pu7pl3:


What about Sasha Vs Asuka and the street Profits

Kaycee7:
The matches themselves were awesome but there wasn't that much backstory to them. The buildup to them on TV was a bit lacklustre. And it was almost as if Creative didn't care enough to even package a prematch preview for them.

pu7pl3:


By prematch preview do you mean video packages? Cos they had video packages

But your point about the build up is valid...as an inter brand competition there was little build up especially if you consider previous years and even the NXT injections

Kaycee7:
Maybe it's from my source, but New Day vs Street Profits, Asuka vs Sasha and Sami vs Bobby didn't have any video packages.

Street Profits cut a good pre-match promo, though

pu7pl3:


What about Sasha Vs Asuka and the street Profits

Qu3sT:

Not up to drew Vs roman

pu7pl3:
WWE NXT Reviews recaps and reactions


Heel turn!
Toni Storm shifted alignments this week at the expense of her (former) friend Ember Moon.
Moon opened the show in a match against Candice LeRae, but it was really a 4 on 1 handicap match. Indi Hartwell, Dakota Kai, & Raquel González were all lurking at ringside for most of the match. It took a good deal of cheating for Candice to score a pinfall victory against Ember Moon.
That puts Moon at 1-2 in singles matches since returning, the sole one being a gimme match against Jessi Kamea. Now both of those losses were dirty, but it still takes some of the shine off her big return. She felt like she was automatically a top gal in the division given her history when she returned. But losing the two singles matches against real competition, no matter the reason, hinders that.
Granted, she’ll have the WarGames match itself to reestablish herself so this is by no means some big travesty.
The Toni turn was well done in the sense they really set up something obvious last week that most people (including myself) bit on. The teams felt set. Then they shook it all up.
Toni’s tenure in NXT is new so it’s not like this was necessary for her character. But it suddenly made her more interesting. It also gives her a readymade feud with Ember Moon, who revealed her return the same night that Storm did. Moon could use a blood feud to help reestablish herself as a top star.


Not Going Anywhere
Rhea Ripley addressed her future, but her segment was really meant to advance the WarGames angle.
In short, she said she wasn’t going anywhere, that her focus is still on the NXT title. While I don’t fully believe her when it comes to the long term (and in this case, I mean even months), the short term has her back in the cage at WarGames.
An interruption from Candice LeRae led to the reveal that her squad took out Io Shirai in the back. Dropping the champ’s limp body onto the ramp, they turned their focus onto the Nightmare. The badass that she is, Ripley held them off for a decent amount of time before she just couldn’t any more.
With both her and Io left laying by the baddies, we can be pretty sure that she and Shirai are rounding out the WarGames match. And with only one more episode prior to the event, a second swerve is not very likely.
This should be another baller WarGames match, and maybe more importantly, the heels and faces can then break off into different singles feuds afterwards.


3-1
Undisputed lost their first WarGames advantage match this week after winning their last three.
And of course they did. They’re the good guys now. The good guys never win this match.
NXT has done a great job booking their WarGames matches, but at the core of the concept, there’s a predictability to them. It’s a guarantee that the heels always have the man advantage in the beginning of the match. It’s a staple of the Dusty Rhodes creation. While the why makes sense (good guys having an extra person advantage isn’t a babyface thing), it leads to some predictability.
There was never any doubt that Pete Dunne was going to defeat Kyle O’Reilly in the ladder match to gain the advantage. The mystery was only going to be in the how. In this case, it was a masked individual who pushed over the later when KOR had the match won. The members of both teams were watching from the balconies. Pat McAfee was not there tonight, though the individual was wearing the same mask Pat wore when he revealed himself as the mastermind behind the Kings of NXT. It’s likely we’re to assume it was him, but we could be dealing with another mystery individual.
The match itself was brutal in a good way. These two attacked each other’s limbs until neither could move properly. Their styles meshed nicely, giving a physical, bone crunching match.It was enjoyable despite the pretty obvious result.


Kevin Owens Show
Kevin Owens hosted the KO show while he was at the CWC at the announce desk this week.
He hosted Leon Ruff, but it was predictably interrupted by Johnny Gargano and then Damian Priest before William Regal made the North American triple threat championship match official for WarGames.
This segment had its moments, with KO exposing the tropes of these talk shows, but comedy all seemed off a beat. There were too many awkward silences, and I don’t know if they were trolling KO or just couldn’t get the timing right, but they kept screwing up his countdown to ring music gag.
It also felt like they took a step back with Leon Ruff from where they left off last week. They had already established him as a man who we shouldn’t be taking lightly, who was a player in all this. This week, they made him seem more like a man who lucked into this position. He was more of a goof again. I took him more seriously last week than I did this week. That’s not how this should progress.
They set up the match, which was going to happen, and we got to see William Regal use “playa” in honor of Teddy Long so it did have its moments. In the end, comedy is subjective and while I normally enjoy Owens, this didn’t work for me.


Tapped Out
With Tommaso Ciampa watching at ringside, Timothy Thatcher tapped out to Kushida.
Let me say that again. Timothy Thatcher tapped out.
That’s an amazing feat for Kushida, something that Vic Joseph on commentary made sure to put over. Beating Thatcher isn’t the biggest accomplishment. He’s very good but he can take a pinfall loss. But to make a man who is so versed in Catch Wrestling submit is a huge accomplishment.
At this point, I think it’s almost a lock that Kushida will be Finn Bálor’s next challenger. He’s too hot for the North American title. We need to see Bálor vs. Kushida.
This obviously was a way for them to advance Ciampa’s program with Thatcher. Tim didn’t look too focused tonight with Tommaso at ringside. We’ll see if he can right the ship in a match against the Psycho Killer.

All the Rest:
- Cameron Grimes defeated Jake Atlas without too much struggle, showing that they still don’t have a path for Jake yet. After the victory, Dexter Lumis slinked up behind Grimes and proposed, in his own unique way, a strap match. Grimey wasn’t having any of it, but William Regal made the match for TakeOver.

- The Boa and Xia stuff was weird and wild again. Who is this mystery woman

- The Grizzled Young Vets returned this week, attacking Ever-Rise before a scheduled match could really get underway. Outside Jordan Devlin, they’ve got all the UK wrestlers they lost when the pandemic hit.

The twists and turns of the women’s WarGames match was the highlight of the show. The main event was a fight. Comedy is subjective, but the KO Show didn’t hit for me, but even that wasn’t really bad

Qu3sT:

When, if ever are you going to start aew review?

Qu3sT:
Bayley Vs Michael Cole at wrestlemania. The match to settle this never-ending, brutal feud.

Kaycee7:
Make I chat Vince up for WhatsApp make him book am.

Qu3sT:

Leave am be. The world is not ready for the masterpiece that is bayley vs Michael Cole unleashed.

Tell am to focus on this nonsense king constable Corbin vs the Mysterio family that is about to befall us.

Kaycee7:

Qu3sT:

Get on that sh*t quick bro, nobody has the energy to suffer this nonsense.

Kaycee7:
Vince say make I tell una say that Mysterio family angle go main event Wrestlemania. Una never see anything sef.

Kaycee7:
Vince say make I tell una say that Mysterio family angle go main event Wrestlemania. Una never see anything sef.

Qu3sT:

Say na lie?

pu7pl3:
Some new developments

Qu3sT:

https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/wwes-braun-strowman-suffered-knee-injury-326286

told you

pu7pl3:
WWE Raw Reviews recaps and reactions

BRANK!
I knew that Miz and Morrison would be absolutely dreadful and I still put myself through the MizTv segment. That’s my fault. I absolutely hate this duo. Their jokes are bad, they act like 5th grade schoolyard bullies.
“Money in the Brank” was pretty funny, though. Nowhere near “McInfart”! Miz and Morrison attacked Sheamus during the segment no one should care about, and Drew was nowhere to be found. That’s… real friendly.
Later in the tag match, McIntyre started by bulldozing through Morrison. He tossed Miz and Morrison all over the place.
Sheamus got down to the floor and started getting in Styles’ face while he was on commentary and Miz tried to take advantage, but Sheamus saw it coming.
Styles caused a DQ and wanted Miz to cash in the briefcase, as he said he’d help Miz do before this match (mentioned below) and Miz was mad at him for interfering. But Miz then decided he wanted to cash in and then Drew woke up and destroyed Miz and Morrison.
Then one of the best moments of the show happened. Jordan took AJ off the apron and had him up on his shoulders, and he was holding him like a 5 year old getting carried away from the playground.
I’m intrigued to see AJ and Drew and how Jordan gets to play big hoss versus Drew. Also they’ve never faced each other before and that’s a welcome sight. More first time match-ups please!
Also also, I was sure that Sheamus was going to turn on Drew and I’m glad it didn’t happen. All they did was talk about how they’re best friends and it usually telegraphs things to come, but I’m glad they pivoted on that.
For now.



New contender
Matt Riddle’s promos are dog shit, bro. Doing the Fat Bastard “I’m dead sexy” from Austin Powers? Bro. No, bro. The rabbit and turtle stuff with AJ? My goodness. Dog shit.
AJ and Riddle both sold their asses off for Keith Lee. Keith is such a great agile big man.
Keith tossed AJ across the ring so hard he slid into the ringpost and it sent him to the floor. Riddle got himself out of a Spirit Bomb and tried to lock an armbar in, and Keith used Riddle as a weapon to take out Styles. I love shit like this.
KEITH LEE KICKED OUT OF A STYLES PIN AND STYLES LANDED ON RIDDLE HAHAHAHA!!!
This match was really fun, even knowing who was going to win. They’re murdering Riddle, dropping his first name and giving him these awful promos. Exactly what everyone was worried would happen. Keith Lee had a great showing here, and it’s nice to see him in more matches with actual finishes.
Miz and Morrison came up to Styles and Styles said he’d help Miz cash in so that he could face him at TLC instead of Drew, which makes a whole bunch of sense. Though I know somehow Styles would end up losing that match because… it’s WWE.


The Rest

A Moment of Bliss - Randy Orton made a nice comparison between he and The Fiend. Both of them hear voices in their head. I really like the history between these two. Alexa playing with Orton with the considerable size difference looked awesome, too. She is the Fiend’s weakness and I guess that tells you that even a monster can find true love.

Slapjack def. Ricochet - Wow I did not think they would put that stellar Ricochet promo from Twitter on television. Oh my God the RETRIBUTION entrance production. These people should be fired. Ricochet kept his eyes on Ali for the first few moments and Slapjack took advantage. I absolutely hate that now that RETRIBUTION has been signed and made part of the WWE regular roster, the “heel” announcer is on their side. C’mon. I don’t need to hear Joe against Ricochet just because he’s a babyface.
Dana Brooke appeared out of nowhere and slapped Ali for when Reckoning did last week or the week before. (The days blend in with each other now.) Then Slapjack pinned Ricochet with a really nice looking move. (someone called it a Lightning Spiral.) It looked pretty vicious so that’s nice to see at least. Honestly, I hate most of this team’s booking, but I am intrigued to see what would happen if Ricochet joined them.

Dana Brooke def. Reckoning - L-O-L. Come on, man. She lost the match and her mask in the first 10 seconds of the match. Good win for Dana but like… come on, man.

Cedric Alexander def. Xavier Woods - New Day spent their promo time before the match showing us exactly why there’s no point in WWE giving anyone from Hurt Business a match against anyone of New Day. Cedric came out and said he was not Shelton (sowing seeds of dissension from last week!) and attacked Woods. Cedric is such a great seller. Woods is excellent at everything. Let’s all be honest with each other. We knew that once Woods mentioned that he was hosting the G4 he was losing tonight. WWE can’t make anyone look good heading into a non-WWE project and Hurt Business needs to continue getting tag title matches.
Where are the other Raw tag teams? Actually, who are the other tag teams? I already don’t remember. Lucha House Party are 24/7 fodder. Ivar is out injured, Garza and Andrade are split, I actually WANT them to split Miz and Morrison, there’s like… no teams anymore. Cedric won and celebrated up the ramp by himself. He was suuuper hyped up. Hmmm.

Jeff Hardy def. Elias - This feud was continuing on Main Event, but then they had to bring it back on Raw, even after Jeff Hardy already technically won the feud after the guitar on a pole match. The 24/7 stuff had to intertwine as Truth hid in a piano and Elias and Jeff both attacked Lucha House Party and Drew Gulak! Jerks! They played with some drums, Elias ran into a gong, Elias got electrocuted, Jeff went to the top of the ringpost and Swanton Bombed Elias through a table while slamming his own head into the steel steps.
Commentary then said that Jeff finally put an end to this rivalry, but he literally did that weeks ago with the other match. And we all know it’s most likely that this feud still isn’t going to be done.

Asuka and Lana def. Nia and Shayna - There are two stories going on here. One - WWE management has no regard for Lana’s well-being by continuing to have her anywhere near Nia and Shayna, and Two - WWE management have nothing for the Raw women’s champion. This is just stupid now.

I don’t know if this is true but this show felt like a show that was written very, very late today. Some parts were really good, like the triple threat and Alexander and Woods. Raw just seems like an endless cycle of mediocre and just enough creativity that puts a smile on my face enough to warrant a grade higher than a C- every week.

Kaycee7:
Asuka having an uneventful title run is just depressing.

DanieBlinkz:
I'm done with Raw, I'm waiting for smackdown

Kaycee7:
This was a really good spot.