage they would have a Cruiserweight Classic-type match, but this one seemed a bit toned down from that style. I still enjoyed it, but was disappointed that it wasn’t better. It could be a missed opportunity to bring more viewers to 205 Live.

Wrestlemania Women’s Battle Royal
My prediction: Sasha Banks
Actual winner: Naomi

This was another really fun match. I especially like the NXT contingent of women getting their Wrestlemania moments. Except Peyton Royce. I hate her. I love Bianca Belair, I expected her to just be there, not to hit a 450 splash. That was bitchin. The finish seemed very odd. Naomi isn’t a heel, and she doesn’t have a feud with Bayley, why did they do a “wait this person was never eliminated” finish? Naomi also seems like a very strange choice as a winner. Other than to reward her for her time and her work, it doesn’t seem like it advances any feud or storyline. I like her, but this one could have ended better. Oh well, now she and Jimmy can put the uterus trophy on their mantle.

Intercontinental Championship Match: The Miz vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
My prediction: Finn Balor
Actual Winner: Seth Rollins

Really good match. Miz was on fire in this one. There was great action from all three guys and you could feel how badly each one of them wanted the belt. The ending sequences were fantastic. I am not totally surprised Seth got the belt, but I had expected Finn to win. It makes sense though, Seth has been stagnating a bit, not being with The Shield or in the main event picture. I’m thinking he’ll get fresh challengers in KO and Sami Zayn after the post-mania shakeup.

Smackdown Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte vs. Asuka
My prediction: Asuka
Actual winner: Charlotte

This match was everything I wanted it to be, except for the ending. And that doesn’t mean it was a bad ending, I was just shocked, as I’m sure many were. Once again, New Orleans is where streaks go to die (except Curt Hawkins’). I wanted to see Asuka win, but honestly, it’s almost a relief to not hear, “IS THE STREAK OVER?!” “THE STREAK IS IN JEOPARDY!” “OH NO, THE STREAK!” out of Michael Cole’s mouth every 15 seconds in her matches. I know he’s probably being fed that stuff, but god damn, shut up. We know. I digress. This is probably the best women’s match Wrestlemania has ever seen. These woman BROUGHT IT. I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed it. I wrote about when WWE should end the streak, and this was not something that I’d really considered. I’m also surprised there was no Carmella cash-in, but thinking about it, it makes sense to let these two have their moment after an incredible match and let them cherish the moment. Maybe we see a cash-in this week on Smackdown. Tremendous job by both ladies here.

United States Championship Fatal Four Way Match: Randy Orton vs Bobby Roode vs Jinder Mahal vs Rusev
My prediction: Rusev
Actual winner: Jinder Mahal

Take the opposite of everything I said about the previous match and apply it to this match. My god, what a shitfest. How does a match like this even happen on this show with four veterans? Adorable Adrian Adonis wrote this recently about multi-man matches, and it was dead on what happened in this match. There was NO action. Nothing happened. In a match with four veteran wrestlers competing, two more capable wrestlers on the outside, no rules, and a championship on the line on at god damn Wrestlemania, they couldn’t even put together a mildly entertaining match. Two wrestlers at a time exchanging a few blows in the ring while the other two lay outside hurt, probably from an open-handed slap. Aiden English took one RKO. Sunil Singh got knocked off the apron once. Randy hit a few RKOs, the one on Jinder looking especially shitty. Bobby Roode did nothing. Rusev hit a few moves. Jinder did nothing until the weak-ass win. And maybe, MAYBE, all of that could have been forgiven somewhat if they’d capitalized on Rusev Day and given him the rub. But no, they can’t even do that right. Maybe Jinder works as champion, I don’t know. All I know is that this match was complete and utter horse shit. A fatal four-way match is supposed to be chaotic and unpredictable, and this one didn’t even have any action outside the ring nor any semblance of enjoyability. I was not very excited for this one to begin with, and I hate that they were able to shatter the glass floor of my low expectations.

HHH and Stephanie McMahon vs. Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey
My prediction: Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey
Actual winner: Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey

I marked the hell out when Ronda came out in a kilt. I LOVED this match. They dragged out the sequence of Kurt getting beat down and Steph getting one-up on Ronda before she could be tagged in, it was a long and frustrating sequence but it was perfect, it built up the heat so much that when Ronda finally got the tag the crowd went nuts. That was the best hot tag I can remember in a long time. She went nuts and looked terrific. I really loved everything about this match. Even Stephanie looked good with her moves. Her DDT was solid. Kurt putting her in the ankle lock was my favorite part of the whole night, even if it was only for a few seconds. The ending went the way I expected, with a hell of a lot of fun leading up to it. Solid debut for Ronda, and man, I almost cried seeing my Olympic hero in a Wrestlemania match again.

Smackdown Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos vs The New Day vs The Bludgeon Brothers
My prediction: The Bludgeon Brothers
Actual winner: The Bludgeon Brothers

This was brutally beautiful, short and sweet, almost a squash match. It was what it needed to be. Let these guys just decimate their way through the tag team division. I have a feeling they’ll have some new competition soon, and a new chapter will be written…

John Cena vs…Elias?
John Cena vs. The Undertaker
My prediction: The Undertaker
Actual winner: The Undertaker

Elias is WWE’s king troll, and I love it. His moment was absolutely perfect. We knew we had to Walk With Elias at some point. Once that was over, we finally got the moment we knew was coming: the return of The Undertaker. They pulled this one off very well. They learned after last year that if he’s going to wrestle, it’s not going to look pretty for very long. This was short and to the point, and Cena got squashed. Props to him for doing that job and giving the fans what they wanted. We never know when we’ve seen the last of the dead man. This was special.

Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens vs Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan
My prediction: Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan
Actual winner: Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan

It was really incredible and emotional to see Daniel Bryan wrestling again, and to do it at Wrestlemania in the same building where he triumphed at WM30 was a hell of a scene. He looked terrific out there. That was a brutal beatdown to start the match, and it only built up the anticipation for him to finally get into the action. All four guys in this match looked great. I hope they sell the firing storyline even more, let these guys even take an indie booking or two. My gut says they’ll just go to Raw, but it’s yet to be seen where it goes from here. They have to look for new ways to utilize kayfabe in the “reality era”. We’d still know what’s up but it would be much easier to bring people into the storyline and ignore reality. Also, will DB still be GM? I’m sure we’ll get some answers this week.

Raw Women’s Championship Match: Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax
My prediction: Nia Jax
Actual winner: Nia Jax

Has anyone scraped Mickie James’ carcass up yet? That was a brutal and perfect start to get her neutralized right away. It was going to be really hard to follow the Asuka-Charlotte championship match, but god damn they did it. I had a lot of faith in Alexa and Nia’s ability to put on a really good and believable match despite the obvious size difference, and they did not disappoint. The build to the match was perfect as well. This was an emotional win for Nia and I’m sure could be felt by anyone who has dealt with body shaming. It seemed early on that Alexa’s only job was to not die. Nia’s offense is vicious, and it needs to be. The finish looked awesome, with Alexa’s body bouncing off the mat after the super Samoan drop. Well done, ladies. Now the next issue: who is a legitimate challenger to Nia?

WWE Championship Match: AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
My prediction: Shinsuke Nakamura
Actual winner: AJ Styles

Man, what a match. These two tore the house down as everybody knew they would. What can I really say about the match itself other than PHENOMENAL? As we all know, the story isn’t the match, the story is what happened after. First, I was really surprised to see AJ retain. But I started getting a feeling that hmm… if Shinsuke turns attacks here, it may make sense that he didn’t win. That was a second thought. My initial thought would be Finn attacking with Gallows and Anderson. This may have been better. Through no fault of their own, it is hard to have a foreign face who doesn’t have the best English language skills. Shinsuke can cut a promo just fine, but in the wrestling world, it just doesn’t come off right. In a discussion for another time, maybe that will change someday soon, but for now, it’s a tough spot to put him in. Now there’s a world of possibilities: will Shinsuke get a heel manager? Will there be a heel faction? Why did he attack AJ? He seemed more happy with his attack than upset about losing, like this was his plan all along. Is that really the case? I can’t wait to see where this goes, and it can only further develop his character.

Raw Tag Team Title Match: The Bar vs Brawn Strowman and… Nicholas?
My prediction: Braun Strowman and Rey Mysterio
Actual winner: Braun Strowman and a lost child

I don’t care if the kid was a plant, or Vince’s nephew, or Trump’s barber’s kid, or whatever, this was amazing. This kid goes down as not only being a part of Wrestlemania, and not only being a Tag Team Champion, but the Tag Team Championships at Wrestlemania. The only thing better would have been if he’d taken a Brogue Kick. I look forward to him turning heel on Strowman at Raw.

Universal Championship Match: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns
My prediction: Roman Reigns
Actual winner: Brock Lesnar

As I’ve written before, I get extremely annoyed with all of the Roman Reigns hate. Generally it’s baseless “WWE backs you so I’m going to boo you” bullshit no matter how good the match is, and even when he rocks the house the crowd dumps all over it. Not tonight. This was not baseless. This match sucked. How is THIS a Wrestlemania main event? Everything about this was terrible from start to finish. The only thing this did for Roman is show how many F-5’s he can take before he can’t kick out anymore. How many times are you going to just stand in the middle of the ring and do the same move over and over and over? And now, that guy who can only do two moves gets to keep the belt, keep it off TV even longer, and be in more shitty main events whenever he feels like it. This was a huge downer ending for a really great show. Any progress Reigns had been making in winning over anybody was pretty much destroyed here, and that’s really upsetting. Maybe WWE is moving on from him, who knows. Maybe there’s a bigger plan. I just don’t see the logic in this at all.

Overall, just a couple of shitty matches on a huge card is pretty good, unfortunately those shitty matches were championship matches, including the main event. As for my predictions, 8 out of 14 is much worse than I usually do. They swerved me good.

What were your thoughts on the show, and what storylines and feuds do you want to see come out of this?

On the heels of my (mostly) successful NXT predictions, here are my final picks for the big show, some of which may be different from what I’ve written throughout the week:

Cruiserweight championship: Cedric Alexander

Smackdown Tag Team championship: Bludgeon Brothers

Raw Tag Team championship: Braun Strowman and ?

Women’s Battle Royal winner: Sasha Banks

Andre Battle Royal winner: Woken Matt Hardy

Daniel Bryan & Shane McMahon beat KO & Sami Zayn

Undertaker beats John Cena

Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey beat HHH & Stephanie McMahon

United States Championship: Rusev

Intercontinental Championship: Finn Balor

Smackdown Women’s Championship: Asuka wins, Carmella cashes in, Asuka retains

Raw Women’s Championship: Nia Jax

WWE Championship: Nakamura

Universal Championship: Roman Reigns. Believe that.

That’s all I got guys, enjoy the show, and lets hear your predictions.

With it being Wrestlemania week, most of the posts here have been dedicated to the main roster and the big show. However, in case you haven’t been paying attention, there is a tremendous card for tonight’s NXT Takeover. Let’s delve into the matches:

Shayna Baszler vs. Ember Moon for the NXT Women’s Championship
Shayna has gotten into Ember’s head and continues to get her to put her title on the line. Ember got the win last time with a quick pin while she was obviously losing the match. I think it’s about time for Ember to come up to the main roster, as NXT has been grooming a few of the new women for pushes. I fully expect Shayna to become the new champ here, with Kairi Sane emerging as the new challenger afterwards. Shayna can be tough to watch in the ring. Their last match was kind of a mess, as she was so green and didn’t sell well. I think this one will be much better quality as Shayna has seemed to quickly improve. Ember is as solid of a worker as they come. I love her as champion but I’m excited if I’m correct to see her coming up to the main roster soon. I expect this to be given a lot of time and be a quality match.

Prediction: New NXT Women’s Champion, Shayna Baszler

Triple Threat match for the NXT Tag Team Titles and Dusty Rhodes Trophy: Undisputed Era vs. The Authors of Pain vs. Roderick Strong & Pete Dunne
i’m not sure if this is going to be a tornado tag/no DQ match or how it’s going to work, but all of these guys can go. AOP has developed into solid wrestlers, evolving from the squash-match brawlers they were when they first arrived. Roddy and Pete Dunne are tremendous wrestlers and I expect some incredible-looking moves. The one thing that may make this match suffer is that Adam Cole has to pull double duty. At least in both of his matches there will be five other guys that they can focus the action on, I just hope that they don’t use the plot where they knock him out early and have him crawl back for the end of the match. The thing I look most forward to in this match is Dunne & Strong matching up against AOP. Their match on NXT this past week was awesome, and adding in the Undisputed Era can only enhance things. This is going to be a bitchin match.

Prediction: Still NXT Tag Team Champions, The Undisputed Era

Unsanctioned Match: Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa
If Johnny wins, he returns to NXT. This is the match everyone wants to see. Ciampa’s heel work has been an absolute masterpiece, which I’ve recently written about. The slow build each week up to Gargano finally appearing in the crowd was terrific. For the most part (even though some people insist on cheering heels only), the crowd detests Ciampa and loves Johnny. It is one of the most perfect builds and set ups to a match that I can remember, and an unsanctioned match is a perfect way for these two to take out everything they have on each other. It’s PERSONAL. Everyone is emotionally invested in this one. Their Cruiserweight Classic match was amazing, and now with those rules and restrictions removed, all bets are off. I’m calling it a Match of the Year candidate before it even happens.

Prediction: Johnny Gargano wins and returns to NXT

Six Man Ladder Match for the NXT North American Championship: EC3 vs. Adam Cole vs. Ricochet vs. Lars Sullivan vs. Killian Dain vs. Velveteen Dream
I can’t even describe how excited I was when this match was announced. Admittedly I have never seen EC3 or Ricochet wrestle, but there’s obviously a reason most people are so excited to see them in NXT. I have actually checked out some Ricochet highlights, and it would seem he is made for this match. Adam Cole and Killian Dain showed what they can do in this type of match when they competed in the War Games match. I’m especially excited to see the monster Dain have some HOLY SHIT moments, and also to see him square off with Lars Sullivan. This is a make-or-break match for Lars. His push has been slow but steady, but he doesn’t seem to be fully connecting yet. Much of that is character work, but he also is yet to have a defining match. This could be that match. He can make moments or do nothing and be forgotten. I want to like him so I hope he reaches for the stars and brings the crowd to its feet. Velveteen Dream is an interesting character. I feel like he’s already going away from what was a successful direction. I can’t put my finger on it but I’m losing interest in what I thought was a very good character. But, he’s young, he’s athletic, and he can shine in this match. EC3 is the guy I know the least about here, but to me he seems to be the most logical guy to win the match. It’s pretty obvious he’s very good on the mic and already connects with the crowd. Hopefully he has the skills to shine in this match as well. I can’t wait for this one.

Prediction: Inaugural NXT North American Champion, EC3

Aleister Black vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas for the NXT Championship
I wish the build to this match had been better, because these two are both tremendous wrestlers, but it seems like this was thrown together quickly without much back story. Aside from that, this one could be a show-stealer. Black has become my favorite wrestler, and Cien is an incredible in-ring worker whose heel work has been top-notch and enhanced even further by Zelina Vega. This one should be nearly non-stop action from start to finish. I expect a shorter-than-usual championship match because I think the pace will be pretty frenetic from the start, maybe 15-20 minutes. But within that time, hold on to your butts. I’ve been waiting for Black to get a title shot for a long time, and I fully expect him to take advantage of the opportunity

Prediction: NEW NXT Champion, Aleister Black

I think it’s pretty certain that John Cena vs. The Undertaker is happening. They wouldn’t build the match like this only for Taker to not respond. I’m surprised there was no sign of him on any of the shows leading up to Mania, but it keeps people wondering in the back of their mind: maybe he won’t show. I’m betting not only on the return of the Undertaker, but specifically of the American Badass. He seemed to retire the true Undertaker gimmick last year, and Kid Rock is being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. It fits.

The biggest question here: match quality. John Cena can carry a damn match, there’s no question about that. But after what we’ve seen the past couple years from Undertaker, what kind of action can we expect to see? We know we’re not going to see chain wrestling and moonsaults in this one. What we will see is the spectacle of two of the greatest wrestlers to ever step into the ring, on the grandest stage of them all, in a match that in all likelihood ends the full-time career of John Cena, and the overall career of Undertaker. It’s hard to nitpick on technique and match flow when considering those circumstances. People have been clamoring for this match for years, and we finally get it. I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it.

With two Wrestlemania losses under his belt, it’s not like Undertaker HAS to win. However, he will. WE need him to win. Obviously the tradition is to go out on your back. That’s not what we want to see. We want to cheer one more Undertaker victory. We want to see Big Evil stand victorious one more time. This one should be the main event.

Do you want to see Undertaker win, or should he do the job? Any chance he doesn’t show?

The dream match is upon us. I just hope WWE allows them to let loose and wrestle their true styles instead of the WWE styles only, especially Nakamura. This is sure to get a “fight forever” chant. I’m not an indie snob and I don’t always back the “internet darlings”, but it’s impossible to not be over the moon for this one. The only things better would be an iron man match or a two-out-of-three falls match, but I’m not going to complain. Just drink this one in, maaaaaaaaaaan.

Prediction: NEW WWE Champion: Shinsukeeeeeeeeee NAKAMURA!!!!

You jackasses are going to ruin this match for me, aren’t you? It just pisses me off that I’ve been looking forward to Roman taking down Brock and bringing the title back to TV for so long now, yet all the smarks are going to boo and shit all over this match because ROMAN IS BORING ROMAN ISN’T COOL ROMAN SUCKS. This match is NOT going to be Styles-Nakamura. But it is going to be pretty awesome, mark my word. It’s going to be fun to see those same smarks stand up and cheer and freak out for a hot second before they realize OH WAIT CHEERING ROMAN ISN’T COOL. BOOOOOOO!!

So there’s the rant. I have very high hopes for the match itself. Sure Brock blows in the ring anymore, but I have some confidence that he can pull a decent performance out of his ass for this one. And whether you admit it or not, Roman is one of the best quality wrestlers that WWE has. Admittedly, WAAAAAY too many Superman punches. That move sucks. And I’ve never seen him hit a spear that he’s actually set up for in like two-three years. Aside from that, it’s going to rock. Expect a lot of false finishes with a lot of F-5’s and spears before Roman finally goes over. Believe that.

Go ahead, throw around your Roman hate. He’s winning. Let’s hear it anyway.