NORTH AMERICAN TITLE MATCH: ONEY LORCAN VS. ADAM COLE
Kyle O’Reilly looks like a random 12-year-old they picked out of the crowd. Roddy gives a lame excuse for joining the Undisputed Era. Definitely the right choice for his character though. The story of the match is Lorcan smartly working on Cole’s injured ribs. The crowd loves Oney Lorcan, I’m not sure why. I like him, but I’m curious to how he’s as over as he is. I would guess it’s because he’s small and scrappy, I can see him reminding people of Daniel Bryan in some ways. Smart heel tactics from the Undisputed Era here. I’m surprised how much I end up praising simple and logical booking and tactics, that it’s seem to become the exception rather than the rule these days. You have a heel faction that is trying to run NXT, so of course it makes sense for them to use their numbers advantage to cheat to win in a title defense. I wonder if we’re going to see Lorcan, Danny Birch, Pete Dunne, and maybe one or more other guys band together against them.

They announce Candice LeRae vs. Bianca Belair for next week. These are two of my favorite wrestlers right now. Both women are the total package and I see huge things on the horizon for them, both in NXT and eventually on the main roster. I’ve seen more of Bianca Belair so I’m more familiar with her, but I’ve also been blown away by what I’ve seen from Candice.

HEAVY MACHINERY VS. TINO SABBATELLI & RIDDICK MOSS
I’m a big fan of Heavy Machinery, not so much Sabbatelli & Moss, but I think my dislike of them is actually heel heat, so they must be doing a good job. Otis Dozovic’s voice is so weird. He reminds me of a pirate from “Hook.” Tino walks out on Moss, probably setting up a match between the two. Heavy Machinery gives us all what we want and calls out War Raiders after the match.

Shayna is shown intimidating Dakota Kai, who cowers like a kitten. I’m not sure what they’re doing with Kai there. They shows clips of Nikki Cross, Aaliyah, and Kairi Sane saying they’re coming for Shayna, then show Dakota Kai acting scared to death of her. How does that do Kai any favors with the crowd?

NXT CHAMPIONSHIP: JOHNNY GARGANO VS. ALEISTER BLACK
Instead we get treated to another Gargano-Ciampa brawl, and Ciampa’s brutal beat down robs us of the championship match. They had an unsanctioned match, so if they’re continuing this feud, what’s next? Iron man match? Steel cage? Hell in a cell? Street fight? Boiler room brawl? Punjabi prison match? Tuxedo match? Crutch on a pole? Judy Bagwell on a forklift? Whatever it is, give me more.

NXT CHAMPIONSHIP: ERIC YOUNG VS. ALEISTER BLACK
This was probably just a way to let the crowd see Sanity one more time before they debut on SmackDown. The hanging dragon sleeper from the top rope is something new and awesome. At least I’ve never seen it before. Black constantly reminds me why he’s my favorite wrestler right now. I’m always thoroughly entertained by his matches. His style is so unique and he seems to be able to put on tremendous matches with anybody. Eric Young has a unique style as well, a lot of innovative moves. I often wish I had watched guys like him and AJ in TNA, but I think I watched one episode of it years ago and could never bring myself to watch it again. Aleister standing tall over the three departing members of Sanity is a fitting way for them to go.

Mauro ends the show appropriately: “DAMN YOU, TOMMASO CIAMPA!”

Damn you, indeed. Thoughts?

GAUNTLET MATCH, STARTING WITH MUSTAFA ALI VS. TJP
Both of these guys wrestle such a fast-paced style, making for a really fun match. TJP slows things down a bit more often than Ali does with his submission moves. It makes more sense for at least one of the wrestlers to try and ground the other when you have two high flyers than for both guys to be going full speed the whole match. Of course with this being a gauntlet match, they need to save some energy as well. The 054 never fails to impress me. Interesting choice to have TJP, the former cruiserweight champion who felt insulted to have to possibly go through four other men to get a title shot, lose first in the gauntlet match.

GAUNTLET MATCH CONTINUED, MUSTAFA ALI VS. DREW GULAK
These two renew their feud from the “old” 205 Live, the high flyer vs. the leader of the “No Fly Zone” movement. Smart wrestling by Gulak to continue to work on Ali’s knee after it was weakened by TJP. Ali gets tossed off the top rope to the outside and at first it scared the shit out of me when he hit the steps. Obviously he was fine or they wouldn’t have let Gulak pull him back into the ring, but god damn, that was terrifying for a second. Gulak’s submission offense is brutal.

GAUNTLET MATCH CONTINUED, DREW GULAK VS. TONY NESE
Nese comes firing out of the gate after his former friend who embarrassed him in the championship tournament, and does a good job at making this match feel personal. That could be a disadvantage for Nese, as Gulak keeps it all business and won’t be distracted by emotions. No sooner had I typed this than Nese neglects to go for a pin when he has the match won and instead gets caught in the Gu-Lock and losing the match.

GAUNTLET MATCH FINAL: KALISTO VS. DREW GULAK
Gulak side-stepping and tossing Kalisto into the barricade on the suicide dive attempt looked nasty. Kalisto’s lucha style vs. Gulak’s technical and submission offense was actually really good. Gulak is good at using Kalisto’s moment against him. Kalisto escapes the Gu-Lock and celebrates a win with Lucha House Party.

MIZ TV W/BIG CASS
Lot’s of hate for Miz tonight, love it. I’m always surprised at the lack of “WHAT” chants when Miz cuts a promo. I think it’s because whether they like him or not, people want to hear what he has to say. Cass’ promo sets up a feud with Daniel Bryan, and seems pretty obvious Cass attacked Bryan in the back. That’ll be interesting to see. We haven’t really seen much of what Cass can do as a singles competitor, I wonder how they’ll mesh in the ring. Cass is really good on the mic and this promo sets a really good foundation for their feud, as he lays out the reasons why he hates Daniel Bryan, feeling that his own return from injury was overshadowed by Bryan’s. Simple, logical way to generate a feud.

THE ICONICS VS. BECKY LYNCH AND ASUKA
Make it fucking stop. This is horribly painful. OH MY GOD, THE EMPRESS OF YESTERDAY! THEY’RE SO FUNNY! I’ll give them credit for SOME good heel comments, saying they’re better than Asuka since they beat up Charlotte and Charlotte beat Asuka. I’ll also commend their wrestling ability, but holy shit, limit them to in-ring stuff. That’ll never happen, but I can dream. They get an old-school heel win with Peyton’s feet on the ropes. Good, it’s over.

JIMMY USO VS. ROWAN
I’m not sure how I feel about Naomi getting involved in this feud. It’s cool that her distraction got Jimmy a surprise win. I just don’t have much interest in her involvement, it doesn’t help the feud in my opinion.

CHARLOTTE & CARMELLA CONTRACT SIGNING
As I said in my Raw review, heels get to have the most fun, and get to cut the best promos, as proven here by Carmella. Grade A trolling as she makes us sit through her highlight video TWICE because the crowd isn’t cheering enough. Thankfully the second showing was interrupted by Charlotte. Her taunting of Charlotte was terrific. She has to love playing the heel. This ended the way all contract signings do, except they somehow botched smashing Carmella’s face into the table.

RANDY ORTON VS. SHELTON BENJAMIN
Randy bores the hell out of me. The RKO is still cool as hell but I feel like I almost immediately lose interest in any feud he’s involved in. Hardy and Benjamin had a terrific match last week, I was looking forward to seeing a rematch. This match, not so much. Orton’s last feud that interested with me was with Bray Wyatt over a year ago. And whenever I heard Orton is “headed to that place” I cringe. It annoys the hell out of me. The only thing I liked about this match was the RKO to Sunil Singh.

Daniel Bryan gets a match with Big Cass at Backlash.

Samoa Joe always cuts awesome and chilling promos. In some ways he reminds me of Jake Roberts.

AJ & THE CLUB VS. NAKAMURA & RUSEV DAY
Graves points out the the Undertaker has never won a casket match on Rusev Day. It’s a fair point. Nakamura gets a remixed entrance to keep the fans from singing along with his theme now that he’s a heel. A heel win for Nakamura after a blind tag, but AJ finally gets his hands on him for a moment, before another dick punch. Anderson steps in and takes a Kinshasa for AJ, and gets a second one for his troubles. AJ needs to start wearing that metal cup that Road Dogg used against to neutralize Chyna’s main attack.

I give the show a Meh.

The show fitting starts with a ten-bell salute and a video tribute to possibly the greatest champion in the wrestling history, Bruno Sammartino. I’ve watched some of his old matches on the network, and while it’s a totally different from of sports entertainment today than it was then, you could tell just how much he meant to the fans and how “over” he was, as well as how dedicated he was to his craft. I’m glad they are giving him the recognition he is due, and that he reconciled with WWE and Vince before he died. If you haven’t watched his Legends with JBL interview on the network, I highly recommend it.

The 1,300th episode of Raw gets right to it with Lesnar and Heyman. Hostile crowd for Lesnar, I love it. I still don’t understand why the crowd will chant along with Heyman and then immediately boo when they’re done. Heyman is the best troll in the business, but why does he even bother bragging about Lesnar beating up on Roman? It’s supposed to be a heel tactic, but the crowd does nothing but cheer it. They do make a feeble attempt at a Roman chant. Usually I enjoy Heyman’s promos, but this one just dragged on. Roman’s music is a welcome interruption. It sounds like there’s more cheers for him than usual. I’ve softened my feelings on all the boos he gets, as long as he gets A reaction, it’s a good thing. That seemed like a pretty pointless interaction. I guess it was just to show that Roman still has confidence after his loss, but after all the physicality every week leading up to Wrestlemania, this segment fell flat with me. The crowd was into it though, so I guess that’s all that matters.

BOBBY ROODE VS. ELIAS
I would have like to see Elias troll the crown brilliantly once again. Bobby Roode bores me to death as a face. There was no build or promotion for this match, why am I supposed to care about it? And I get it, Bobby Roode says GLORIOUS. Enough. In general I really enjoy Elias’ matches, he’s a solid wrestler and has improved a lot from his NXT days. They gave these guys a lot of time and they had a really good match. But again, there’s just really no reason for me to care about it, there’s no history or storyline with these guys. I’m surprised Elias got the win with Roode being the new guy on Raw.

THE ASCENSION VS. DELETER OF WORLDS
Weirdly fun promo from Woken Matt and Bray Wyatt. They’re awesome together, I hope they remain a tag team for a while. I wonder if there’s any way back for The Ascension from being either a comedy team or jobbers. It’s mind boggling what they were in NXT compared to what they are on the main roster. They looked strong in this match, so hopefully this is a starting point on that road to recovery. We all knew they wouldn’t get the win, but at least it wasn’t a squash. I think they need to wrestle some squash matches against jobbers themselves. As for Matt and Bray, I’d like to see them win the tag titles.

THE SAMI & KEVIN SHOW W/KURT ANGLE
Sami and Kevin are expert heels. This segment does a really good job at building anticipation for Angle, Bryan, and Jericho getting their hands on KO and Sami. A big tag match is announced for tonight against Strowman and Lashley. I’m really looking forward to that one.

Axel and Dallas trying to re-form The Shield with Rollins is pretty damn funny. Hopefully this becomes a running gag with them looking for a new mentor every week.

TITUS WORLDWIDE VS. DREW MCINTYRE & DOLPH ZIGGLER
A tweak to Drew McIntyre’s theme song, it sounds bad ass. Apollo is too damn talented in the ring to be stagnating the way he is. His character just doesn’t connect with the crowd. Does he need a heel turn, or a character change? Could he win the crowd over if they give him the mic? I don’t know the answer, but he has the makings of a champion  on athleticism alone, but he’s relegated to a tag team jobber. The tandem finisher by McIntyre and Ziggler was awesome. McIntyre’s promo after the match hopefully means he’s ready to tear through the roster with a vengeance.

JINDER MAHAL VS. CHAD GABLE
Some backstage insults and shoving lead to a match that intrigues me, I thought it could be a very good one with their styles. Gable is a face now after coming to Raw. I was not disappointed by the match, Gable is great at selling Jinder’s power moves, and his comeback is awesome with his incredible athleticism. Old school tactics by Gable continuously attacking the same leg, but Jinder fails to sell it. The ending didn’t look great but overall I was entertained by the match.

I cringed as they let Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan have some mic time for the first time in months, but they kept it short and to the point and didn’t sound awkward and dumb. Some improvement there, especially from Logan. She was brutal before. Baby steps.

Dallas and Axel try to join the Balor Club. I love it, keep it going. I’d love for them to ultimately end up joining with Matt and Bray.

OWENS & ZAYN VS. STROWMAN & LASHLEY
Lashley looked excellent. It felt like he spent way too long in the ring without tagging in Strowman, but it made the hot tag extremely effective and the place came unglued, you could see most of the crowd on its feet. Strowman may be the most over guy on the roster. Lashley’s hesitation suplex is sweet. Sami plays the practice dummy for the last few minutes of the match to everyone’s delight. Strowman’s shoulder block on Owens looked brutal.

NO WAY JOSE VS. BARON CORBIN
Corbin pulls a predictable but sensible ambush on No Way Jose. Simple is best when it comes to good heel work.

Bliss tells a hilarious story about Nia stealing a burrito bowl from an old lady. The heels definitely get to have the most fun.

FINN BALOR & SETH ROLLINS VS. CURTIS AXEL & BO DALLAS
Why are they still being called the Miztourage after The Miz has left Raw, and why are they still using his music? This was an offensive showcase for Rollins and Balor. Fun and easy win.

NIA JAX, EMBER MOON, NATALYA, SASHA, & BAYLEY VS. ALEXA BLISS, MICKIE JAMES, & THE RIOTT SQUAD
Natalya is a face once again. It’s funny how simply switching shows turns someone face or heel. Ember Moon hit a vicious-looking suicide dive. I love watching Natalya in the ring, she’s such an incredible wrestler. I often wonder what it’s like for other women to get in the ring with Nia, knowing what they’re about to endure. Her dive off the apron had to be terrifying for all the other women. As I was typing “I’m not sure why they have Mickie continue to attack Natalya’s knee”, Joan Jett answered my question. Ronda is going to be wrestling Mickie on the European tour, so it makes sense to set up the feud this way.

A lot of fun matches tonight. Not a lot of storyline progression, but they are only one week removed from the shakeup and less than a week away from the Greatest Royal Rumble, so I guess that’s to be expected. What did you guys think of tonight’s show?

Johnny Gargano is officially an NXT Superstar again. He says he could not have done it without the fans and his wife. Candace announces she’s taking on Zelina Vega tonight. Johnny then says he will be Aleister Black’s first challenger. That’s a match I’m damn excited for.

RICOCHET VS. FABIAN AICHNER
Ricochet shows off some agility early but Aichner catches him and hits a few power moves and kicks in the corner. Aichner smartly tries to keep the pace slow and keep Ricochet on the mat. Ricochet uses his speed to hit some counters and a dropkick out of the corner. He shows off some power of his own with chops and forearms. His springboard European uppercut looks pretty awesome, and he follows it up with a standing shooting star press, which never fails to impress me. He blocks a superplex attempt and finishes the match with an eye-popping 630. Holy shit this guy is impressive. I’ve never seen that before. Color me awestruck.

WAR RAIDERS VS. JC AND CHRIS
God help these jobbers. Rowe hits a devastating running knee to start the match, and it doesn’t get any better from there. This one didn’t last long, and was a brutal squash. I love these powerhouse tag teams like War Raiders, AOP, and the Bludgeon Brothers. Give me more. They throw up the metal horns, which instantly makes them my new favorite tag team.

Shayna interrupts a meeting in the women’s locker room and says thinks have changed, and this is her locker room now. Nobody looks ready to step up. She’s a great heel, I really want to see her get smashed.

A vignette is show for the return of Kona Reeves. I don’t remember much of him.

LARS SULLIVAN VS. KILLIAN DAIN IN A NO DQ MATCH
Strap in for this one. Very likely a blowoff match as it’s been made official that Sanity is moving up to SmackDown. The match moves to the outside very quickly and Sullivan gets tossed into the steps. Dain goes for a suicide dive, but Sullivan counters, runs him spine first into the ring post, and hits a suplex on the floor. Back in the ring, Lars hits a ton of clubbing crossface blows, then hits a powerful German suplex. He goes to the top rope and hits a diving clothesline to the floor but came down really god damn hard on the steel ramp. That did not sound good. Back in the ring he goes to the top again and hits a diving headbutt. We certainly haven’t seen this kind of offense from Lars to this point. Now the fun starts as Lars starts to toss chairs into the ring, while the crowd chants for tables. After a chair shot to Dain’s ribs, Sullivan digs the chair into Dain’s upper body in the corner. Dain makes a comeback with a running dropkick, a fireman’s carry, and a Vader bomb for a two count. Dain appeases the crowd and gets a table, setting it up the corner while keeping Lars at bay with a few chair shots. Sullivan counters with a slam as Dain tries to throw him through the table and goes for a diving headbutt, but Dain gets out of the way and he nails the chair head first. After each man teases going through the table a few times, Dain hits a cross body on Sullivan that drives him through the wood. Dain puts a chair over Sullivan and looks pull a Shane McMahon with a coast to coast but Sullivan gets up and after a few shots back and forth, hits a freak accident onto a pile of chairs for the win. That match was awesome. Dain’s face was busted. I could watch these two wrestle every night. Dain was the perfect guy for Sullivan to feud with, but now that he’s headed to SmackDown, who will stand in Sullivan’s way? Not many big mean in NXT at the moment so it could be challenging to book him.

CANDICE LeRAE VS. ZELINA VEGA
Candice gets in some pretty cool offense early before being distracted by Almas. Johnny comes down immediately to even things up. Both of these women look tremendous in the ring. Candice catches Zelina in the Gargano Escape. Almas tries to interfere but Johnny catches him in the Gargano Escape as well as Zelina taps out. That was a great match, send the crowd home happy, and smart for Zelina to put Candice over on her way out. Candice is an amazing wrestler and I expect her to be in the women’s title hunt very soon.

After the match, Johnny officially lays down a challenge to Aleister Black. The greatest theme music of all time hits and Black comes out to give Johnny a title match next week. Count me the hell in.

RIP to a legend.

MUSTAFA ALI VS. ARIYA DAIVARI
Daivari cuts a backstage promo saying that Mustafa Ali deserves to be at the back of the line to be number one contender for the Cruiserweight Championship. These two put on a high-paced match with both men showing off their styles. Daivari hits a nasty-looking superkick. I always wonder how they make those kicks look so brutal. I won’t ask Goldberg or Bret Hart. He also hits Ali with a terrific spinebuster outside the ring. He nails a frog splash for a two count. More powerful offense from Daivari as he misses hit hammerlock lariat but turns Ali inside out with a running clothesline. A bitchin looking counter from Ali as he backflips out of a reverse superplex and Daivari falls backwards from the top to the mat. Ali hits the 054 for the win. An awesome 10-minute match with a ton of sweet-looking moves from Daivari and Ali showing off his incredible high-flying abilities.

Drake Maverick announces that Cedric Alexander was supposed to defend his title against Buddy Murphy at the Greatest Royal Rumble, but Murphy did not make weight, and there will be a gauntlet match next week to determine the number one contender.

GENTLEMAN JACK GALLAGHER & THE BRIAN KENDRICK VS. VINNIE SCALISE AND KEVIN LATIBRIS
Welcome back Brian Kendrick, as he and Gallagher take on two jobbers. Gallagher shows off his innovative body-manipulating offense, Kendrick comes in and hits some stiff kicks and elbows. Scalise makes a tag to a reluctant Latibris and Kendrick continues his savage attacks. Gallagher comes back in, Kendrick gets a blind tag, and after a head butt from Gallagher, Kendrick puts Latibris in the Captain’s Hook for the tag. Longer and better match than I thought it would be. Kendrick and Gallagher are such a good team, it must be ridiculously painful to be in the ring with them. Kendrick hits stiff strikes and Gallagher twists and bends bodies in ways they shouldn’t be twisted and bent.

Drew Gulak runs down Tony Nese and says he will win the gauntlet match next week. I’m a big fan of Gulak’s work.

LINCE DORADO & GRAN METALIK VS. HIDEO ITAMI & AKIRA TOZAWA IN A TORNADO TAG TEAM MATCH
Haven’t seen a straight up tornado tag team match in a long time. I like how they’ve built this rivalry and it’s cool to see the Japanese style vs. the lucha style. Lucha House Party starts attacks Itami and Tozawa on their way down the ramp and hit double suicide dives before everyone gets in the ring and the match starts. LHP keeps Itami down on the outside and goes to work on Tozawa until he hits a reversal and the Japanese team gets the upper hand. A lot of action outside the ring, and a lot of double teaming with one guy constantly down on the outside. Not a big fan of that, I want to see all four guys going at it, right Adrian? There’s no point in having the tornado tag match, might as well say this team gets a two-on-one for two minutes, then a bell rings and it switches. Finally we get all four guys in the ring with Tozawa and Itami each putting submissions on the luchadors. Then of course Metalik gets thrown to the outside again, as Dorado gets a two-on-one again, with Itami nearly ripping his mask off. There must be some kind of new rule in WWE that says no more than three guys going at it in the ring at once except in battle royals. Itami goes outside and bounces Metalik’s head off the announce table to ensure we still won’t get the action we want. Itami and Tozawa continue to just kick at Dorado, and Itami continues to try to take his mask off. Out of nowhere, Metalik hits a double dropkick from the top rope halfway across the ring. He and Dorado hit double Asai moonsaults and all four men are down outside. Itami whips Dorado over the ring steps, Metalik hits Itami with a superkick, and Tozawa hits a suicide dive that knocks Metalik over the announce table. All four men end up on the top turnbuckle. Metalick hits a double sunset flip on Itami and Tozawa while they hit a double superplex on Dorado. Looks cool but still lazy if that’s all we get of all four guys in the ring. A series of two counts and pin breakups and Itami yelling RESPECT ME! Dorado hits a double springboard stunners for a two count on both guys. Crowd gives them the “THIS IS AWESOME” chant. Tozawa goes for a kick to Metalik, who ducks, and he gets Itami. Double top rope jumps from the luchadors lead to a double pin and a win for Lucha House Party. Kalisto comes out to celebrte with them. As I said, that match could have had more action that wasn’t just one team double-teaming the other, but it got really good towards the end.

As always some terrific matches on 205 Live, and if you don’t watch it, START.

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?