We are well on the Road to WrestleMania, yet first we have stops at Raw’s Roadblock event and, more immediately, SmackDown Live’s Elimination Chamber tonight.
Not to mention the fallout from Seth Rollins’ injury putting the WrestleMania card into question. So how would WWE respond to this potential shake up of their plans? And would this week in WWE be good or bad?
#1 Bad – Step Backwards For Strowman?
The booking of Braun Strowman since last year’s brand split has been strong and he has developed into one of WWE’s most talked about stars, something that didn’t look likely prior to the draft.
However, he seemed to take a step back this week when he was put in another match against jobbers and would demand that Raw general manager, Mick Foley, give him more competition. I thought we were past this, surely Braun has done enough in the last few weeks to show Foley that he is capable of facing higher calibre talents, so what made him put Braun in another squash match?
It didn’t really make sense, but thankfully Braun was later granted a match against Roman Reigns at Fastlane.
Which one of Vince’s pet projects do you think will get the win on March 5th?
#2 Bad – Same Old New Day
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, The New Day desperately need an overhaul of their characters, as their current gimmick has become stale and boring. I thought things couldn’t get worse than having them work with Titus O’Neil, but this Monday, they went up against the Shining Stars!
You’d think that WWE would want to invest some time in one of their hottest acts from 2016, but since losing their tag team championships, the booking of them has been lazy and unimaginative.
#3 Bad – Tedious Tag Team Tripe
Neither Raw nor SmackDown’s tag team divisions have been good recently, mainly due to the lack of time invested in them and careless booking, but this week I’ll be looking at SmackDown’s side of things.
The tag team turmoil match set for Sunday at Elimination Chamber and the 12-man tag match that took place this past Tuesday involved the entire SmackDown tag team roster in an apparent attempt to get all of the teams over.
However, in reality, this doesn’t do anyone any favours, besides maybe The Ascension who picked up the victory, but are they really set for a push before WrestleMania?
SmackDown would be much better off in picking 2 or 3 tag teams to invest time in, develop their characters and establish them as genuine threats to the tag team titles.
#4 Bad – Directionless Dolph
WWE shook things up this week when instead of having Ziggler attack Kalisto after their match until Crews made the save, they had Dolph attack Apollo until Kalisto made the save, round of applause for creative on that one.
I have been very critical of the direction of Dolph Ziggler since his recent heel turn and things didn’t get any better this week. If anything, he has become less relevant than he was before his change in attitude and he still can’t seem to get a string of victories going. A lot of fans want to see Dolph succeed and didn’t want to see him go a few months back when it was rumoured that he might, but recently you’ve got to think that maybe he would have been better off in leaving to show WWE what they are missing.
#5 Bad – Cruiserweight Cluster
While WWE did make an effort to showcase the cruiserweights on Raw this Monday, it still didn’t really do enough to establish them as people the fans should get invested in.
This week saw Austin Aries conduct an in-ring interview with WWE Cruiserweight Champion, Neville before they were interrupted by a host of Cruiserweights, all vying for a title shot. This did allow for at least some character development, but not enough to get anyone over, and they were then all thrown into the typical 6-man tag match that we seem to get every week from this division on Raw.
Despite the Cruiserweights still struggling to find their feet, this Tuesday did see a strong edition of 205 Live…
#1 Good – 205 Live Starting to Thrive
This week’s 205 Live was headlined by the fatal-5-way elimination match between Noam Dar, Jack Gallagher, Cedric Alexander, TJ Perkins and Mustafa Ali, who replaced the injured Tony Nese.
There was also a decent undercard including Brian Kendrick and the returning Tajiri.
As for the main event, it was an exciting match that actually felt like it meant something and must go down as one of the best matches on 205 Live so far. The feud between Dar and Alexander continued in this match, as Dar’s interference led to Cedric’s elimination despite Dar having already been eliminated earlier in the match.
However, it was once the match got down to the final two, Perkins and Gallagher, that this really became a memorable contest. The unpredictable outcome and number of false falls kept the crowd on their feet for the final minutes of this match and they seemed genuinely pleased when ‘The Gentleman’ Jack Gallagher got the victory. Can Gallagher beat his compatriot, Neville, for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at Fastlane?
#2 Good – Luke Harper
I am delighted to be seeing Luke Harper utilised in a more prominent role on Smackdown Live, in my opinion it is long overdue. His recent push as a face continued this week when he first cut a creepy backstage promo, before interfering in the main event to cost Bray Wyatt’s new right-hand man, Randy Orton, the match.
The crowd have gotten firmly behind Harper since his face turn and loved seeing him stand up to his former leader as he hit Bray Wyatt with a discus clothesline.
I’m looking forward to seeing Harper being given an opportunity to showcase his talents in a high-profile match against Randy Orton this Sunday at Elimination Chamber.
#3 Good – A Wealth of Women’s Matches
The rise of women’s wrestling continued this week on Smackdown Live as they announced no less than three women’s matches for their Elimination Chamber pay-per-view this Sunday.
This is not just for the sake of it either, the three matches are all there on merit and, besides Nikki Bella vs Natalya, I am looking forward to seeing them. Naomi has earned herself a Women’s Title match by pinning champion Alexa Bliss twice in recent weeks and it will be interesting to see what Naomi can do in a high-profile, one-on-one match.
The match between Becky Lynch and Mickie James has to be considered the most intriguing however. Mickie has shown that she can still go in the ring after her match with Asuka in NXT and her promo work since her return has arguably been better than anybody else in the women’s division. Plus, Becky is going to have the opportunity to show just how good she is as she squares off against one of the biggest female stars in WWE history.
#4 Good – Owens is Next
Although I’m not overly excited to see Goldberg challenge Kevin Owens for the Universal Championship at Fastlane, the in-ring promo between the two of them, along with Chris Jericho, was entertaining this week.
Owens & Jericho were typically entertaining in their promo before being interrupted by Goldberg and the three men all played off of each other well. When Goldberg cut Jericho off and put himself on ‘the list’, Y2J retaliated by saying that if he’s looking for a fight, then he can fight Kevin Owens for the Universal Title at Fastlane.
This understandably upset Owens and tensions between the best friends were teased even further as a match between the two at WrestleMania looks more and more likely. Personally, I’d like this match to be for the Universal Championship but, unfortunately, I can’t see Owens overcoming Goldberg on March 5th.
#5 Good – Samoa Joe officially arrives
Samoa Joe officially arrived on Monday Night Raw this week as he signed his contract at the start of the show.
He would then go on to face, and defeat, Roman Reigns in the main event of this week’s broadcast. I could not have been much happier with how Joe has been utilised since his call-up to the main roster, not only did he beat Reigns this week – and who doesn’t like to see that? – but he has been treated as a bonafide star since his arrival.
While his immediate future is unclear, especially with the injury to Seth Rollins, it certainly seems that the company are behind him and he looks like he’ll be a major player for WWE in the coming months and years.
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