Originally Written: April 21st – Finished April 23rd (1am)
Update:So just to give you guys a heads up, I watched all of the matches that took place yesterday in the Shields Final Chapter event, but I went back and rewatched everything over so I could give my thoughts to everything properly because watching it Live it’s hard to keep up……
A lot of the early stuff already written I went back and changed some things and added more to it, as well as wrote out the rest of my thoughts on the event. The first part that you’re about to read is the only original reaction that I kept and didn’t change, but the rest of what I wrote that’s all changed and added stuff.
So I thought this was going to be some kind of documentary on the Shield and their journey, but maaan was I wrong…….it turns out it’s a whole wrestling event, well it was WWE Live, i’ve never watched one of these before so this should be interesting.
Elias speaks about how he’s happy that this is the Shield’s final chapter and never having to see them again then talks about how Roman Reigns will pay for what he did to him and Mr McMahon last week and then we get a song from Elias, about the Shield……
He then of course insults the crowd while singing his song, because it wouldn’t be an Elias song if he didn’t, but it also wouldn’t be an Elias song if he didn’t get interrupted in the middle of it either.
If you’re wondering who interrupted Elias, well it was non other than the Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor, Elias of course unhappy at the fact asks Balor why he felt the need to interrupt his performance and Balor tells him how much of a fan he is of his and how he wants to Walk With Elias,
Elias not bothered to hear that Balor is a fan, tells Finn that since he’s a fan of his, he’ll let him sing with him and then Elias sings his famous song “When I Say I Love Elias, You Say Yes I Do”
The crowd didn’t really sing along at first, we then had Finn join in on the song, but decides he wants to change up the lyrics to it a bit, singing how much Elias sucks instead, gotta say Finn doesn’t have a bad voice, that was pretty good!!
Well I thought it was, Elias on the other hand did not like it, which lend him to attack Finn, starting up the match between the two.
Finn Balor Vs Elias (Intercontental Championship)
This was a good match, I had to rewatch this of course, but it was real good, both Finn and Elias did really well, both are extremely talented in the ring, they both had an equal amount of momentum going for them of there were a few nice moments during the match,
One moment was when Balor went up on the top corner ropes outside of the apron, to set up for his finisher, but Elias hits him, causing Finn to stumble off the top rope and back on the the ring apron, Elias then hits Balor with a few punches to the face……
Almost knocking him off the apron completely and on the announcers table at one point, which by the way i’m not really sure why it was that close to the ring anyway, but it was…….
Elias tried going for another attack on Finn, but Balor countered the attack, going for a sunset flip pin, almost gets the win, but was only able to get a 2 count, Finn then goes for some kind of cradle pin move, gets the whole 3 count, wins the match and retains his Intercontinental Championship.
Thoughts:This was a very well done match between the two, there was a few times where Elias was close to winning, but in the end it was Finn who made sure that title didn’t go anywhere, but well done to both Finn Balor and Elias for putting on a good performance in this matchup, I enjoyed it!!
Post/Pre Match Segment: Elias not to happy about his lost to Finn Balor, talks how Balor got lucky and then just tries to turn his focus back on his performance, but ends up getting interrupted again before he could even begin his performance when the Riott Squad heads on down to the ring……..and what do you know, they too are huge fans of Elias, ain’t that something!!
They even go out of their way to ask him if they could be the Elias Squad even though they’re known as the Riott Squad, Elias was all in for that idea of course, they even sang Elias’s song with him……well for a min, but they ended up changing the lyrics to “We Love The Riot Squad” not bad, but I think personally they could’ve rehearsed that better, but you know it was okay…….
Bayley & Ember Moon Vs The Riot Squad
I was pretty excited to see Ember get back in the ring after being out for so long, I know she was in the Women’s Battle Royal at Mania, but I didn’t watch it, but watching this match back, Ember, goodness gracious she’s something, the Riott Squad too are quite the pair as we all know, taking advantage any chance their given.
Liv Morgan especially, she did everything she could to make sure her team stayed in control of the match and it worked for the most part, until towards the closing parts of the match when she was caught red handed trying to help Ruby win, by holding her legs on the ropes as leverage after Ruby tried to use a dirty pin towards Ember to win the match, causing her to be banned from ringside.
She was not happy of course and neither were the Riott Squads’s Ruby Riot and Sarah Logan……on a good note, Liv being sent to the back after she was caught cheating gave Ember the advantage to capitalize on Ruby hitting her with her finisher the Eclipse from off the top rope, pinning her and wins the match for her and Bayley.
Thoughts:The match was pretty alright, I thought Bayley and Ember worked really well together, the Riot Squad did well too, even though I wouldn’t normally say this……
Liv Morgan, although she wasn’t apart of the match, she did a good job helping Ruby and Sarah stay in control of the match, although it wouldn’t be long before her dirty tactics played up against her leaving her to get caught red handed and then banned from ringside afterwards,
However for some parts of the match I thought Ruby and Logan, both held their own real nicely, Ember she’s amazing, Bayley is also great and overall the match was just really enjoyable!!
The Shield Final Disclosed Location Promo:
Now we’ve come to the closing parts of the Shields Final Chapter, first we got one last classic old Shield promo from a disclosed location where they talk about everything they’ve done as the Shield for the past 7 years with wanting to create a legacy of their own injustice, but how in the process of it all they ended up just starting a whole new culture in the WWE on their own terms……
Had the whole world thrown at them, but that there wasn’t anything they haven’t been through together and that come hell or high water they will go out there for their last match together and do things their way and when the Shield tell you that they will do things their way Believe That and Believe in the Shield…….
On to the Main Event…….
The Shield Vs Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley & Baron Corbin
The Shields final match and the final chapter to this story……..first I just want to say that watching this match a second time, I still feel the same about it like I did yesterday……….
I thought it was really great match, both teams put on one heck of a performance, Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre I gotta say worked extremely well together, did I appreciate them ganging up on Dean, no I did not, but as heels they did what they were supposed to do and it is what it is, although they were talking a lot of smack about how they were going to beat the Shield and become the new stable of WWE…..I will say I am impressed with the way they work as a team during this matchup,
They did gave Dean, Roman and Seth one heck a fight and stood toe to toe with them, however it’s not like we’ve never seen both teams face off before (Fastlane) but even though we watched another match between the Shield and Drew, Corbin and Lashley, each time they’ve faced off, it’s been great, so i’ll give them that one, but just that one…..
Yes they’re they’re pretty great and all when working together, but I wouldn’t call them Shield level great, they’re good, but they aren’t better than the Shield, Drew, Corbin and Lashley are teammates, while Dean, Roman and Seth are brothers. They get each other, they know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, they know how to bring out the best in each other in a way that is just incredible and that’s why they’re the best!!
Corbin, Drew and Lashley TRIED to put them in the past, but the Shield you can’t take them down, especially when they are on the same page and have the mindset to take on everyone and destroy, that all being said though of course the Shield won in the end.
We had Dean land his dirty deeds finisher and he could’ve pinned Corbin right then and there, but he ended up tagging Roman in, who tagged in Seth where they then delivered their famous Triple Powerbomb tag team finisher move for the last time and Seth pinned Corbin, giving them the win. I couldn’t be happier, it would’ve had be wrong had they given Corbin, Lashley and Drew the win, i’m glad they didn’t though.
I was real happy seeing Dean fly and just go all out and everywhere in the ring and give the fight back to Corbin, Lashley and Drew, even when they were tag teaming against him outside of the ring and trying to make everything impossible for him, he still stood his ground and kept on rolling with the punches and i’m just real proud of him, i’m proud of all of them!!
Roman and Seth, I love how they always have Dean’s back and are always keeping a look out for him……..The Shield, yeah they’re all different, but each one of them bring so much to the Shield, they understand each other, they know how each other work and that’s because they just have this connection and bond that you can’t break.
It doesn’t matter if they’re on opposite teams or not, that kind of thing doesn’t go away and no matter what anyone says there’s no Shield without Seth, there’s Shield without Roman and there’s definitely no Shield without Dean……..yes they had different paths and backgrounds to how they started, but each and every one of them all walked the same grounds, even if they didn’t know it at the time.
We all saw the kind of destruction they brought to the WWE and just the way they turned everything upside down and inside out, we all saw what they brought with them and just how they were, be it when it happened or seeing the highlights of their careers looking back at it.
After the match was over, we have the crowd give Dean and the rest of the Shield a standing ovation for just everything they’ve done in the WWE and as the Shield, the crowd chanting for them and trying to plead with Dean not to leave, which Seth let’s them know that they’ve already tried that, but once Dean’s mind is made up it’s made up………..
We then get some very heartfelt words from Seth, talking about his journey and becoming Universal champion and how him being champion wouldn’t have been possible without the Shield, the WWE Universe and The Brotherhood of the Shield……..he then let’s Dean and Roman know how much he loves them and how he’ll always love the Shield and how the Universal Championship isn’t just for him, it’s for all of them as a team.
We also got one heck of a inspirational speech from Dean, that made me tear up a bit the first time I heard it, I just smiled the second time watching it, he just talked about never taking no for an answer……
Saying if you work hard enough and you continue to fight through the obstacles in your way you can do anything you put your mind to and if anyone tries to tell you otherwise just stick the middle finger in the air and tell them the Shield said so……….i’m gonna leave it for you guys to watch because it Dean says it a whole lot better than I could.
Seth Looks Back On His Time With The Shield Source: WWE
Final Thoughts:You know I still can’t believe that there isn’t going to be anymore Shield and I especially can’t believe that we’re not going to get anymore Dean Ambrose in the WWE……….
I honestly feel it’s just going to be so odd without Dean around, but at the same time I understand and respect Dean’s decision to leave, again i’ve said this before, but at the end of the day, all I want is to see Dean happy and if he’s happy, it’s only right for us fans who love and respect as well as support, to be happy for him, it doesn’t mean we won’t miss him,
Of course we’re going to miss him, he brought so much to the WWE and gave us entertainment as well as shared with us his love for pro wrestling and let us be apart of his career with him, it’s just gonna be weird not seeing him wrestle or him giving us promo’s to look forward to…….
Dean is one of a kind and there isn’t going to be anyone who can fill his shoes, sure we have other talents that we can support and who is also good on the mic and in the ring and who kinda relate to Dean……actually scratch that, there’s no one that’s like Dean Ambrose, because again there’s just only one Dean Ambrose and like I said before people can try, but there isn’t a presence like Dean’s, he has something to him that no one can match.
I’ve always seen greatness in Dean and I know that’s he’s going to do well wherever he goes and with whatever he does, like I said I just hope Dean happy and is doing well…….I also wish the best for not only Dean, but Roman and Seth as well as they’re stepping in to a new journey with their careers too, not sure we’re they’re going to be heading next, but I look forward seeing where that is……….
Overall though everything was good, I enjoyed the Shield’s Final Chapter, i’m sad knowing we won’t get to see them in the ring together again and about Dean leaving and all, but at the end of the day, I just wish them all the very best in everything they do, but that was The Shield’s Final Chapter……
Let me know what you guys thought of the event if you’ve watched it and let me know your favorite moments were of it all!!
Originally Written March 7th 2019 – Finished March 9th 2019
Update:I wrote majority of this review on the day of WrestleMania, I finished writing everything last night and added the pictures today. Also this review is a little different because I wrote it as I was watching it so a lot of the stuff written was my reaction to what was happening and me slightly commenting it, along with giving my thoughts on the match too.
Talk about an opener, Yolanda Adams at WrestleMania singing America The Beautiful!?………nice!! I don’t know how they got Yolanda to be there, but that’s pretty cool I won’t lie.
Disclaimer: I’m watching WrestleMania a little later, it’s about 8:30pm my time as i’m watching, it won’t be when this goes up but yeah……also i’m skipping the kickoff, hopefully it was good, i’ll probably go back to it later and watch, but let’s continue on with the show!!
Main Show: Opener
Alexa Bliss has arrived to Mania, letting us know that on a night like this we don’t need a host, we need a goddess and that if she wants a WrestleMania moment she can just get one with a snap of a finger.
and with a snap of a finger (Bliss’s finger) we get a surprise appearance from Mr Hulk Hogan, well alright then, not a bad surprise…….it was nice seeing you Hogan
After Hogan “messed up the name” of the arena and said what he wanted to say, he and Bliss do his famous Hulkamania poses and then we get the advocate of Brock Lesnar walking down the long WrestleMania ramp heading to the ring……..you know I gotta say Heyman walking to the ramp to Hulk Hogan’s theme, was actually pretty funny and his walk actually went with music, just wanted to point that out.
A livid Heyman, isn’t quite too happy about his client Brock Lesnar not being the main event of the show……..stating that him and Brock will get on a jet to Las Vegas and find appreciation there.
Looks like we’re getting the Universal Championship title match first, very interesting……..also Seth’s titantron effect for Brock Lesnar, the whole “Beast Slayer thing” was pretty great, nice effect!!
Seth Rollins Vs Brock Lesnar (Universal Championship)
Brock Lesnar wastes no time he goes straight after Seth once he gets close to the ring………Lesnar starts the match in control, giving him an F’5 outside of the ring, he then launches Seth onto the apron LED lights……the match still has yet to start, he also sends him over one of the announcers table……..
Not even giving him time to recover as Seth’s tossed all around the outside of the ring, Brock even launching him towards one of the german announcers……..so far this match is looking more on the side Brock and less on the side of Rollins…………
Rollins is being badly beaten and bruised as Lesnar hits 3 German suplex’s, Lesnar tries to go for an F’5 Seth escapes and pushes him towards the ropes where Brock collides with the ref, having him fall outside of the ring, giving Rollins the chance to take advantage and how does he take advantage you ask!? He does so with a low blow to Lesnar, which I knew the moment the ref was out of the ring, he’d do………..
Rollins then catches Brock with a kick and 3 Black Out Stomps…….WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT, NO FLIPPING WAY (I had to go back and watch that all again because I was just so…….I couldn’t believe it) HOLY SMOKES, 3 BLACK OUT STOMPS TO THE BEAST THAT IS BROCK LESNAR, SETH FREAKING ROLLINS SLAYED THE BEAST, WHAT!!
Thoughts:I mean Seth said whether he leaves WrestleMania in one piece or he couldn’t stand and what not he was not leaving WrestleMania without the Universal title and what do you know……..he pulled through on that promise…………..
AMAZING OPENER, FINALLY!! NO MORE OF THE LONG WAIT TO SEE THE MAIN TITLE OF MONDAY NIGHT RAW………i’m speechless, seriously can’t believe that happened and i’ll tell you as well, neither did Paul Heyman or the Beast Brock Lesnar HAHA!!
AJ Styles Vs Randy Oron:
Nice start on the match between Styles and Orton, Randy tries to end the match early by attempting and early RKO, which Styles avoids. Outside of the ring Styles catches Randy with a forearm smash.
Randy later gains control of the match for a good while, Styles comes back with a good amount of momentum, soon taking control of the match, Styles tries to go for a Styles clash, but Randy escapes it, Randy then tries to hit an RKO, but AJ dodges it, he then comes off the ropes and gets caught with a power slam by Orton.
Styles locks in his calf crusher to Randy, who tries to avoid it, but ends up getting caught with it anyway, he then struggles to get out of it for a bit, but eventually does when he grabs the ropes of the ring forcing Styles to break the submission.
Style with the target on Randy’s knee, he then goes for his Phenominal forearm finisher, but stops and senses Randy as he tried to attempt his RKO on him, Styles then goes for a 450 splash, goes to pin Randy, but he kicks out, Randy with a superplex to Styles.
Randy catches Styles with an uppercut almost knocking him out of the ring………Randy sets up for his RKO after chatting up with the crowd, doesn’t land it the first time, but goes for it again and you think he would’ve gotten the 3 count, but Styles kicks out of it…….
Styles with a pale kick to Orton after escaping from what looked like was an attempt at a serious RKO from the tope rope. Styles hits a Phenomenal forearm to Randy outside of the ring, back in thr ring, Randy goes for an RKO, Styles escapes it then hits his the Phenomenal forearm off the apron to win the match.
Thoughts:Not a bad match, I thought both Styles and Randy performed well, there were some nice moments along with some surprising, but overall it was quite a decent match, I enjoyed it.
The Usos Vs The Bar Vs Rusev & Shinsuke Vs Ricochet & Aleister Black (Smackdown Live Tag Team Championships)
Match is underway, a lot is happening everyone’s getting some shots in on each other, Ricochet with an impressive launch to Cesaro, I can’t even describe what it was to you guys, but it was pretty cool though, Cesaro catches Ricochet with an uppercut to Ricochet then goes on a swing spree with him, while Sheamus hits every opponent who tries to get involved in the match with forearm chest hits, pretty good moment.
He then locks in a sharpshooter to Ricochet, Jimmy now in the ring catches Cesaro with a super kick, breaking the submission. Aleister with a nice moonsault to Rusev, goes for a pin, but the pin gets broken up by Shinsuke………Ricochet with a shooting star press to Shinsuke to save Aleister from being pinned.
The Bar I have to admit have been pretty impressive in this match, the moment they get advantage they are on top of it!! We just got a whole lot of superstars in the ring after what looked like a superplex powerbomb or something happened and for some reason Ricochet is the only one not affected by it, how in the world!? I have no idea, but it was very impressive. (Moment)
Oh my goodness, that was SUPER CLOSE!!! Ricochet almost won the tag team titles for him and Black…………I got a delayed reaction to it, because I wasn’t sure if it was happening or not, but everyone came in to stop that from happening.
Also Cesaro with a nice uppercut to Jey Uso, Jimmy with a nice superkick to Cesaro, Rusev with a kick to Jimmy, Black with his finisher Black Mask to Rusev, Nakamaura with his finisher Kinshasa to Black and everyone is just having a good ole time!! In the end, The Usos retained, not even mad, it was either them or Ricochet & Alesister Black.
Thoughts:I enjoyed it, everyone performed great in this match, so much happened and it was good, i’m glad one of my favorites were the victor in this match.
We then take a little break from the show to congratulate all of the inductees in this years WWE Hall Of Fame 2019, congratulations to everyone that was inducted.
The Miz Vs Shane McMahon (Falls Count Anywhere Match)
Shane isn’t making it easy for Miz as he playing chase around the ring, using Miz’s dad as bait to get him off his guard. Shane in control of the match at the moment, hitting him with a tv monitor, he then goes for his famous tope rope announce table jump, but Miz’s dad gets involved and challenges him to a fight!?……..
He seriously steps into the ring with Shane not really knowing what he was getting into, Shane as expected doesn’t make it easy for him and of course attacks him, which Miz does not take lightly as he goes after Shane and just lays it to him………
In the crowd now, Shane delivers a DDT to Miz, Miz launches Shane off the small ramp in the crowd. Miz is not playing around with Shane now as he continuously attacks him with a steel chair to his back as well as targeting his leg. Miz has gone mad, he doesn’t care who’s in his way, his main focus is inflicting pain on Shane.
Ooooh my goodness, Miz just launched Shane over the other side of the arena, kinda when Shane lands on top of a gulf cart and onto the floor……..then Miz lands his finisher the Skull Crushing Finale onto the tech area and Shane kicks out of that somehow………Shanes going up a high place, which means daredevil Shane or I don’t know whats going to happen…….HOLY SMOKES MIZ JUST SUPERPLEXED SHANE FROM 15 FEET IN THE AIR………..in the end though Shane somehow still won……….what a crazy match!!
Thoughts:I don’t have any, that was an insane match between Shane and Miz, but both did really great out there, really great!!
The Hug Connection (Sasha Banks & Bayley) Vs Nia Jax & Tamina VS The IIconics Vs Divas of Doom (Natalya & Beth Phoenix) (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship)
Everyone’s going mad in the ring as it goes underway, the IIconics with a nice double team to Sasha…….Beth with a double suplex to the IIconics. Sasha with a nice transition into the Bank Statement to Beth, Natalya with a double sharpshooter to both Bayley and Sasha……..pretty good (moment) Nia and Tamina in control of the match here, both try to attempt a superfly splash, Beth knocks Nia off the tope rope. Sasha with a tribute to Eddie Guerrero using a frog splash to Beth Pheonix……….
Closing parts of the match, Beth Pheonix delivers a glam slam to Bayley, she goes for a pin, but Billie Kay with a sneaky tag in, taking out Beth, not only taking advantage of Beth’s finisher to Bayley, but also picking up the win and becoming the New Women’s Tag Team Championship…………congratulations girls you earned it!!
Thoughts:Not the greatest match, but it wasn’t that bad, it was alright, but the IIconics picking up the win in the end I think that made the match a little bit better than alright, I was super happy they won, I think they earned it and deserve it, even though this wasn’t the greatest match, I still enjoyed it.
Daniel Bryan Vs Kofi Kingston (WWE Championship)
Kofi goes flying and he sticks the landing too, Daniel catches Kofi with a submission…….Kofi kicks Daniel out of the ring, goes for a dive to Daniel, but just eats the announce table when Daniel steps out of the way, giving Daniel control of the match.
Daniel hit his corner kicks to Kofi, Kofi launches himself goes to land a stomp to the chest of Bryan, but ends up getting caught with a Boston Crab submission, Kofi struggles for a bit, but eventually escapes from it.
This match is getting heated, you can tell both Daniel and Kofi want this and i’m loving every single moment of the back and forth their giving us!! This is the kind of match that you don’t want to take your eyes away from nor miss a second of………..Kofi hits his SOS to Daniel, so close man, but Daniel kicks out of it.
No matter how many times Daniel lands hit after hit, kicks after kick, Kofi continues to ask for more letting him now he’s not done nor will quit so he can keep on bring all the attacks he’s got on him………also not sure what he did, but Kofi just pulled some impressive move on Daniel.
Rowan then tries to get involved, Xavior and Big E help out to keep Rowan from getting too involved by landing their tag team finisher to him outside of the ring. Daniel lands his finisher, after dodging Kofi’s Trouble In Paradise finisher, he goes for the pin, but Kofi kicks out…….
He then later locks in the Lebell lock to Kofi, trying to get him to fade with it, but Kofi soon escapes and just lays in with the punches on Daniel. Closing parts to the match Kofi sets up his corner finisher, hits Trouble In Paradise, pinning Daniel and becoming the NEW WWE CHAMPION!!!!!! He so deserves that maaan!!!
Thoughts:KOFIMANIA BABBYYYYYY!!!!! THAT NEW CHAMPIONSHIP LOOKS SOOO GOOD, I LIKE IT!!! REALLY GREAT MATCH THIS WAS, ONE OF MY HIGHLIGHT MATCHES!!
Update:It’s been a while since we saw the original WWE title and so I forgot what the original title looked like and so my brain thought it was new, but it never changed haha, well it did, but you know what I mean, I guess I got so used to Daniel’s title that my brain completely discarded the original design.
Rey Mysterio Vs Samoa Joe (United States Championship)
Thoughts: Well this match didn’t last long, did it!?………well then congratulations to Joe for retaining………Mysterio did well in the start he just fell short in getting the title as he was put to sleep with Joe’s Coquina clutch submission………
Roman Reigns Vs Drew McIntyre:
Woooah how awesome is that, McIntyre got a Scottish band to play his theme at WrestleMania……..pretty cool, but that was for the moment, now it’s time to get serious as we get ready for the big dog to arrive………..and he has arrived the big dog.
Match is underway in 3……..2…….1……LET’S GO!!
Roman starts off the match in control, delivering a samoan drop to Drew……..Drew catches Roman with a spin buster, he goes for a pin, but Roman kicks out. Roman goes for a drive by move, but is left hitting air when McIntyre moves out of the way and goes for a few attacks on him on the apron……….back in the ring McIntyre delivers quite an Alabama slam to Roman.
McIntyre was about to attempt Dean’s dirty deeds finisher onto Roman, but Roman quickly counters that one. Roman goes for his superman punch, McIntyre dodges and hits him with a headbutt, Roman uses the momentum of the headbutt and lands the superman punch, he then sets up for his finisher, spears Drew, pins him and wins the match.
Thoughts:I’m just glad Roman won, also the match was pretty alright, I enjoyed it!!
Ladies and Gentalmen Elias:
Elias finally gives us the performance that we’ve all been waiting for, accompanied by the Elias band………pretty good performance there, I gotta say, I thought Elias did really well on the drum, Elias on the piano was pretty good too, oh but Elias on the guitar, yeah that was impressive………nothing like a nice groovy, mellow chilled out, kind of music to go with the evening of WrestleMania.
Elias with the White Stripes niiiice, every time I hear that song the first thought that comes to mind is Football (soccer) that’s the theme to me of football haha, but that awesome, also the crowd with Elias name in lights, that that was incredible, real nice!!
So apparently, the performance didn’t happen yet, but it is now……..wait……no it’s not……..for some weird reason we’re getting a black and white video of the world series with Babe Ruth!?
Sooo the world series just finished and we got a another surprise, Mr Thuganomics in the house, well alright then, holy smokes…….that’s insane he came out with everything he used to wear back when he had this gimmick.
This is both interesting and kinda weird at the same time, he does his whole rhyming thing and gives Elias a few words and ruins his performance………with insults……….well that was something, glad to see Cena bring back his old Thuganomics gimmick for the night.
Thoughts:I’m speechless and I don’t have much to say, I just know that that was a really unexpected surprise, it was good though real good!! Sorry about your performance Elias…….your one man band though, that was cool!!
Triple H Vs Batista (No Holds Barred, if Triple H loses he has to retire)
I gotta say Triple H always has the best WrestleMania entrances……..he sure has got himself quite a ride to get him to the ring, that’s awesome!!
Well this match has definitely started……..Batista throws Triple H over the announcers table, then over the barricade. Triple H then throws a tool box at Batista, then attacks him with some chains. He then tries to break his fingers with some channel lock tool, hits him with a steel chair and rips his nose ring out with some pliers……….lovely!!
Batista in control of the match now………Triple H gains back momentum a bit, goes for the pedagree to Baista, he counters and lands a move, goes for a pin, but Triple H kicks out. Outside of the ring, Batista goes for his Batista bomb, off one of the announcers tables on top of the steel steps, Triple H counters and tosses him over another announce table, he then sends him a DX Crotch chop and drives him through the announce table.
Both Triple H and Batista recover after that drive through the announcers table, Triple H outside of the ring, Batista inside of the ring, as Batista is recovering in the ring, Triple H goes on search for his famous old friend that is the sledgehammer as he heads back into the ring to try and do some more damage on Batista he ends up being met with a spear from the animal who then goes for the win, but doesn’t quite get it when Triple H kicks out of it.
Batista now with the Sledgehammer, goes for the attack, Triple H counters, Triple H then goes after Batista but gets caught with a spin buster, he then catches Triple H with his Batista bomb finisher. Batista tries to get Triple H to land on the bottom of the steel steps, but Triple H ends up countering it and powerbombing him onto the steel steeps, Triple H then lands his pedigree finisher to Batista goes for the pin, Batista kicks out………
Batista with a DDT onto the steel steps as Triple H was trying to hit him with the sledgehammer, both men down and what do we have here a well Ric Flair trying to help out and encourage Triple H in the match, Ric goes over to Batista and taunts him, getting him super hyped, Triple H uses the steel steps as leverage to land his attack to Batista using the sledgehammer, he then hits the pedigree and wins the match.
Special guest appearance by Ron Simmons………DAMN, that never gets old!!
Kurt Angle Vs Baron Corbin (Kurt’s Farewell Match)
Match is underway, Angle goes straight after Corbin, Corbin later gains momentum and control of the match, Angle delivers a few German suplexes, Corbin catches Angle with his deep six move, goes for a pin, Kurt kicks out, we then later get an Angle lock submission to Corbin, who struggles to get out of it for a bit, but eventually gets out of it.
He then mocks John Cena’s “You Can’t See Me” line Kurt catches him with a nice hook to the face, then hits 3 German suplexes to him, goes up to the top rope, Kurt with a nice moonsault, however he misses the mark, giving Baron Corbin the control of the match and letting him take advantage as he hit his end of days finisher and pins Angle, winning the match………….
Thoughts:Kurt Angle’s farewell match, ended the tour with Baron Corbin pinning him……….I thought this was going to happen, I had a feeling this would happen and the crazy part is, Corbin did not cheat, he legitamally won just by hitting the end of days and pinning Angle cleanly, could Kurt possibly have passed over the torch to Corbin as a nod that he respects him as a superstar!?
I don’t know……….but to talk about the match………..it was alright………..it was enjoyable to me for what it was, I don’t think you can really complain too much, I mean okay yeah Kurt lost his farewell match, but if you look at it this way, all he did was put over a younger talent, I mean if it wasn’t for the whole Kurt and Angle feud,
We really wouldn’t be talking about Baron Corbin, it’s been a while since he’s been a little bit of the talk in the locker room and town and him beating Kurt Angle, not just at WrestleMania, but during his farewell match, that kind of achievement, yeah that’ll get people talking about him again, at least for a bit anyway…….
I’m sure they’ll set it up saying that he put Kurt on the shelf and got him to retire or something like that, but yeah…….wow he actually beat Kurt, a little surprising, but also not that surprising at the same time. Kurt losing his farewell match that’s not gonna change anything and that’s not going to define his 20 year career,
He’s got a whole lot of matches and moments that we will look back on and say, that was a really good moment, this too will be a moment, but it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a bad one, but overall, I thought the match was okay.
Thank You to Kurt Angle for sharing his wrestling career with us and giving us the chance to be apart of it for the amount of years that he was doing it for, you went out there, put everything you had on the line and gave us something we will remember, I hope when you look back on your career, you remember it all with a smile and all, once again Thank You Kurt, it was a pleasure watching you perform.
Finn Balor (The Demon) Vs Bobby Lashley (Intercontinental Championship)
Finn Balors entrance and attire are amazing!!! Match starts off in Finn’s favor, when he takes complete control of the match, not even thinking of stopping……..Lashley now with the control on Finn who just attacks from left to right and at every angle of the ring. Outside of the ring, Finn catches Lashley with a slingblade and follows it with a shotgun dropkick launching him toward the barricade.
Back in the ring for a moment, where Lashley just spears the heck out of Balor through the ropes off the apron and back outside of the ring…….Balor with a nice powerbomb to Lashley, followed by his finisher the Coup De Grâce, pinning Bobby not only winning the match, but also winning and becoming the New Intercontinental Champion as well………….niiiiice!!
Thoughts: The match was decent, could’ve been a little better, but I thought it was still enjoyable, i’m glad Finn won so yeah, although I gotta admit Lashley did have a few good offenses towards Finn, but in the end it was The Demon who took home the gold and I couldn’t be happier about that.
A Metlife Stadium record: 82,265 attendees……..wow……that’s a lot of people!! Also Alexa Bliss’s wardrobes (outfits) their nice, I like the blue dress not related or anything but I just wanted to say that, also that dance break between Carmella and R-Truth……..very long and weird haha, but fun too…..by the way congratulations to Carmella for winning the women’s battle Royal, didn’t watch it, but congrats to her on winning it.
MAIN EVENT TIIIIIIIME!!!!
Charlotte Flair Vs Becky Lynch VS Ronda Rousey (Winner Take All, Triple Threat Match For The Raw & SDL Women’s Championship)
Charlotte on a helicopter………….I thought she was going to jump out of it, she didn’t……….still a nice entrance though. Joan Jett at Mania that’s so cool, I thought the performance was alright, Joan Jett’s cool…….also I don’t know how Ronda’s able to go from smiling one minute and then all of a sudden go straight serious, that’s talent.
Back to the entrances as the Queen has arrived………but that’s over it’s time to stand and greet The Man that is Becky Lynch!! Let’s go Becky you got this, it’s your time………..IT’S GO TIME!!!
This match just got serious………and it just started…….Ronda goes after Becky and Charlotte, inside and outside the ring. Becky and Charlotte back in the ring giving each other a fight. Ronda with a double armbar over the ropes to both Charlotte and Becky, Becky escapes, leaving Charlotte to take a little more damage.
Becky then knocks Ronda out of the ring……….Becky and Charlotte back at it to each other again, Becky locks in her disarmer submission to Charlotte, Ronda heads back into the ring and breaks the submission……….
Charlotte with a submisson to Ronda, Becky breaks it with a bulldog to Charlotte then hits a double DDT to both Ronda and Charlotte. Becky with a Bexplex to Charlotte, Ronda with a double crossbody to both Charlotte and Becky, she then locks in a double submission armbar, Becky and Charlotte double team on Ronda.
Becky trying so hard to submit Ronda……..Charlotte gets back in the match and later delivers a Spanish fly off the tope rope. This match is pretty intense, so much is happening and i’m loving it!! That figure 4 submission to Ronda by Charlotte off the ring post………goodnesss (Moment) Becky breaks the submission…….
Back in the ring, Charlotte again attempts the figure 4, transitions it into a figure 8, Becky with the break of the submission with a leg drop off the top rope. Becky sets up a table in the ring, Ronda flips the table not giving in to what the fans want, Charlotte with the double spear to both Ronda and Becky, tries to pin them, but they both kick out, leaving The Queen frustrated……….
Charlotte sets up the table in the corner and continuously rams Ronda’s face against it, Charlotte spears Becky, she goes for the pin, but Becky kicks out……..Charlotte goes through the table a bit……..now it’s just Becky and Ronda left in the ring as Charlotte rolls out of the ring………….it’s the Man’s time I feel it!!!
Ronda with the piper’s pit finisher to Becky, Becky somehow, don’t know how exactly gets Ronda’s shoulders to stay on the mat, pinning her and becoming both the Raw Women’s Champion and the Smackdown Live Women’s Champion!!!
Thoughts:I’m soooo happy for Becky, she totally deserved that win, although it’s going to be seen as controversial, buuut hey she won so it doesn’t matter. We got ourselves, KofiMania and WrestleMANia (quoting Michael Cole here) in the same night, what a night and evening (cause I had to catch up on some matches) i’m so happy, my reaction is a little different today, compared to last night, but i’m still happy knowing that Kofi won, Becky won and so many others that I predicted would win, congradulations Becky Lynch you absolutely deserved every bit of that celebration when winning the titles!!!
Final Thoughts:I enjoyed WrestleMania, there were some pretty great matches, as well as special appearances and all that jazz, there were so many good moments, of course certain matches could’ve been better, but even if they weren’t the greatest I still enjoyed it, KOFIMANIA, HECK YEAH!!!!
The Man, yes please (both Becky and Seth) The IIconics winning was nice, Roman, it’s always good to see Roman, glad he won!! that SDL tag match with The Usos, Ricochet & Aleister Black, Rusev & Shinsuke and The Bar, that was pretty good, really good, I was happy to see The Usos won that match, although I wouldn’t have mind if Alesister and Ricochet won it either………..
There’s so many different things to WrestleMania that I enjoyed, overall it was a good PPV, nice 2002 I think Cole said Cena appearance, that was surprising did not expect that at all, WrestleMania 35…………you’re on my good list!!!
Annnnd with that, we now come to a close to this blog post, that was WrestleMania 35 with a lot of surprises and title changes, also Finn Balor winning and just him as a whole, with that entrance and attire of his………..Niiice, real nice!!!!
If you guys watched WrestleMania let me know your thoughts on it, what were your favorite matches, moments, attires, feel free to share your thoughts on the PPV in the comments below!!
So I just finished watching Monday Night Raw a little bit ago and I gotta say I thought it was a pretty alright show following the Fastlane PPV that went down last Sunday. I felt there were a whole lot more segments this week, than actual matches and if there were matches, they were really short ones, but let’s get to the highlights as well as some favorite and least favorite moments from this past episode of Raw.
Highlights: The Shield’s Farewell Opening Segment:
So we got to hear the Shield’s theme song one last time, which was good, a lot of different things were said in this segment, we had Roman, Dean & Seth open the show to give us their last farewells, it’s still hard to take in that after all these years with them being one of the biggest Stables in the WWE, we now are saying farewell to them as a team………….
We’ve seen them dominate and take out anyone that’s crossed their paths, we’ve seen them face off against the Wyatt Family, Evolution, individual superstars and even going against each other at one point……….they really changed and shook things up in the WWE and i’m gonna miss them, but of course I wish them all well on what they do in the future now that their main focus is on what they’re going to be doing next……..
Just a quick re-cap on what the segment was about:
We open Monday Night Raw with Roman, Dean & Seth heading to the ring, with Roman doing most of the speaking throughout the segment, he talks about how for the past few months he’s realized that life is too short and that nothing’s guaranteed, saying that if Fastlane was the last night ever………..
He didn’t have any regrets because he got to do what he loved with the people he loved. He then talks being on the road to Wrestlemania and all 3 of them having business to handle, with him getting back into singles action after being away from the ring for 5 months…………
He talked Dean not knowing what he’s going to be doing next, but how he wishes him luck with whatever he decides and talks Seth having the real business with him going against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania next month, how he’s been chasing the dream for a long while now, but that he’ll go on and beat Lesnar at Mania and have the crowd chanting burn it down too when he does!!!
The Shield’s Farewell (March 11, 2019) Source: WWE.com
That was a quick sum up of the whole segment with the Shield in the ring together one last time…….I thought the segment was done really nicely and I didn’t say this in my Fastlane PPV review, but i’m glad that in their last match together they were victorious over Corbin, Lashley & McIntyre.
At the same time though it would’ve been shocking had it been the other way around and we’d have seen Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre & Bobby Lashley dominate the Shield last Sunday, that would’ve been a whole twist had that happen, and we would’ve had to sit and watch them boast about it every week and be all smug about too, but i’m glad we were able to get this outcome where they were able to say a proper farewell……
Once again thank you to Roman, Dean and Seth for bringing us great moments and matches in the WWE as the Shield, I wish you all the best of luck and well wishes on your next upcoming journey………..and just for old times sake I write you the famous opener line to the Shield’s theme song.
SIERRA. HOTEL. INDIA, ECHO, LIMA. DELTA…….SHIELD!!!!
Highlight: Seth Rollins & Paul Hayman’s Segment:
A little after the Shield’s segment, there was another segment within it, but it was after Roman & Dean had left the ring, leaving only Seth there where he talks about Fastlane and their match against Corbin, Lashley & McIntyre, as he was in the middle of talking about it he was interrupted by non other than Brock Lesnar’s advocate Paul Heyman…….
This segment was actually quite entertaining to me, we watch as Seth Rollins and & Paul Heyman have a bit of a back and forth on Brock Lesnar, with Heyman doing his job to big up Lesnar anytime he has a match, always sells it well too and then there’s Seth Freaking Rollins who felt the need to have a few rebuttals with Heyman about Lesnar…….
Asking him if the Lesnar, he’s talking about, is the same Brock Lesnar that dominated the Big Show, ran through Samoa Joe, took Braun Strowman to Suplex City and annihilated Bill Goldburg which left Heyman telling Seth he appreciated him doing his whole advocate thing for him……….
Then he asked him if that’s also the same Brock Lesnar who had a real tough time, going through Daniel Bryan, got pushed to his limits by the Phenomenal one AJ Styles and who was close to being beaten by Finn Balor, which made Heyman answer with a touché………leaving Seth to continue on by saying how Brock Lesnar seems to have a problem with guys like him, when it comes to his size, speed, agility, stature, quickness and style.
He then gives credit and shows appreciation to Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles & Finn Balor, but says that when it comes to beating the Beast that is Brock Lesnar, no one is uniquely suited for it then Seth Freaking Rollins…………he then let’s him know that he’s got 3 weeks to run his mouth, but when it’s time to go against Brock Lesnar, he’s taking the Universal Championship and bringing it back to Raw where it belongs every single week.
Heyman & Rollins continue to go back and forth, this was just a really good segment between the two, seeing Heyman lost for words after Seth calls him out on Brock not always getting an easy win over his opponents was the best, I really enjoyed this segment…………
Good Moment……..But Also A Little Underwhelming: Shelton Benjamin’s Return
Now in the same segment with Heyman and Seth talking about Brock Lesnar, we got a bit of a surprise guest on Raw in the likes of Shelton Benjamin (who is actually from Smackdown Live) where he ambushed Rollins from behind and landed a few German Suplexes to Seth during the promo segment………
I was surprised seeing Shelton Benjamin on Raw this past Monday, we hadn’t seen him for a good while, which i’m guessing was due to injury…………I know him and Gable were a team and they were a pretty decent team too, now Gable’s teaming with Bobby Roode which is fine, their a nice team as well……….I thought Shelton’s return was surprising, to be honest I actually thought it was Lio Rush at first attacking Seth, but then once I saw his face I thought “oh that’s Shelton”
However, even though I thought his return was good and unexpected, I felt it was also a little underwhelming at the same time……..and that’s only because you would think he’d get a bigger reaction from it, with him returning and all, but to me I didn’t feel like the reaction he got was the best reaction, it was still a good moment though, I just thought he could’ve gotten a little bit more of a better reaction from it.
We ended up getting a match between Rollins & Shelton, it was pretty alright the match. It was made over Raw’s first commercial break during the show, there was a small segment with Heyman where he talks about someone who actually knows Brock Lesnar introducing Shelton Benjamin to where Seth then challenged Shelton to a match and why we’re talking about it……….
There was a lot of good moments in this match we had Seth deliver a nice blockbuster move from the top rope to Benjamin, he then tried to hit his Blackout stomp finisher, but Shelton dodged it, he then tried to catch Seth with a german suplex, but he escaped.
Seth attempted to go for a dive outside the ring, but was caught by a knee to the face by Shelton who then goes for a pin, but Rollins kicks out, Seth then catches Benjamin with a slingblade and then later hits a move from off the top rope. Moving on to the closing parts of the match, Rollins hits two superkicks to Shelton, hits his finisher Blackout Stomp, pins him and wins the match………now I wouldn’t say this was the best match, however I did still enjoy it, they both gave each other a nice fight and there were some moments in the match that I actually enjoyed, it was pretty alright!!
Least Favorite: Bobby Lashley Becoming The New Intercontinental Champion……..
I’m not going to rant, i’m not gonna rant………however I will say, I don’t like that Bobby Lashley got the title back last Monday……….I didn’t realize how much feeling I had on Lashley being the new Intercontinental Champion until now………..I just don’t understand, why give Lashley the title back!? Why stop Finn’s reign!? when he just got it!!?…………
Let’s be honest here, I honestly didn’t think the match was that bad, I actually enjoyed the match between Lashley & Balor, there was some really nice moments during the match, but had Lio Rush not gotten involved and kept away from the time keepers area distracting Finn from the match, Lashley wouldn’t be champ………..
It’s makes no sense giving him back the title, I think Finn should’ve definitely kept the intercontinental championship for much longer than he did…………let’s move on though……….
Good Moment: Ronda Rousey’s Promo……….but The Highlight Dana Brooke…….
We all might have different opinions here and that’s completely fine, first let’s talk Ronda Rousey’s promo and segment discussing why she got Charlotte disqualified last Sunday at the Fastlane PPV………..so we learned that the reason Ronda DQ’d Charlotte, is because she wants to humiliate and embarrass both Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch at the grandest stage of them all WrestleMania…………
Saying that she will expose and embarrass them and the WWE for the carney (carne) con artist that they are and how she is going to walk through both Becky & Charlotte and still come out Raw Women’s Champion. That was a brief sum up of her promo, but I thought that it was well done, I quite enjoyed Ronda Rousey this way, she really does play that persona well I gotta say…………
After Ronda was finished with her promo, she got an unexpected surprise when Dana Brooke came out to say a few words, she told Ronda that everyone’s heard enough of her venom, letting her know that she has nothing left to lose at this point and how she won’t let Ronda disrespect the WWE, The WWE Universe nor the women’s locker room.
She tells Ronda that she may not be a big time fighter, but how she loves WWE and the business, how she’s worked her tail off to gain the respect of the women’s locker room and prove she belongs in the WWE and how she fights everyday for a chance, yet never gets the time of day, let alone a match………..
She continues on by saying that even though she isn’t on tv and she isn’t a household name like Ronda Rousey, all she wants is a chance, tells her it’s a night after a PPV and that normally Ronda sets out an open challenge, she then let’s Ronda know who she is and that she accepts the challenge……….
Dana Brooke With An Impressive Promo On Monday Night Raw Challenging Ronda Rousey To A Match, For The Raw Women’s Championship (March 11, 2019) Source: WWE
Okay……….so Dana Brooke people, alright i’ll be honest here, at first I was going to say that Dana’s promo was good, however there was certain things about it that I thought was weird and I was going to say it could’ve been better………….BUT, and it’s a big but here (wow that sounded weird) ANYWAY!!!………I went back and watched it again, because I wanted to rewatch it and see if I still felt the same and boyyyyy let me tell you………
I didn’t……..I actually felt a whoooole different reaction to her promo……..I don’t think it could’ve gone any better than what she gave us this past Monday, Dana not that you’ll read this, but, I really felt that, I felt that so much, I had goosebumps and I even got all teary eyed, i’m not kidding that was my natural reaction, the second time I watched it, I thought her coming out unexpectedly and delivering that promo was super impressive, that was really good, at least I thought that was good……….
I feel like with that promo, she was told to go out there unexpectedly, because you can see even though she was determined, she was also pretty nervous on how that was going to go and I think that’s why she delivered that promo last Monday the way she did.
Again with my first reaction, I felt it could’ve been delivered different, but I also thought it was interesting and liked the fact that with it, I was still listening because she had me wanting to hear what she had to say, once she told Ronda we heard enough of your venom, that line alone, made me want to hear what she had to say…………..
I’m really glad I watched it again and that I didn’t go with my first reaction, normally I would, but with this, I felt I needed to watch and hear it one more time and i’m glad I did, because that was really good………..
Good job Dana, well done!!
P.S. Although her promo was great, Ronda attacked her afterward and slapped a referee while she was add it, when they tried to break up the fight, which she then got fined for the next day I believe………
Highlight: Alesiter Black & Ricochet
I don’t know if I already said this, but Ricochet & Aleister Black………they’re climbing up the roaster pretty quickly, even though they just arrived 3 weeks ago. (almost 4) When you look at these two, they seem like an unlikely pair, but watch them in the ring and you’ll see that they actually work pretty well together.
Both Aleister Black & Ricochet made their main roster debut on Feb 18, 2019 on both the red & blue brand known as Raw & Smackdown Live and since coming up to the main roster, they’ve been showing up the tag team division on both brands, well mainly the teams we don’t really see all that often………they’re the talk of the town at the moment or shall I say tag team division, being talked about more than the The Revival who are the Raw Tag Team Champions………..
Their also getting more of the opportunities then the rest of the tag team division and because of that, they now have a nice target on their backs with the other tag teams, but Ricochet & Black them now a team, are the ones to watch at the moment!!!
Different fighting styles these two have, as well as two different personalities, but they blend well together surprisingly!! They’ve been winning matches together for the few weeks they’ve been on the main roster, even though they didn’t get the tag titles at Fastlane last Sunday, they still technically haven’t lost as a team……….
These two are definitely on the radar and I know we’re going to continue to keep our eyes on them and I think we all know it’s not going to be long until they’re the new tag team champions.
Good Moment: Alexa Bliss Being This Years WrestleMania Host
You know when the host was being to be announced and they showed the video package for it, I thought it was going to be the Miz, because in the video they showed the Hollywood sign and I was like, “is Miz hosting WrestleMania!?” and then when they showed who it actually was, I wasn’t surprised………what can I say about this!?
I think that Bliss being the host, is actually a pretty good idea, I mean they brought moment of Bliss to life and it’s been going well for her so for them to chose Alexa Bliss to host Mania this year, I think it’s good, I actually think she deserves to host WrestleMania, i’m not a huge Alexa Bliss fan, but I don’t mind her, also her speech was quite entertaining.
She told us it was an honor for the WWE Universe and that finally WrestleMania will be hosted by the brightest star of them all herself, I look forward to seeing how her hosting goes next month it should be good!!!
Good Moment: Nia Jax & Tamina and Natalya & Beth Phoenix
Alright so last Monday, we got a match between Nia & Natalya, but before that match, Natalya did a pre match promo questioning who has her back in the WWE, telling Nia & Tamina that she doesn’t trust them or Ronday Rousey, but that she knows someone who does have her back and that person was none other than the Glamazon Beth Phoenix…………
We then had the match between Nia & Natalya, but it didn’t last that long due to it ending in a disqualification when Beth got involved and attacked Nia after Tamina got involved in the match, she then later went after Tamina and both her & Nia escaped the ring and walked backwards up the ramp heading backstage to where they ended up getting ambushed and attacked by Sasha Banks & Bayley to the point where the ref’s and WWE staff had to get involved and break up the fight.
Now I would have liked for the match between Nia Jax & Natalya to be a little longer than it was, but we all know that there’s going to be a match set up between Nia & Tamina Vs Natalya & Beth Phoenix at WrestleMania and I am looking forward to that, it’s gonna be an interesting one!!!
Good Moment: Triple H & Batista Face To Face:
This was the moment everyone was waiting for, Batista face to face with Triple H………..now this segment had it’s flawed pieces happening, mainly with Batista, but we’ll get to that soon……..Batista arrives to Monday Night Raw, Triple H heads to the ring and then the segment starts to begin…………now my first thought when we were waiting for Batista to come out was whether or not his theme would be the same or if they changed it………it was the same and it’s still a good tune, so that’s good.
Going back to what I said before, I felt if it wasn’t for Triple H keeping the segment from falling flat, it would’ve been a bit of a mess in my opinion………obviously with Batista being away from WWE for so long, it’s not really that much of a surprise that he’d be a little rusty on the mic.
He literally didn’t say anything for a good while, you saw he was going to, but he was also having trouble. It took Triple H to ask him if he was going to stand up on the stage looking like a nose ring model or if he was going to get in the ring and face him like a man, for him to then say something.
It was really funny, I couldn’t stop laughing, that was probably one of the best lines of the night if you ask me. Now i’m gonna sum up this whole segment for you guys okay, this was the whole segment here:
Batista: “Give me what I want”………..Triple H: “I’m not going to give you what you want”……….Batista: “Give me what I want”………Triple H: ‘I’m not giving you want you want”………Batista: If you don’t give me what I want, I will keep hurting everyone you love”………Triple H: “I’m not giving you what you want, so get in this ring and face me like a man so I can give you what you deserve which is a beatdown in this ring or we can do this on my terms and go where you are and i’ll just hurt you from the stage.”
Batista: “Nope not doing things on your terms, it’s going to be on my terms, so just give me what I want”…….Triple H: “You think just because you’re a Hollywood movie star, you have the right to demand things and get things handed to you, you quit remember!? you walked away” so for the last time, i’m not giving you, what you want”……….
Batista: “Yeah I left, but you know why I left!? It was to get as far away from you as possible, because you were holding me down, you kept looking and talking down to me and kept shutting me out, it’s been years, just give me what I want………..you know what it is I want, you just won’t give it to me, because you’re not in control, you know what it is and you know we all want it, so just do it………..give me a match at WrestleMania, I want a match against you at WrestleMania.”
Triple H: You want a match against me at Mania!? Fine you got it!!”
That was pretty much the whole segment summed up not kidding, that was everything that they said in the segment……….originally I started to just write it all out in a serious manner, but I thought it’d be better to just sum it up the way it was when I watched it.
Also if you didn’t notice in the photo Batista ended up bringing some security with him when he arrived to the arena, which Triple H asked if the security was for him, Batista tells him that it’s actually for his protection (himself) because he’s not stupid and that he’s learned and has also paid attention to the two dirtiest players in the game Triple H & Ric Flair………….
Quick recap: On Feb 25th’s episode of Raw, Batista returned and the reason for this face to face, is because Batista attacked Ric Flair on his return back to WWE, but it was on Ric Flair’s 70th birthday celebration and Triple H is really close with Ric Flair, then we had Triple H call out Batista on March 3rd’s episode of Raw because he didn’t show up after the attack on Ric Flair, which is why we had this segment……….
You would think based off their back and fourth, that what Batista wanted was going to be extremely important, but it just turned out that all he really wanted was a match against Triple H at WrestleMania, which Triple H accepted……….once he accepted Batista said that that’s all he ever wanted,
To end his career, wrestling career, on his terms as well as Triple H’s career……..Triple H not letting him get the last word, tells Batista that come WrestleMania, he better find whatever scrap is left of Batista’s persona the animal and he better hope there is some left, because at WrestleMania it maybe on his terms, but the match will be on Triple H’s telling him to bring everything he’s got, because at the grandest stage of them all, the match will be a no Hold’s Barred Match………..
Now I know this was a personal thing, but did we really need all that fuss just to be told we’re getting a match between Triple H & Batista at WrestleMania!?………….that was quite a segment, some flaws here and there, but overall I still enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing how this match turns out.
Highlight: Kurt Angle Announcement
So there was an in ring segment last Monday on Raw with Kurt Angle where he talked about his future in the WWE, he tells us the story of when he left his hometown Pittsburg to go to the Olympics where he won a gold medal with a broken freaking neck, which then lead him working for the WWE, where he traveled the world and competed for 20 years, but that no matter where he went Pittsburg was always his hometown.
He then told us that at WrestleMania, he will be competing in his farewell match, thanking everyone in the WWE, everyone he’s shared a locker room with and gave a special thanks to the WWE universe for making it fun for him and how he had the time of his life for the years he’s been in the WWE.
This was a bit of an emotional segment, at least for me, we’ve seen Kurt wrestle for so many years and to know that at WrestleMania he’ll be competing in his farewell match, is insane…………two different announcements in this Raw episode, we had the Shield disband and say farewell and then we learned that we’ll be getting another farewell from Kurt at WrestleMania next month……….
I wonder if he’ll still be apart of the WWE somehow or if he’s leaving all together, after WrestleMania!? On a good note, we didn’t have to wait for him to have that match at Mania, because he gave us one last match in his hometown before that match, his last match on Raw was against Apollo Crews who is actually a really big fan of Kurt Angle……..
Now the match between Apollo & Kurt, wasn’t that long of a match, however it was still enjoyable!! There were a few nice moment during this match, Angle hit 3 german suplexes to Apollo, Crews hit Kurt with a standing moonsault, he then tried to go for a frog splash move, but Kurt dodges it and lands his finisher the Angle slam winning the match.
Again not that long of a match, but it was still a pretty decent match for what it was. Not sure who his opponent is going to be at WrestleMania, but I look forward to watching the match as well as Angle compete in his last match before we finally say farewell to him in the ring.
Pre Match, Match & Segment: Originally we were meant to get Roman Vs Corbin, in Roman’s first match back since everything he’s been through, it was meant to be the main event I believe, but instead of that match taking place, we had McIntyre come in and ambush Roman and even though Roman did try to fight back, McIntyre continues to brutally attack him………
He hit his finisher twice to Roman, the second time he hit it though, had Roman hitting the ring post a little too hard, to where it was hard for him to focus on anything…………the WWE medical staff had to go and check on Roman and Seth Rollins even came out to make sure he was alright.
Roman was trying to seem like he was fine, but he wasn’t obviously, Seth even said to him that if he’s not cool, it’s fine to say he’s not cool and for him to take it easy………..Seth even helped him backstage because he was having a little trouble walking properly…………..
We then head backstage where Seth and Dean helped Roman get to the medical staff room to get checked out and makes sure he was doing alright, Dean so pissed off at Drew McIntyre, runs into Triple H after helping Roman to the medical staff room and demanded a match with McIntyre, telling him to make it a falls count anywhere match………
Least Favorite: Dean Ambrose Vs Drew McIntyre (Falls Count Anywhere Match
This match……….now although, I thought the match was alright, the reason this is my least favorite is because this match was most likely, hopefully not, but most likely Dean’s last match, now there was some pretty nice moments during the match, when it started Dean went straight after McIntyre, they ended up fighting up the ramp and in the crowd, there was a moment when Drew threw Dean against the walls within the crowd………
Then we had a moment where Dean low blowed McIntyre, Drew tried to throw Dean on the announce table, but Dean ended up throwing him on the table instead, McIntyre gets payback and catches Dean with a low blow he then stabbed Dean with a pencil that was on the announce table on the side of his face, which was a little brutal……….
Closing parts of the match, well the rest of the match had McIntyre in control, Dean did try to fight back, but McIntyre just had the upper hand over him, he brought Dean to the stairs next to the commentary table, where he then put his hand and head through the railing of the small stairs, hits his finisher……….and wins the match………
I really wanted Dean to win this, it would’ve been so nice for him to win this match, I felt he needed to win more than McIntyre did, especially if that was his last match in the WWE, it wasn’t even a bad match, I did enjoy it, I just would’ve preferred Dean get the win, it’s been too long since he’s properly had a good match and it’s been longer since he’s actually won one too, the way Dean’s career been in the WWE, it sucks because you know that it could’ve been a whole lot more better, had they used him properly……
I’m hoping that wasn’t his last match, last match (that was intentional) because if he’s going to leave, at least have him have some kind of proper feud before he officially goes, I think he seriously deserves that…………
Final Thoughts: I thought this was a pretty alright Raw after the Fastlane PPV, we’ve got some surprising announcements with Kurt Angle telling us about his farewell match at WrestleMania……..
We got to see The Shield’s farewell, Batista & Triple H face to face, that awesome back & forth with Heyman & Rollins and even an impressive promo with Dana Brooke, a lot happened some good moment, and some alright moments overall though, it was a pretty alright Raw I gotta say………..
What were your favorite moments from Monday Night Raw, Let me know in the comments below!!
Originally Written March 11, 2019———–Finished March 13, 2019
Fastlane 2019 the last stop before WrestleMania, took place in Cleveland Ohio……..quite a show we had this past Sunday a lot went down, there were some very interesting matches that happened that weren’t originally on the card and we also had a few surprising moments happen too, not that bad of a show I gotta say, but let’s get straight into the matches and moments that went down at Fastlane…………
Disclaimer:Just a heads up we were meant to have two matches on the kick off show, but the second match ended up getting moved up to the main card later in the PPV, so we’re only discussing this one match……….
The New Day Vs Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev (Kickoff Show)
Before we get to the match, there was a backstage interview with Kevin Owens where they were talking about his match that would take place later in the night against Daniel.
After his interview, The New Day went up to Kevin and Kofi told him there wasn’t any bad blood between them, with Owens taking his spot and facing Daniel for the title………he then wishes him luck, shakes his hand and then goes to head out with the other two members of the New Day for their match against Rusev & Shinsuke.
As they were walking and heading towards the stage to get to the ring, some guy stops them and tells Kofi that the McMahon’s wanted to see him in their office to talk about the WWE Championship………..Remember I said Kofi & WWE Championship, because we’re going to get back to that a little later in this review……………..let’s talk about the match now……….
So we had New Day members Xavior Woods & Big E facing off against newly formed team Shinsuke & Rusev, based off what I watched, the match was actually pretty alright……….I learned that the winners of the match ended up being Big E and Xavior Woods with their tag team finisher, which is good because I predicted that they’d win!!!!
Now let’s get to the main card because a whooole lot of stuff happened there………….first match Shane & The Miz Vs The Usos (SDL Tag Team Championships)
So we open the PPV off the main card with Shane & Miz taking on The Usos for the SDL Tag Team Championships in Miz’s hometown of Cleveland OH, in my predictions I stated that this match would go two different ways and it went one of the ways I said it was going to go, however it was in a way that I didn’t call or think would happen, but we’ll get to that soon………..I thought this match was a nice opener for the Fastlane PPV, I mean who better to open the main card in Cleveland then the Miz right!?
We had Shane start off the match with Jimmy Uso, Shane starts off strong and in control of the match, Jey Uso later comes in and Shane hits him with a really nice DDT. There was a moment in the match where Miz jumped from off the ring post, landing on the Usos outside the ring, mind you Miz doesn’t normally do high jumps or anything like that, the only move he does where he has to fly a bit, is a dive between the ropes, so for Miz to take it up a notch like that is quite impressive!!! We then had a moment in the match where Jey Uso caught Miz with a pop up samoan drop.
Miz hit Jimmy with his Skull Crushing Finale finisher, he went for a pin, but the ref was occupied with Shane who saved Miz from getting pinned by the Usos, had the ref not been occupied with Shane, Miz would’ve probably gotten the 3 count and won the titles back, but by the time the ref got to him, he was only able to gain a 2 count from that pin, which left Miz in disbelief.
One of the highlight moments for me in this match was when Shane was attempting to hit his coast to coast to Jimmy who was in the corner, Jey then goes up the top rope letting him know that if he tries to hit coast to coast he’ll hit the samoan splash to Miz, both stay on the top rope for a bit, both then go flying and end up colliding a bit into one another……..
Closing parts to the match, Miz after all of that, heads towards the top rope to try and do another high jump requested/suggested by his father and well………he goes for a frog splash, but gets caught by Jey who brings up his knees then rolls Miz up for a pin, wins the match and retains the SDL tag team titles………..
The Usos Successfully Retain The SDL Tag Team Championships Against The Miz & Shane At Fastlane
This is where it gets unexpected………..so after the match…….Miz being disappointed because they lost and didn’t get the titles back, he tends to Shane to make sure he doing alright, because he was a little out of it after the match………they both head to where Miz’s father was in the crowd, Miz and his dad hug each other and as Miz and him start to head on backstage Shane ambushes Miz and attacks him, turning heel…………
I should have called this, but I didn’t………I know a whole lot of other people did though, I on the other hand, was genuinely shocked!!!!
Shane Ambushes The Miz In His Hometown, After Losing Their Tag Team Match Against The Usos For The SDL Tag Team Championship At Fastlane (March 10, 2019)
I seriously did not see Shane turning heel on Miz coming, if anything I would’ve expected Miz to be the one to turn, but Shane turning on Miz……..now that was crazy!! Shane decimated Miz, he was brutally attacking him, didn’t even give him a chance to recover a bit……
I mean he already lost their match in his hometown, which I thought would be one of things that happened (him losing) for Shane to add more salt to the wound, as well as adding insult to injury on top of that wound, that’s mad………and then he goes and puts his hands on Miz’s father and makes him sit there and watch as he’s hurting his son………
Whether people saw it coming from a mile away or was like me and didn’t see it coming like that, it was still a very intense moment, overall though, I enjoyed the match, congratulations to The Usos for retaining the SDL tag team championships, as for Miz………..hope he’s doing alright………..
Mandy Rose Vs Asuka (SDL Women’s Championship Match)
I gotta say this match up between Asuka & Mandy Rose wasn’t actually that bad, it was quite alright actually, Asuka tried to win earlier on in the match by locking Mandy with a submission, but Mandy escaped in the end.
Asuka did lock Mandy with another submission later on in the match with an ankle lock, but Sonya Deville used a distraction on Asuka, breaking the submission, then things got a little weird for some reason……….there was a moment in the match where we had Sonya looking under the ring for something not sure why exactly, but it was a really odd moment………..
Asuka hit Mandy with a sliding knee and then we had Mandy catch Askua with a pump knee strike while Asuka was in between the ropes, which I gotta say is a really nice, but quite brutal move that Mandy uses.
Closing in towards the ending of this match, where Sonya again, looks under the ring for something only it’s on the other side. She then grabs a kendo stick for some reason even though she never uses it, Mandy tries to throw Asuka towards the ropes, but she counters and instead it’s Mandy that is thrown towards the ropes which causes her to slip on the apron sheet, giving Askua the chance to capitalize and pin Mandy, retaining the SDL Women’s Championship……….
Now i’m happy because I predicted Askua would retain and I know I didn’t want Mandy to win the title, however I felt the match could’ve went on for a few more minutes then it did, but overall the match was alright, the ending to the match though that was weird, I didn’t quite get why that happened!?
Now maybe they are trying to set up Mandy Vs Sonya and if that’s the case you know they’re going to be splitting up pretty soon, especially with how pissed off Mandy was at Sonya………..
Kofi Kingston Segment:
So we had a small little segment with the New Day & Vince McMahon, The New Day (Big E & Xavior Woods) were trying to convince Vince to make Daniel Bryan VS Kevin Owens for the WWE Championship match a Triple Threat Match and add Kofi to it because he deserves it……….
Vince takes it into consideration, then decides he will make the match between Owens & Daniel for the title a triple threat match let’s Kofi know that he should head to the ring, but tells Big E & Xavior they are barred from ringside so they wouldn’t be able to accompany Kofi to the ring, which they were completely fine with.
The New Daniel Bryan VS Kevin Owens Vs Kofi Kington (WWE Championship)
Remember when I said, keep Kofi Kingston & WWE Championship in mind!? Yeah well………here it is, so Kofi heads to the ring, ready for his Triple Threat Match against Daniel Bryan & Kevin Owens for the title, the ring announcer announces the match, which we’re all excited for……………
While everyone’s waiting for Daniel and Owens to get to the ring, the ring announcer is then told that the Triple Treat Match for the WWE Championship, will be taking place later in the night and that Kofi’s match will be a 2 on 1 HANDICAP MATCH against THE BAR (Sheamus & Cesaro) instead………..how great is that!!?
Kofi Kingston Vs The Bar (2 on 1 Handicap Match)
No, but seriously, I don’t even know why, I was so surprised by that, I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be what he said it was going to, I even said it out loud while watching………..I should’ve known we’d be swerved and fooled and that’s exactly what went down this past Sunday………….why would Vince give us what we want, why would he, last minute, add Kofi to that match!? i’d say I was disappoint and surprised…….but I wasn’t……….okay maybe disappoint, but that’s because I really wanted to see that match happen.
Now you know why they always say never get your hopes up, you can’t trust a McMahon……….let’s just talk about this match, shall we!? This wasn’t even a match if i’m being honest here, it was more of a beatdown set up by Vince to Kofi………Kofi thought he was competing for the WWE Championship only to be fooled and baited into a handicap match against the Bar……..even Kofi knew he should’ve saw that coming………..
Now I will say that Kofi did try and fight back, but in the end he was just outnumbered by The Bar, even though they were told they were barred from ringside, Big E & Xavior Woods did try and come to Kofi’s aid, only to be ambushed and attacked by their kickoff opponents Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura………you can probably guess who won that matchup…………
Ricochet & Alesiter Black Vs The Revival Vs Chad Gable & Bobby Roode (Triple Threat Match For The Raw Tag Team Championships)
This match was awesome!!! I enjoyed every single moment of it, a lot of moments went down, it was little crazy this match!!! First i’m just going to say Aleister Black & Ricochet are a really great team, same with the Revival and after watching them in this matchup this past Sunday, Gable & Roode work pretty well as a team as well!! I still think they’re a bit of an odd pairing, especially when their doing Roode’s entrance together, I feel like Gable just stands out so much doing that, but on to the match………
The Revival throughout the match had control over Ricochet, Ricochet however gained back momentum a bit hitting Dawson with a double knee, Aleister landed that really great moonsault that he does to Bobby Roode, every time I watch it it’s just great!!
Roode caught Aleister with a spinbuster, Gable hit a nice german suplex to Aleister a little bit later in the match. Everyone was just flying, throwing shots and going back and forth with hits and splashes and all that jazz to each other, it was wonderful………….then we had what I would say is a nice highlight moment, where Ricochet lands a hurricanerana to Dawson, who hits the apron sending everyone crashing down towards the ringside mat all at once……..talk about a chain reaction!!!
Then we had another moment where Ricochet went flying over the ring post takes out Roode and as he went in the air, Gable tagged himself in, went for a crossbody to Dawson went for a small pin, but Dawson counters that pin with his own pin almost gets the 3 count, but not quite………..
Closing parts of the match, Gable goes for a roll-up pin to Dawson, who gets out of it, he then puts Gable on his shoulders, drops him onto the ropes, picks him up and both him and his tag team partner Wilder hit their tag team finisher the Shatter Machine, pins him and retains the Raw tag team championships………….
Everyone then goes at it a bit after the match with Bobby Roode hitting his finisher the Glorious DDT to Dawson, Alesister hits Roode with his finisher Black Mask, Wilder tries to go after Black, but gets caught with a knee to the face and then Ricochet hits a move to Wilder then follows that move with his finisher 630………….really enjoyed this match!!
My Prediction: The Revival would win or Ricochet & Alesiter Black would become the new Raw tag team champions…….
Samoa Joe Vs R-Truth VS Andrade Cien Almas VS Rey Mysterio (United States Championship)
Originally this match was set to take place on the kickoff show and it was meant to be Rey Mysterio Vs Andrade Cien Almas, but it was changed last minute and was made into a Fatal 4 Way match for the United States Championship involving Mysterio, Samoa Joe (Champion), R-Truth & Andrade, which I gotta say wasn’t a bad call at all!!
Now, because it was changed last minute I obviously didn’t have a prediction on this match, so if you go looking for this match on my prediction post for Fastlane it won’t be on it, neither will Kofi’s 2 on 1 handicap match against The Bar (just to give you guys a heads up there) anyway let’s get to the match………a lot of different moments happened throughout this match, Rey Mysterio hit a double hurricanerana to both R-Truth and Andrade, Samoa Joe locked in his Coquina Clutch to Truth.
While Samoa Joe had his submission locked in on Truth, Rey Mysterio hit Joe from behind, breaking the submission. Samoa Joe then later went for a powerslam to Rey, but he countered it and switched it to a DDT, which was really nice, there was also a really nice moment from Rey when he caught Andrade with a hurricanerana from R-Truth’s shoulders.
You also had Andrade’s manager Zelina Vega go after Truth, which then lead Carmella to get involved and go after her for it, while Carmella & Zelina were going at it, Samoa Joe almost picked up a win over Rey Mysterio only to have the pin to be broken by Truth & Andrade in the end.
Closing moments of the match, R-Truth used John Cena’s five knuckle shuffle on Samoa Joe and then later in the match Samoa Joe locked in his Coquina Clutch to Rey Mysterio putting him to sleep and retaining the United States Championship………
Now I gotta say, although this match was added a little later on the main card, it was really good, you would think that maybe Samoa Joe would just kinda finish off the match quickly, but I thought everyone in this match really held their own and this match turned out to be pretty entertaining.
Sasha Banks & Bayley Vs Nia Jax & Tamina (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship)
I went back and rewatched this match, because I couldn’t remember whether I enjoyed it or not, but after rewatching it, I thought it was pretty alright. Not a lot happened, but it was still pretty decent for a title match, a few moments happened, Nia hit Sasha with a Samoan drop, then we had Bayley help Sasha on the ropes so she could do a dive, Bayley then after did her own dive between the ropes, taking everyone out………
Then we had the closing moments of the match where Sasha hit Nia with a double knee from the middle rope, Bayley then followed by doing her finisher almost picking up a win on Nia, Tamina from outside the ring breaks the pin, by trying to drag Bayley out of the ring, Bayley fights her off, Sasha then tries to go after Tamina, but she catches her with an attack……
Bayley then bounces Tamina off the ropes having her escape outside the ring, Nia goes looking for a move to Bayley, but Bayley counters it and gets Nia with a roll up pinning her and retaining the tag team titles…….
Nia & Tamina not thrilled on the results of the match attack Bayley & Sasha, Tamina superkicks Bayley, after Bayley tried to stop both Nia & Tamina from going after Sasha. Nia then throws Sasha over the announcers table, where she just goes flying behind it……….things become a little more interesting when Beth Phoenix who was on commentary, went face to face with Tamina, both her and Beth go back and fourth a bit……..
Beth not really liking Tamina being in her face, attacks her, Nia then ambushes Beth from behind and both Nia and Tamina attack Beth Phoenix , Natalya then comes down to the ring to try and help out Beth, but they end up just being too much for them in the end……..now the match again was alright, but the highlight for me in this match was Bayley!!!
She was on fire throughout the whole match, everyone did well, I won’t take it away from them, but Bayley in my opinion was the best thing that whole match, I don’t know she just stood out to me during the whole thing, overall though I enjoyed the match!!
Kevin Owens Vs Daniel Bryan (WWE Championship)
This match has changed so many times throughout the build up, it’s ridiculous!!!! originally it was meant to be Kofi Vs Daniel for the title as we all know, but Vince replaced him with Kevin Owens, then we were made to believe that Kofi would be added to this match, but was swindled because Vince likes playing with peoples emotions……….
Then we learn that this match would indeed still be a Triple Threat Match, only it wouldn’t be Kofi coming to the ring, but someone else and that someone else happened to be none other then Mustafa Ali……..we all know that Mustafa returned on last Tuesday’s episode of Smackdown Live to help even the odds when The New Daniel Bryan & Rowan were attacking Kevin Owens, now I don’t hate Mustafa Ali, I actually really like him,
I was a bit surprised when he was the one added to make it a triple threat, I wasn’t expecting him to be apart of this match, even though it kinda maybe should’ve been expected………if you really think about it, it actually makes sense that they set it up like this, Mustafa returns to Smackdown Live a few days BEFORE the PPV, to then be the 3rd competitor in this matchup and it’s ironic that even though we all wanted Kofi to be the 3rd person in this match, in the end it was Mustafa who took that spot………..
So in way, technically, not really, he took Kofi’s spot……….the same way Kofi took his spot in the Elimination Chamber match due to Mustafa being injured………now had Kofi not been taking out by The Bar during his handicap match, I feel he could’ve probably still been the 3rd person in that triple threat match, but let’s talk moments that happened in this match……….
A lot went down of course, in the beginning of the match, we had Owens & Ali go after and attack Daniel who was telling them, how they didn’t deserve to be in the match with him, then there was a moment when Mustafa went for a top rope move, but ended up getting caught when Daniel hit him with a running knee sending Mustafa flying outside the ring into the barricade, Owens drops Mustafa on Bryan landing a double senton.
Another nice moment was when Mustafa hit an inverted hurricanerana to Owens, and then catches Daniel with his standing Spanish fly move from off the top rope, which was pretty insane. Owens catches Mustafa with a Stunner almost picks up the win, but Daniel breaks it up, he then tries to go for his finisher move, but Owens catches him with a pop-up powerbomb. Mustafa landed his 450 splash move on the apron to Daniel……..
Closing parts to the match………..we switch over to outside the ring, where you have Mustafa running after Owens and gets caught with a pop-up powerbomb off the apron, Owens then goes to capitalize, but is stopped by Rowan who attacks Kevin, throws Daniel back into the ring so he could get the pin and then throws Owens into the time keepers area.
Daniel tries to pin Mustafa, he kicks out, then Daniel taunts him by telling him he doesn’t deserve to be in the ring, Mustafa fights back a bit and then goes for a top rope move, but is caught mid air by Daniel with his running knee finisher, pinning Mustafa and retaining the WWE Championship……
My Prediction:Originally I couldn’t decide on who I thought would win, I said it could go two ways, with Owens either winning it or Daniel retaining with Rowan in his corner, I also mentioned Mustafa Ali, didn’t think he’d be added to the match though, I thought he’d show up somehow, aligning himself with Owens, but that didn’t happen……..
However, I did read back my prediction for this match and I did say that if I had to go with someone, i’d go for Kevin Owens, so technically I chose someone and Kevin lost so this prediction was wrong………
Charlotte Flair VS Becky Lynch (If Becky wins she’ll be added to the match at WrestleMania, making it a triple threat match for the Raw Women’s Championship)
This match……..it actually wasn’t all that long, it was just Charlotte mocking and continuously targeting Becky’s injured knee to weaken it more, Becky fighting back against her, Charlotte locking in a few submissions to her……….there was a moment in the match where Charlotte goes to set up for her moonsault, but gets shoved off the top of the ropes by Becky, having Charlotte hit the barricade, then we go to the closing parts of the match where Charlotte has Becky locked into her figure 4 submission………
Becky struggles to get out of it, but refuses to tap out and before Charlotte can transition the figure 4 into a figure 8, we get a nice surprise when Ronda Rousey heads to the ring and attacks Becky, having the match end in a DQ…………with Charlotte getting disqualified.
Making Becky Lynch the winner of the match, meaning Becky not only goes to WrestleMania to face off against Charlotte & Ronda for the Raw Women’s Championship, but the match is now a triple threat match at Mania, which we all know Charlotte tried to prevent………..
Thanks Ronda, appreciate it!! ^_^
We now come down to our last match of this review, which is the MAIIIIIN EVENT!!! With Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre & Bobby Lashley VS The Shield for one last time……….but before we get to that match, there was a moment that happened where Elias sang a song, Lacey Evans showed up walking down and back up the ramp for a good few weeks now……….then we had Randy Orton show up landing his RKO to Elias and then had AJ Styles hit Randy with his Phenomenal forearm finisher.
Now we get to the last match of the night, The Shield Vs Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley & Drew McIntyre
So it just hit me that this was the Shield’s last match as a team and I don’t know how to take that in………….but let’s get to the match and talk about my thoughts on the Shield a little later……….okay this match was actually pretty great, a lot of incredible moments happened, in the beginning of the match The Shield were in control of Corbin, Lashley & McIntyre.
Both teams then picked up the pace in the match, where McIntyre catches Rollins with a boot when going for a top rope move, then we had Dean head on over to the corner ropes, jumps off the ring post landing an elbow to McIntyre, a little later after that happened Lashley catches Dean with a brutal spear.
McIntyre tries to capitalize on it, but Roman comes in with a save breaking the pin. Dean almost gets counted out after Drew hit it him with a boot to the face, Dean later hits a nice neckbreaker to Lashley, Roman hits Corbin with his drive by move. Then we go flying with Seth & Dean, Roman goes to fly over the ropes as well, but gets caught by Corbin with his deep six signature move, which was planted well i’ll say………..
This is where everything starts to heat up, you have Rollins & Dean in the crowd attacking McIntyre & Lashley, while Roman is handling Corbin in the ring, Roman catches Corbin with a sit-out powerbomb, we go back into the crowd with Rollins & Dean, where Seth does his signature dive from the crowd taking everyone out………..
Back in the ring with Roman we go, where he tries to land his superman punch to Corbin, who then catches him and tries to hit him with choke slam, Reigns escapes landing the superman punch afterwards……
Closing parts of the match, Corbin hits his end of days to Roman, where it looks like he’s about to get pinned, but he gets saved when Dean comes in and breaks the pin. Then we get a moment where Corbin, Drew & Lashley go for the Shield powerbomb to Roman, but Dean & Seth come to his aid, Seth hits his Black Out Stomp to Lashley, Roman spears Corbin and The Shield take out McIntyre and we get the famous Shield powerbomb!!
They then go after Corbin where Seth hits a superkick, Roman hits his superman punch and Dean hits his dirty deeds, the crowd goes wild, Seth yells one more time………and we get one more Shield powerbomb, Roman pins Corbin and the Shield wins their last match as a team together………….
When this moment happened, it didn’t hit me right then and there, I was just super excited about the Shield and I was excited they won, but really thinking about it now……….this was the Shield’s last match as a stable and now they’re disbanding for good this time………..I knew this was going to happen at some point, but i’m just really going to miss them as a stable.
We all know that the Shield made their debut at Survivor Series back in 2012 and to see how far they went as team and then separately, it’s crazy!! Now i’ll be honest I didn’t watch wrestling when the Shield made their debut, but i’ve seen clips of when they debut, but for those who did see them first head on to the scene, you remember that moment, you remember when they first came on and that goes with any wrestler……….
I remember when I watched the Shield for the first time and that was when they were going against Evolution (Triple H, Batista & Randy) at Extreme Rules back in 2014, that was crazy and that was my first time ever watching them live as well as Extreme Rules being the first ever PPV we ever went to.
As much as I don’t want them to disband, I know that it’s time for new stables to break into the WWE, but just because they disband as a team doesn’t mean they won’t go down in WWE history as one of the best stables in WWE, they came in and turned the wrestling industry inside out, taking out everyone and letting everyone know that wherever they stand, it’s their yard and it will always be their yard when their in it………sending a huge thank you and a lot of love to Roman, Dean & Seth (a.k.a The Shield)
And that was Fastlane for you guys……………it took me two days to write this review and an extra day to look it over, but we got it and we finished it!!!
Final Thoughts: A lot happened this past Sunday at Fastlane, matches were changed multiple times, matches were added later on in the card, we got swindled by Vince McMahon, baiting Kofi into a 2 on 1 handicap match, Mustafa Ali was later added into the WWE Championship match, Ronda made the triple threat match at WrestleMania happen for Becky Lynch which i’m happy about, we had Elias sing us songs every few hours……….
Then we had Randy RKO him and then got to see Styles hit Randy with his phenomenal forearm, we got an awesome tag team match from Raw a brutal beatdown from SDL to Miz in his hometown by Shane, The Usos retaining and let’s not forget the most important one, Lacey Evans showing up………kidding it’s the Shield, it’ll always be the Shield, however I do like Lacey Evans theme song……..
My favorite highlight moments in the PPV would have to be Bayley in the Women’s Tag Team Championship match, The Shield, Ricochet & Aleister in the tag match, Ronda helping Becky go to WrestleMania and Kofi because he deserves some love………overall I thought Fastlane was a pretty solid last stop PPV before WrestleMania, pretty enjoyable the show!!!
Let me know in the comments below what your favorite moments were from Fastlane and let me know whether you enjoyed it or not!?
Soooo today is the Fastlane PPV and i’m now all caught up with Raw & Smackdown so I now know all that is going down later today……..so with that said, I just want to share a few of my predictions on who I think are going to win and who I want to win in the last stop before WrestleMania PPV, there’s some pretty interesting matches on the Fastlane card so I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you guys on my predictions for it.
Let’s get to the predictions shall we!?
Match Card: All of these are not in any order just to give you all a heads up
Daniel Bryan Vs Kevin Owens (WWE Championship)
So this matchup was originally supposed to be Kofi Kingston going against Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship instead, but thanks to Vince McMahon, Kofi was replace and put in his place was none other then the returning Kevin Owens……….now I don’t hate Kevin Owens, I think he’s actually a really great performer, I just don’t understand why Vince thought it was best to replace Kofi mid way of him signing the contract for the match to happen officially and tell Kofi someone deserves it way more than he does, mind you he’s been wrestling in WWE for 11 years………….
Anyway we’re talking prediction here so let me try and give you my prediction for this matchup……..okay so I always have a bit of trouble with giving predictions, but i’m going to do my best here.
Prediction:This ones actually a little tough to predict, only because it could go two ways here, with Kevin Owens returning last week on Smackdown Live (Feb 26, 2019) and how this past Tuesday went, I feel he could somehow win the title, however Daniel has been defending his WWE Championship very well since winning it against Styles, plus he has Rowan by his side so he has the advantage a little over Owens with that……..
With Mustafa Ali returning this past Tuesday though…….he could maybe possibly help Owens even the odds during the match, but it’s most likely going to be just Owens later today so……..I don’t know, it’s kinda hard to decide……..
If I had to choose though……..i’d probably go with Kevin Owens, that’s where my feeling is going for and I think WWE is going to set up a feud between Owens & Kofi somehow and what better way to set it up then having Owens win the title from Daniel and then Kofi still upset that Kevin Owens took his spot goes after Kevin for it……..
I know it might seems like a weird way to set up a feud, but I mean come there’s been weirder feud set ups before so this ones not that bad, but again this match could go two different ways Daniel could retain and maybe him and Mustafa feud or Kevin and him continue to battle it out or Owens wins tonight and him and Kofi face off or who knows maybe they’ll make it a fatal 4 way where it’s Daniel Vs Kofi Vs Owens Vs Mustafa at Mania, but we’ll see how this match plays out later tonight…..
The Shield Vs Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley & Drew McIntyre:
This match was made this past Monday Night Raw, Roman was trying to get the band back together it took a little convincing for Seth and a little more convincing for Dean, but in the end we got the Shield once again and later tonight we will see them face off against Corbin, McIntyre and Lashley.
Predictions: This ones not as hard to decide, i’m going for the Shield to win this one, we all know when the Shield are together, they are pretty unstoppable, plus I don’t really want Corbin, McIntyre & Lashley winning so I know the Shield will bring it to them tonight and looking forward to watching that happen!!
Becky Lynch Vs Charlotte: If Becky Lynch Wins She’ll Be Added To The WrestleMania Match Making It A Triple Threat, But If She Loses She’s Out……..
We all know the story here, The Man wins the Royal Rumble and gains the opportunity to face Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania, but just like Kofi (although she was first) Vince decided to replace Becky and go with Charlotte to face Ronda instead…….
Becky gets suspended from WWE for 60 Days, Becky not happy with being replaced, continues to show up wherever Charlotte & Ronda are and attacks them, gets arrested, Ronda asks Stephanie to reinstate Becky and add her to the WrestleMania match Stephanie tells her that ain’t happening, Ronda tells her that Vince needs to make the right decision, leaves the Raw Women’s Championship at Stephanie’s feet……….
Stephanie then announces that the charges on Becky Lynch were dropped and that her 60 day suspension was lifted and that her and Charlotte would be facing off for the Raw Women’s Championship at Fastlane originally, but only if Becky signed a Hold Harmless Agreement so that way if anything happens to Becky during the match she doesn’t go and sue WWE for it, which of course Becky signed……..
Ronda then shows up pretty peeved off about Stephanie’s decision when she laid down the title, she asks for it back, and then goes rogue, attacks Becky and Charlotte on this past Raw and that’s how this match was born…….you guys all caught up!? Alrighty then let’s talk predictions then……
Prediction: Although I like Charlotte,My heart wants Becky Lynch to win so that way she can be added to the match at WrestleMania (even though she shouldn’t have to be added considering she won the royal rumble and all) and main event Mania like she was meant to in the first place…….
I really do hope Becky Lynch wins tonight because she deserves to go to WrestleMania, plus it would be cool to see Ronda Vs Charlotte Vs Becky in a triple threat match for the Raw Women’s Championship, I look forward to watching how this match goes.
Bayley & Sasha Vs Nia Jax & Tamina (Women’s Tag Team Championships)
It was at last months Elimination Chamber that Bayley & Sasha made history by becoming the first ever Women’s Tag Team Champions defeating the likes of Carmella & Naomi, The IIconics, Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, The Riot Squad and the women their facing later on tonight, Nia Jax & Tamina.
We know Nia Jax & Tamina are pretty good team, but so are Bayley & Sasha, last Monday (Feb 25, 2019) we saw Bayley pin Nia Jax during their match by landing her finisher and This past Monday, we saw Tamina pin Sasha Banks in their match (which I called) after Nia helped with a distraction a bit, tonight we will see both teams go at it for the WWE Women’s tag team championship, who will win, no sure, let’s talk prediction for this match……..
Prediction: I would like to see Bayley & Sasha keep the title, only because I want to see how long they’re able to keep it, we all know that Sasha when it comes to defending a title, it’s not really successful and as for Bayley………her title runs aren’t that memorable, but because they won the tag titles and we know that together Sasha & Bayley are a really great team and because they work well as a team, they’re going to try and make sure they don’t lose the titles anytime soon……….
That being said though, I also feel that if they don’t keep their guard up in their match against Nia & Tamina with just even one tiny little mess up or slight distraction, there’s a high chance that Nia & Tamina will leave Fastlane with those titles, sooooo let’s hope Bayley & Sasha keep the titles tonight………
The Miz & Shane Vs The Usos (SDL Tag Team Championship)
The Usos won the SDL Tag Team Championships from Miz & Shane at last months Elimination Chamber, it was pretty great match as well, well for the Usos that is, Miz wasn’t happy that he was the one that got them to lost the title, so he came back to SDL after being told to take the next few days off he asked Shane to make another match so they could get them back,
The Usos, being the Usos then showed up and made fun of Miz, calling him a loser, fraud, failure and all those kind of synonyms, which provoked Shane to stand up for Miz and make the match at tonights Fastlane PPV.
Don’t really have anything else to say on this, well I just wanted to say that the build up for this was actually pretty good, especially when it comes to the Usos who couldn’t help, but make fun of both Shane & Miz, this past Tuesday’s Smackdown Live was one of the best, at least I thought!!!
Predictions: I love the Usos as some of you may know, but I don’t know Fastlane takes place in Miz’s hometown of Cleveland OH and with it being a hometown show for him, it could go two ways he could surprise everyone and win the tag titles in his hometown…….or it’ll be the opposite and the Usos retain in Miz’s hometown which he will be really upset about………
i’m not going to choose for this one because I want to see this match and I want to see which way it goes so as much as I love the Usos and I think they are a great tag team and they know how to defend the tag titles, i’m just going to observe this one without predicting what could possible happen during the match and whoever wins it, wins……..so no prediction here on this match……..
The Revival Vs Alesister Black & Ricochet Vs Chad Gable & Bobby Roode (Raw Tag Team Championship)
This is interesting……..we had Ricochet & Alesister Black come up to the main roster about 3 weeks ago along with Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa as well and they now have a shot to become the new Raw Tag Team Champions, now I like both Aleister Black & Ricochet, I think their both extremely talented and they’re actually a pretty great team as well.
The Revival are also a pretty great team, I mean they are Raw tag team champions and when you watch them in the ring, you can clearly see how talented they are…….Chad Gable & Bobby Roode, well…………separately they are good and they perform nicely in ring, together though……….
You know I haven’t really seen them perform well as a team, to be honest I find them to be a really odd pairing, I thought Miz & Shane were odd, but they are really odd, however again I haven’t really seen them be a tag team so maybe they are really good I don’t know, i’ll watch them and let you know later when I do a review for Fastlane, but let’s talk predictions here.
Prediction: Hmmm this is a little tricky………I feel there could be a possibility that Ricochet & Alesister Black become the new Raw tag team champions tonight, however if i’m being honest I feel that them winning the titles tonight, I feel like that would be a little too early, but if they do I won’t be upset about it because I like them, that being said though, The Revival could also retain and leave Fastlane still Raw Tag Team Champions, I know i’m leaving Chad Gable & Bobby Roode out, but I don’t feel they’re gonna win it………
I could be wrong though, they could end up dominating everyone and becoming the new Raw tag team champions again for all I know, but I don’t know, we’ll see what happens in this match up, but I think i’m gonna go with either Ricochet & Alesister becoming new champs or that The Revival retain….
Asuka Vs Mandy Rose (SDL Women’s Championship)
So we all know that this match is happening because Mandy pinned Askua on 3 weeks ago on Smackdown Live and that’s why she’s getting a shot at the SDL Women’s championship…………I don’t have anything else to say with this so i’m just going to predict this one……
Prediction: Asuka retains, I want Asuka to retain!!! I don’t want Mandy winning this match, i’m not saying she’s not good or anything and that she doesn’t deserve it, I just don’t want her to win, so i’m hoping Asuka retains.
So that was every match off the main card, as for the kick off card I don’t think i’m going to watch it, but i’ll do quick predictions for it.
Kickoff Card:
The New Day (Big E & Xavior Woods) Vs Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev:
Prediction: I want the New Day to win, although I like Rusev & Shinsuke, i’m going for the New Day here to win this match
Rey Mysterio Vs Andrade Cien Almas:
Prediction: Rey Mysterio wins this match, i’m not really sure actually I want to say Rey wins this match because I like Rey Mysterio, but Andrade could win too soooo i’m just gonna leave this as unpredicted, these two based off the matches i’ve seen them in, they have an unfinished rivalry between them i’m guessing stemmed from NXT and moving forward from that so I might watch this and see what happens here, who knows………
That’s all of my predictions for Fastlane, now we just wait and see how the show goes, yaaay finished this before the show started!!!!
Disclaimer: I’ve been writing this review all week (started writing it Monday…….last Monday) and that’s why you’re going to be reading it now (well in a bit) I finished writing everything down yesterday (Feb 23) but I had to look everything over and edit a couple of things.
Elimination Chamber what a show this PPV was!!! So many incredible moments happened especially during both Elimination Chambers which I look forward to talking about to you guys.
Now I know i’m a little late reviewing it, I was trying to figure out a way to write about this, so what I did was, I ended up just going back and rewatching some of the matches just to get a little bit of a refresher so that way when I wrote everything down, it would be my natural reaction of it or at least close to what my natural reaction was when I watched it the first time if that makes any sense, hopefully it does………
Originally, I wanted to do a build up around the Elimination Chamber first before I wrote an actual review, but as I was writing it, I didn’t know if I was building it up alright, so I decided to just review the PPV without the build up, but without further ado let’s talk the Elimination Chamber PPV.
Disclaimer #2: I didn’t watch the kickoff so i’m not gonna talk about it, however I did hear that the cruiserweight match was actually pretty good but on to the main show.
Nia Jax & Tamina Vs Carmella & Naomi Vs The Riot Squad’s (Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan) Vs Sasha Banks & Bayley Vs Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose Vs The Iconics (The Women’s Elimination Chamber Match for the first ever Women’s Tag Team Championships)
Alright so we start off with the very first match off the main card, The Women’s Elimination Chamber match for the new WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships………What can I say about this match except for it surely did not disappoint!! We all know this match could’ve went 2 ways, it was either going to throw the ball out the park oooor it was going to be a lackluster kind of performance……….luckily it wasn’t lackluster and they did throw the ball out of the park, heck out of the park isn’t even the word!!!!
Every single tag team in this match tore the house down, I loved watching this match, when I was trying to write down what was happening I could barely keep up with it, so much was happening all at once, but it was awesome, I would watch it again!! A whole lot of moments went down during this Elimination Chamber match, the two teams that started were Sasha Banks & Bayley along with Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose.
The other teams would be locked inside some chamber pods until it was their turn to come out. Sonya Deville nearly pinned Sasha in the beginning of the match with some kind of brutal move, if she would’ve gotten that pin after the move she did, Bayley & Sasha would’ve been out of the Chamber right then and there, but they stood in it which was good.
There was another moment where the two starting teams were outside the ring going at it and Mandy, I guess went for a move to Bayley, Bayley must’ve dodge it, causing Mandy to get her foot stuck in the Elimination Chamber chains, which then lead to Bayley landing a neckbreaker to her while she was stuck which just look so painful to me.
After a bit the Riot Squad (Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan) entered the chamber, there was a moment where everyone was in the ring, Bayley went for a corner move, Sonya & Mandy followed and tried to go for a tag team suplex, Sarah & Liv soon then followed after and well………everyone came crashing down after what looked like a pretty crazy powerbomb suplex, leaving everyone a little scattered around the ring.
Then we had the IIconics soon enter the chamber hoping to capitalize on what just happened, but everyone kept kicking out when they tried to put someone away which was funny!! Naomi & Carmella soon entered the chamber, getting a few hits in on their opponents and of course when the chance was given, Naomi went after Mandy, who’s been a little bit of a thorn in her side for quite some time………also there was a nice superkick to Sarah Logan by Carmella outside the ring.
Everyone continued to get some real impressive and some brutal moves in to each other Naomi as she was going after Mandy landed her finisher the rear view, although that was nice and a little well deserved to Mandy…………
This was the part that kinda upset me a bit, the IIconics rolled up Naomi into a pin afterward and just to make sure she couldn’t kick out they doubled teamed against her, pinning Naomi, having Carmella and Naomi the first team eliminated from the chamber………I was so upset, because I love both Naomi & Carmella, they were one of my picks to win it, but it is what it is……
To speed up the rest of this part, last team to enter the chamber were non other than Nia Jax & Tamina, once they came out all hell broke loose………they went after the IIconics and eliminated them after they tried to run and hide from everyone………The Riot Squad jumped off the chamber pod landing on Sonya & Mandy as well as Nia Jax & Tamina………..not too long after though, both Nia & Tamina eliminated Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan with a Samoan Drop by Nia and a Superfly Splash by Tamina.
Now this part is a crazy moment, Nia tossed Bayley out of the ring, she then tried to ram her into the Chamber pod, but Bayley side steps it and Nia ends up going through the pod instead, giving everyone the chance to go after Tamina easier and weeeell, you can probably guess what happened next……..
Nia & Tamina ended up getting eliminated, which was a little shocking, because i’m sure a lot of people (including myself) thought they would win the chamber because of how dominate they’ve been building up to the elimination chamber, but it seemed as though everyone was happy once they were eliminated, they even sang them a song while they were leaving.
We’ve come down to the last remaining two teams, the two teams that actually started the Elimination Chamber match together Sasha Banks & Bayley Vs Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose…………..it was such a close call during the ending parts of this Elimination Chamber match. Bayley & Sasha were close to putting Mandy & Sonya away with Sasha hitting her backstabber move and Bayley landing her finisher Bayley to Belly, Mandy nearly put Sasha away with her finisher, which I was super nervous about.
In the end though, the match turned around when Sonya accidentally speared Mandy Rose, giving Sasha the chance to lock Sonya in her submission the Bank Statement, although she was having a bit of trouble because she couldn’t use her shoulders, she ended up locking the bank statement, using her legs forcing Sonya Deville to tap out.
Not only did Sasha & Bayley gain victory over Sonya & Mandy, as well as everyone else who was apart of the chamber, but they also made history by becoming the first ever inaugural Women’s tag team Champions!!! I was super happy they won, but I also had a moment where I realized the title went to Raw and not Smackdown……….but overall, I was still very happy for them, they deserved it, I mean they fought very hard out there.
Other Thoughts: I was so happy for this match, I specifically watched Elimination Chamber because of this match to be honest and i’m really glad it didn’t disappoint!! I use to always say how I thought WWE should make a tag team division for the Women’s division and the fact that we now have that, is amazing!! I know I missed a lot of wrestling, but that being said, I think I picked an alright time to get back into it.
I’ll be honest though I got teary eyed after the match, I wanted to cry, but I didn’t cry, yet it still made me feel emotional……..I think it’s because of how big that moment was for the Women’s division, knowing how much they had to fight through just to get to that moment……….it’s like how could you not want to feel and take in something like that with them!? They made history and that’s a very proud moment.
Watching matches like that for the first time from home is one thing, watching it in person is a different story, but actually being apart of a moment like that………that tops both those feelings combined!!!
The atmosphere and reactions to everything were super high, you could just feel it, i’m really glad that match turned out well, Brava to each team in that Chamber match, they all did great out there and they really did put on a great performance Sunday night, also congratulations to both Bayley & Sasha for winning the first ever Women’s tag team championships, again they really did deserve it!!!!
Bayley & Sasha Become The First Ever Women’s Tag Team Champions At Elimination Chamber (Feb 17) Source: WWE.com
After the match was over Bayley & Sasha were interviewed about their win, they were extremely speechless and emotional after capturing the titles, you know trying to soak everything in, unable to really find much words, which I completely get………..Sasha did end up saying a few words though.
She said she was lost for words and that we have no idea how hard they’ve fought to get the titles (in general) they don’t just do what they do for themselves, they do it for us (The WWE Universe) and for everyone who’s apart of the women’s division. It’s just the beginning with more change to come, that they’re here for a purpose and they will continue to do what they love and what they do best.
Pre Match Segment
Before the next match started there was a small pre match segment with Miz, congratulating that match and Sasha & Bayley for becoming the first ever Women’s Tag Team Champions, we also were brought an announcement by Miz and his wife Mayrse who told us they were pregnant and were expecting their second child.
The minute he said announcement and Maryse came out, I knew what it was going to be about, but congratulation to both Miz & Maryse, I wonder if it’s going to be a another girl or a boy!? It’s crazy because they just had their daughter Monroe last year…………how times flies right!? anyway on to the next match.
Miz & Shane Vs The Usos (Smackdown Live Tag Team Championships)
So i’m going to be honest here, I had to do some recapping with this match, i’m actually going back and forth watching it a bit and writing about it as I go along……….Shane started the match pretty strong, getting a lot of hits in and just going straight after the Usos.
I gotta say when I was watching Elimination Chamber last Sunday, watching Shane fight, you can see that he’s improved a lot in my opinion, not saying he was never good in ring, because he’s always been pretty good in ring, but you can tell that he has improved a lot more in his matches, which is good.
Shane and Miz actually have good in ring chemistry, they really do work well together as team. It’s always nice to see two people working well together, especially when you’re not really sure on the pairing, but with Miz & Shane it works in a weird way which I like.
Shane had a few moments that were really nice during this matchup, he did a twist around DDT to both Jimmy and Jey, he also did a coast to coast to Jimmy, tried to do the same to Jey, but was met with a superkick stopping his momentum and giving Jey the chance to try and close out the match by hitting his finisher and pinning Shane after landing it, but Miz came in with the save last minute. We also get a really impressive jump by the Miz when he was heading in the ring, even Miz was surprise by it, it’s not an important moment, but it is a nice moment to appreciate because of his reaction.
We move on to the ending of the match where Shane goes for his leap of faith move from the top corner ropes, onto the announce table to Jey Uso outside the ring, after Miz set it up for him…………I tell you Shane really loves jumping off of things, he pretty much lives for it.
Now although Miz & Shane went out there and gave the Usos a fight, in the end the winners of the match ended up being The Usos, with Jimmy using Miz’s pin against him, after he hit his finisher to Jimmy, so not only did the Usos win the match, but they also took the titles from Shane & Miz, making them the New SDL Tag Team Champions and I think also becoming 6x tag champs in the process as well…………
Other Thoughts: Although I was happy, the Usos won the tag titles, I actually did feel bad for Miz, he dedicated his match to his wife and kids and for him to then lose after doing that………..I felt bad.
There was even a segment that you’ll read about later, where he was super upset with the way the match went that he just went on a mad one for a bit………..but I mean the Usos we’re the better team that night……….although I get the frustration, Miz and Shane can come back from this, it was just one night off, they can get it back……………..the Usos are the best though!!!
Finn Balor Vs Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush (2 on 1 handicap match for the Intercontinental Championship)
This match……..it was okay, I really don’t have a lot to say with this match, it wasn’t the greatest to me, but it wasn’t bad either, it was alright………..i’m not really sure why it had to be a 2 on 1 kind of match though, it didn’t really need to be a 2 on 1 match, but it was.
A few nice moments happened though, Balor went for a dive to Lashley outside the ring, Rush stopped him, which then lead Finn to chase him around the ring, luring Balor to Lashley who picks him up and rams him towards the barricade and once more off the ring apron hurting Balor before tossing him back into the ring. We now close in towards the ending of the match where Bobby Lashley goes for his finisher I believe, but Rush gets his ego all in a bunch, tagging himself in before Bobby could hit his finisher to Finn.
He then goes for a frog splash and misses big time, giving Finn the chance to recover a bit and gain some momentum back. Rush then tries to get away from Finn, but Finn gives him no leeway, he then attacks Lashley, sending him off the apron to then turn his attention back to Lio.
Lashley tries to help out, but Finn hits him with his sling blade move and then send him out the ring again, Lio Rush then follows, Finn does a dive over the ropes to them, brings Lio back in, hits his signature and finisher, pins Lio and becomes the New Intercontinental Champion for the first time in his career!!!
Finn Balor Becomes The New Intercontinental Champion For The First Time In His Career By Defeating Both Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush In a 2 on 1 Handicap Match at Elimination Chamber
Post match moment: After the match was over Lashley tried to go after Finn, but Finn escaped before he got the chance, with a huge smile on his face. Lashley was not happy with Lio Rush losing him his Intercontinental Championship, Rush tried to apologize and plea with him, at first it looked like Lashley was going to let it slide, but yeah no it didn’t happen like that at all, Lashley grabbed him and body slammed him to the mat and while a frustrating Lashley left the ring…..Lio Rush was left alone, laying in the ring.
Pre Match Segment Interview: This segment left me very upset, we get a recap of I believe Monday Night Raw, where we learn that Becky Lynch won’t be facing Ronda at Mania, thanks to Vince McMahon who suspended Becky for 60 days, which runs out 5 days AFTER WRESTLEMANIA and guess who he chose to replace her………..yep Charlotte Flair……….
Don’t get me wrong, I love Charlotte, she’s one of my favorites, but she should’t be facing Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania, Becky should be facing her………I mean she’s the one that won the Royal Rumble after all which makes it her opportunity, I don’t want Charlotte main eventing Mania, we’ve seen it before, why would they have Charlotte take Becky’s place instead….why!?
As you can tell, i’m still very upset about this, but I may also have some kind of theory on what they could possibly be doing and I hope that Becky ends up in it somehow, but anyway………there was a segment with Charlotte, where she talked about Becky Lynch and how life is good when you’re Charlotte Flair and talks going to WrestleMania, she stated how Becky panders for our attention and that she needs our approval.
Saying how unlike Becky, when she looks in the mirror her reflection give her all the love and approval she needs and that she knows in her heart she’s the best on Raw, on Smackdown & in the WWE and then the match started…….
Ronday Rousey Vs Ruby Riot (WWE Raw Women’s Championship)
Ronda Rousey Vs Ruby Riot at Elimination Chamber (Raw Women’s Championship) Source: WWE.com
This match……….was not long, but i’ll sum it all up for you, Ronda was in control of the whole match, Ruby kept away from Ronda in the beginning of the match, got a few hits in after a bit, but Ronda took over the rest of the match by hitting Pipers pit and then landing her submission the arm bar afterwards, tapping out Ruby Riot and retaining the Raw Women’s Championship, which means she will go on to face Charlotte at WrestleMania……..again it was just a quick, simple, dominate kind of match.
Post Match Segment
After the match was over, Ronda & Charlotte ended up having a bit of a stare down with each other, not long after we got a surprise appearance, by the Man herself Becky Lynch, who was walking on crutches towards the ring. When she got to the ring she had a small stare off with both Ronda & Charlotte, she then throws one of her crutches to Charlotte, hits her and then attacks her with the other crutch, which was quite brutal…………
Becky went on a mad spree attacking Charlotte with her crutch……….after she finished attacking Charlotte, she look up at Ronda, who grabbed the other crutch that was on the ground to stay on guard against Becky, both Becky and Ronda have a stand down as well as another stare off.
Becky tries to convince Ronda to go after Charlotte and get even with her, Ronda heads towards Charlotte with the other crutch backing her into the corner ropes, She then glances at Becky, then proceeds to turn her attention back to Charlotte, giving Becky the chance to strike and soon attack Ronda, which she definitely did, i’ll tell you that………..after going crazy on Ronda & Charlotte Becky was later escorted out of the arena, proud!!
This was quite a segment……..however I really liked Becky’s gear it was quite badass, really nice!!! I’ll be honest watching Becky attack both Charlotte & Ronda I was kinda enjoying it a bit, until I saw that she actually hurt them, especially Ronda, boy did she have a bad gash on the side of her head, I felt really bad for them afterwards seeing them hurt………..this segment gave me mixed emotions, I both loved and enjoyed it, but I also felt slightly bad too……….although it was pretty brutal, I still enjoyed it.
I love Becky Lynch and I was so excited when she showed up at Elimination Chamber, despite being suspended and all, I just gotta say though any frustration she was feeling then, she sure let it all out that night alright, no security or ref could stop her, I do hope Ronda and Charlotte are doing alright though after the attack Becky unleashed on them last Sunday……….
Prediction Time: I might have a theory on how I think they’re trying or are going to do it………I feel right, that they’re going to wait until Becky Lynch is medically cleared and once they find out whether she is or not, if she is medically cleared, I think they might make the match at WrestleMania a triple threat. Having it be Ronda Vs Charlotte Vs Becky and maybe, just maybe having Becky win at Mania or they’ll try and make sure she doesn’t, but she’ll still ends up winning the title anyway somehow!?
I’m really hoping that they do make this a Triple Threat match because I really want to see Becky main event Mania and win it………..however if this doesn’t happen, Becky could still possibly show up at Mania and cost Charlotte the title, because Charlotte took her spot, but we’ll see……….no spoilers!!
Braun Strowman Vs Baron Corbin (Anything Goes Match)
Braun Strowman Vs Baron Corbin, anything goes………yeah like that’s not going to include people coming out and making a mess of things, of course not, I mean why would that be a thing at all!?………….no, but in all seriousness this match was alright, it wasn’t that bad, I don’t really think i’m going to have a lot to say about it, I thought it was a decent length of a match, not too long, but also not too short either.
There was some moments that stuck out to me, one being when Braun told Corbin he didn’t need a kendo stick to hurt him pretty much, after Baron Corbin kept attacking him with one…………also Corbin threw a chair at Strowman, well more like attempted, Strowman caught the chair, well kinda…………he didn’t let the chair hit him in the face is what i’m trying to say.
After Corbin tried throwing a chair at him, Strowman went after Corbin to try and run through him, but Corbin side stepped him, causing Braun to hit the steel steps, Corbin then grabbed them and repeatedly attacked Braun with it……..moving on to the closing parts of the match though, Braun grabs a table and power slams Corbin through it and as he goes to pin him, surprise surprise……………Drew Macintyre comes down to the ring holding a steel chair.
While Braun was waiting for Macintyre to get into the ring, not too long after Bobby Lashley shows up, ambushes him and attacks him with his own steel chair, Macintyre soon joins him and they both go on an attack spree towards Braun. Strowman tried to fight back against them, but in the end the winner of the match ended up being Baron Corbin with the help of Macintyre & Lashley who helped SHIELD POWERBOMB Braun through two tables, to then pin him………..I know this match was an Anything Goes kind of match, so i’m not really surprised Macintyre showed up,
However I was a little surprised that Lashley joined the party, I mean I know they had that match against, Finn Balor, Kurt Angle & Braun Strowman, but I didn’t think he’d align with them again, but overall the match wasn’t that bad, it was kinda enjoyable.
Backstage Segment: We’ve now reach Miz’s segment with Shane as well who was getting looked at by one of the medical staffs, Miz was slightly pacing back and forth apologizing to Shane for losing the match, Shane tries to assure him that it was fine, but Miz was really outrage about the whole thing, so outrage he started trashing the medical room a bit, saying that he’s better than that and how he made a promise to his father, to Shane, Maryse (his wife), Daughter and unborn child, Shane then tells him to take the night off and relax, which was the right call, because he was livid, Miz.
The New Daniel Bryan VS Kofi Kingston Vs Randy Orton Vs AJ Styles Vs Jeff Hardy Vs Samoa Joe (Men’s Elimination Chamber Match For The WWE Championship)
The main event of the night, 6 men all fighting for the WWE Championship inside the Elimination Chamber, now before we get to the match, I just wanted to let you know, there was a bit of change with this match card, originally Mustafa Ali was mean’t to be apart of this match, but he ended up suffering a concussion somehow, not sure if it was during his match with Randy or when the build up happened……….due to him getting injured, a gauntlet match took place on Smackdown Live, Kofi who was in that match, lasted about an hour I believe in it and so i’m guessing based off that, he qualified and took Mustafa’s spot at the Elimination Chamber.
Although I was glad to see Kofi in this match, I do feel for Mustafa, to get a chance at the Elimination Chamber and then have to miss out due to an injury it sucks, it would’ve been pretty cool to see him in that match, but I do hope he recovers alright, but with that said let’s get on with the Men’s Elimination Chamber match!!!
Same as the Women’s Elimination Chamber match, it did not disappoint!! I’ll be honest though, I thought it started off a little slow at first, but it didn’t take long for it to pick up so that was good.
Before the match started The New Daniel Bryan came out with Rowan by his side, but was told he had to leave him behind, which he didn’t like, he then made a small speech telling everyone he doesn’t want to be known as a martyr, but that he was suffering for the greater good, saying we need him and the planet needs him and that he’ll still be the WWE Champion.
So many moments happened throughout this match, one i’ll talk about in my highlight post and a little bit here too…….the two competitors to start the match were Daniel Bryan & Samoa Joe. In the beginning Daniel tried avoiding Joe, after a long while though, Samoa Joe hit him with some brutal chops to the chest, then Daniel & Samoa Joe went back and forth with attacks to each other and then later Kofi Kingston entered the Chamber.
Kofi got a few hits towards Daniel & Joe, there’s a moment where Daniel escapes towards the top of the chamber pod, Kofi follows and then attacks Daniel from the top of the pod, then free falls off it landing on Samoa Joe and Daniel. AJ Styles soon enters the chamber and later does a Moonsault from the corner ropes, goes to set up Daniel for a DDT, Kofi tries to go after Styles, but Styles catches him and ends up hitting a double DDT to both Kofi and Daniel, a little bit later in the match Daniel tries to escape again………but Styles catches him with a phenomenal forearm to the back of his spine while climbing the chamber.
The first person to get eliminated was Samoa Joe, after tossing Styles into the ring, he went after Kofi and tried putting him to sleep with his coquina clutch submission, Kofi countered the submission by running on the ropes to flip Joe over, trying to use his submission to pin Joe, I guess the same way he did during the Gauntlet match. Joe kicked out, but continued to hold on to the submission afterwards. Kofi then escapes the Coquina Clutch, giving Styles the chance to catch Joe with his phenomenal forearm finisher, pinning him and eliminating Samoa Joe from the match.
Jeff Hardy then soon enters the chamber, but doesn’t really stick around for long, there were a few nice moments from Jeff that I liked, but the one moment that I really liked was when he hit his Swanton bomb move from off the top of the chamber pod to the back of Styles, who was laying on top of the ropes.
As Jeff was getting back to his feet again after landing his signature move, Daniel giving him no time to recover, takes advantage and catches him with a running knee, pinning Jeff and eliminating him from the match……..it kinda sucks that he wasn’t in the match for that long, but at least we got to see him for a bit.
After eliminating Jeff Hardy, New Daniel Bryan went after both Styles & Kofi, he puts Styles in the tree of woe, then brings Kofi over, tries to go for a Suplex off the top rope with AJ Styles still hanging in the corner, Styles then grabs Daniel, who is holding on to Kofi and delivers a German Suplex to both of them……..everyone down at this point, the clock counts down and the Viper (Randy Orton) is last to enter the chamber, which gives him the advantage as he goes after everyone that’s left in the ring.
Kofi tries to go after Randy, who throws him at Styles, then we had Daniel go after him, but Randy tries to catch Bryan with an early RKO, Daniel avoids it and goes for a pin to Randy who gets out of it.
We then had a moment where Styles catches Kofi with quite a backbreaker, he then throws Kofi in the corner, runs after him, Kofi dodges and throws him over his shoulder. AJ hits him with a forearm to the face, he then goes for his finisher move and as he goes for it, Randy catches him from off the apron and lands his finisher the RKO, pins Styles and eliminates him from the match……..that right there was nicely set up I gotta say, it was really nice!!!
Randy Orton Catching AJ Styles With His RKO As Styles Went For His Finisher The Phenomenal Forearm At Elimination Chamber Source: WWE
Down to the last 3 competitors, Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston and The Champion The New Daniel Bryan………..
Kofi tries to immediately eliminate Randy as he was looking over at Styles leaving the chamber. Randy gets out of the pin, Kofi then tries to hit his trouble in paradise finisher to him, but Randy dodges it, then tries to run after Kofi in the corner, who catches him with a kick and just as Kofi starts building up momentum Randy stops him dead in his tracks, slowing down Kofi for a bit and letting Randy enter his zone where he waits to strike his opponents before hitting his finisher.
Just gotta say, Randy knows his spots and is very ring aware, he aims for Kofi, but Daniel tries to go after him and Randy catches him with a very nicely done power slam……….I say nicely done because Daniel just came out of nowhere and Randy caught him like *snaps* that!!! Randy tries to hit an RKO to Kofi, who avoids it, he then goes after him, but Kofi catches him with his finisher Trouble In Paradise, pins Randy and eliminates him……….now here comes the crazy part!!!
We now come down to our last two competitors, The New Daniel Bryan and Kofi Freaking Kingston (Sorry Seth) if you thought it was serious before……..well you might want to sit tight a bit more, because, it’s just getting started………..Daniel Bryan……..Kofi Kingston, we need another match with these two, because maaaan we’re they killing it in the closing parts of the Elimination Chamber match!!
These two were giving us what we wanted, without actually realizing we wanted it………I could write about all the flipping moments that happened during this part of the match, but i’m only going to share a few because I know this is already long as it is.
Kofi went for his trouble in paradise move, but Daniel dodged it and hit him with a low dropkick, stopping Kofi’s momentum………he then hits him with a few kicks, goes to hit him with his last one, Kofi avoids it and sends out an SOS to Daniel almost pinning him and winning the championship.
Daniel delivered a few running dropkicks to Kofi trying to put him away, but Kofi shows heart and doesn’t stay down no matter how many kicks are thrown at him……..the last running dropkick Daniel goes to do, Kofi launches out of the corner catching Daniel with a chest stomp and you would think just by that move when Kofi goes to pin him that would put him away……….but it doesn’t.
There was a moment where Kofi tried to go for what looked like a bulldog to Daniel, but Daniel pushed him towards the pod where Kofi hit against it instead. Back in the ring Daniel goes for his finisher the running knee, he connects with Kofi, thinking it’d be over at this point, Kofi not wanting to go out like that, gives Daniel a big NOPE and kicks out, surprising everyone, including Daniel himself………..
Daniel gets fired up and repeatedly stomps on Kofi, he then tries to go for his finisher again, but Kofi catches him with his finisher trouble in paradise, almost pinning him, only Daniel reverses the pin, but Kofi kicks out. Daniel then traps him with his Lebell Lock submission, after a bit Kofi breaks from it, forcing Daniel to break from the hold as well.
Now we come to the closing parts of the whole match, Daniel climbs up to one of the chamber pods, Kofi follows, both men go back and fourth on top of the pod, Kofi kicks Daniel until he’s back in the ring, the goes for a splash dive off the pod, Daniel avoids, then sets up his finisher one last time, lands it, pins Kofi and retains the WWE Championship………….
Talk about a crazy ending!! I mean the whole match was good, but that moment alone, between Daniel & Kofi, topped the whole chamber match in my opinion, everything that happened prior to that moment, was forgotten about for a good while, that’s how much they stole the show. Everything about that moment was just amazing, props to both Daniel & Kofi, because they put their hearts out there and fought incredibly hard in that match, like…………WOW!!!
Daniel Retains The WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber (Feb 17)
Post Match Segment: After the match was over, both Big E & Xavior Woods came rushing down the ring, to comfort Kofi and let him know that despite him not winning he still did great out there, okay great out there maybe an understatement, he rocked the house Kofi, the crowd even gave him a stand ovation, that’s how much they enjoyed his performance.
It’s nice that Kofi, Xavior and Big E are so close, you can see that they all really care about each other whether they’re fighting as a team or individually, they always have each other’s backs and that’s great to see!!
Kofi (With The Xavior Woods & Big E) Gets A Standing Ovation and The Crowds Respect After Putting On An Amazing Performance at Elimination Chamber (Feb 17)
Final Thoughts Of The EC: So many great and memorable moments happened throughout this PPV, I mean we had the first ever Women’s tag team match happen inside the Elimination Chamber, which did not disappoint, every tag team apart of that match did well…….yes even the IIconics, even though they eliminated one of my teams……but that aside……
I thought the match was great, really nice starter…….having Bayley and Sasha win the titles that was real good, I thought they deserved it, especially with the way they fought in their match. The Miz & Shane Vs The Usos was pretty good as well, at least I thought so………Shane with his daredevil antics and moves, to quote Miz’s dad, “Shane fears nothing” (I don’t think that’s exactly what he said, but it was along those lines)
The Usos, they are always on top of their game, with everything they do, they always put on great matches no matter who they’re facing and they’re just great Jimmy & Jey……….Miz is another great performer, great on the mic, great in the ring and just all around talented, whether you hate him or love him, when an opportunity strikes him, he uses it very well.
Now I know Shane & Miz didn’t retain their tag team title in their match with the Usos, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work well as a team. Based off the match they had you can clearly see that they are a good team, I hope they don’t separate as a team too soon because I feel they still have what it takes to continue to build as really great tag team!!
Finn is great, becoming the first ever Universal Champion at Summerslam (2016) and then having to relinquish it the next day due to a shoulder injury that he took at Summerslam…………i’m sure that was really hard on him, he was out for a good while because of it……..but with that said, he fought and fought and tried wining the title back, even facing off against Brock Lesnar (who is still the current champion…….) at this past Royal Rumble.
Although he didn’t win it, he sure gave Brock one hell of a fight to try and get it from him, which I would count as impressive!!! After going up against Brock Lesnar, he was put in a feud with Bobby Lashley and his manager/side kick Lio Rush, to then beat both of them in a 2 on 1 handicap match for the Intercontinental Championship at Elimination Chamber, this being his first time to ever hold the IC title………that right there, if anyone deserves the IC title, it’s Finn Balor, so i’m glad he won it in the end.
Then we had the moment of Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch with Becky just brutally attacking both Ronda & Charlotte during the in ring segment, with her crutches at that………yeah that’s a stand out moment for sure, also I love Becky and Charlotte, but Becky will always be my favorite!!!
There was just so many stand out moments throughout this PPV, it was just really good, I enjoyed it, i’m not going to grade it because then i’ll be here for a long time trying to figure out what grade to give it……….i’m just going to say it was an all around great PPV, I didn’t hate anything, however I think certain matches could’ve been better, but because we had two great Chamber matches and a few regular matches that were pretty alright, it makes up for the ones that weren’t the greatest.
So yeah……..that’s the Elimination Chamber for you guys!!! Sorry this review took longer than expected, I was trying to get my natural reaction out on here, I even went back and looked it over to rewatch so I could get the feel of it again, I wrote a whole lot of stuff here, I tried making it shorter but it’s a review which means it’ll be long either way……..I just hope it makes sense.
Disclaimer #3: This part is an update from what I originally wrote in this review just to give you guys a heads up.
I’m still planning on doing my highlight moments for this PPV, only because I really enjoyed it, it will come a little bit later after this is posted, as for Raw & Smackdown………….well gotta catch up again, soooo i’m not going to be reviewing last weeks show, i’m just going to watch it, when it comes to this weeks show, i’m going to try to review it, I might recap the show prior when I review both Raw & Smackdown Live of this week, but we’ll see………
I think what I might have to do, if i’m going to continue to review wrestling is, I might have to watch them live at least when it comes to the reviewing part so that way I can be on time like I want, but if not I might just do highlights towards the end of the week and review the PPV’s instead, if I can’t do both Raw and Smackdown when it comes to reviews, I might just pick one show to review and then highlight both shows again at the end of the week.
Even though this is late, I hope you still enjoy it and as soon as I catch up, I will see you guys with another one hopefully on time or at least within when the shows happen and not a week after they’ve happen.
Anyway for those who watched Elimination Chamber, let me know what you guys thought of the show, did you enjoy it, did you not!? Let me know your favorite moments and matches in the comments below!!
Hey everyone hope you’re all doing well, now I know this is late and all, but i’m still going to post it, this is the second part to my other wrestling review post, in that I talked about both Raw & Smackdown Live’s opening segments from Jan 28 & 29th and gave a little thought to both of them as well. talking about which one I thought was better.
In this post, i’ll be doing my best to talk about the matches from both shows and giving you my thoughts on them and letting you know whether I enjoyed them much or not, let’s just get straight into it shall we!?
Raw & Smackdown Live Highlights (Jan 28 & 29):
Seth Rollins Vs Dean Ambrose:First match of the night demanded by Dean………I thought this match was pretty alright, during the closing parts of the match, Seth attempted his frog splash move to Dean who ended up moving out of the way when Seth got a little distracted looking at the WrestleMania sign, however he did redeem himself winning the match when he hit Dean with his buckle bomb move to then catch him with his finisher black out.
Seth Rollins Vs Dean Ambrose (Jan 28, 2019) Source: WWE.com
I always enjoy the matches between Dean & Seth, these two always end up coming face to face at some point, their rivalry is like a never ending story, but it’s always great to watch them in a match even if we have watched it a million times, now this wasn’t their best match, but it also wasn’t their worst, they performed well and they gave us a match that was still enjoyable to watch.
Other Thoughts:Now does Dean deserve better than these kind of matches all of the time!? Yes, yes he does and hopefully they give him more than what he’s been given all these years, Dean is one of the most underrated wrestlers in my opinion and i’m not just saying that because he’s one of my favorites, a lot of people may not see it, but Dean is a really great talent.
If WWE gave him the chance to just freestyle his character more the way he wants……..there’s no telling how far Dean could get!! There’s speculations on him leaving and I would hate to see that happen, because again he’s great so i’m really hoping they don’t let a talent like his go to waste, because it would be a real shame if they did………..
Nia Jax & Tamina interrupt Dean during his segment and both Nia & Dean have a bit of a back and fourth. Source: WWE.com
Pre/Post-match segment:After losing his match to Seth, Dean wasn’t too happy and ended up sitting in the ring to say something, but as he was on the verge of announcing what seemed to be very important, he ended up getting interrupted when Nia Jax and Tamina started to head to the ring. Dean and Nia would exchange a few words, Tamina would later step in, which gave Nia the chance to hit him with a cheap shot from behind, making Dean leave the ring, leading us to the next match of the night.
Nia Jax with both Alexa Bliss & Mickie James on her shoulders about to deliver a Double Samoan Drop. Source: WWE.com
Nia Jax & Tamina Vs Alexa Bliss & Mickie James (Raw – Qualification match for the New Women’s Tag Team Championships at Elimination Chamber): Second match of the night off the red brand, we had the team of Nia Jax and Tamina facing off against Alexa Bliss and Mickie James. This match was actually pretty good, both teams did really well, in the end though the winners were Nia Jax & Tamina, with Nia picking up the win finishing the match with a double Samoan drop to Mickie James and Alexa Bliss, which made them the first team I believe to qualify and to get an opportunity at the new women’s tag team championships at Elimination Chamber.
Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder Vs The Revival (Raw): You know normally when it comes to these kind of matches, I wouldn’t really be that much into them……..they would always be jobber matches and would be over less than you can say, “let’s see how this match turns out” but this match surprisingly was pretty enjoyable.
Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder going 2 on 2 against The Revival. Source: WWE.com
I went back and watched the match again and there was a moment where I believe Scott Dawson went to catch Hawkins in a surprise attack, but Hawkins sensed it and caught him with a real nice enziguri, they were also pretty close to gaining a win over the revival, but Scott Dawson kicked out.
Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder performed pretty well against the Revival, especially Hawkins, we all know him for his undefeated losing streak with his matches and for a good while he was seen as a jobber, but he was pretty impressive during this match, it seems like they’ve been giving him a little more of a chance this time around which is really good to see.
Although they gave it their best, the winners of the match ended up being the Revival when they hit their finisher Shatter Machine to Hawkins. It would’ve been pretty cool to see Hawkins & Ryder win, I mean they were once a tag team so i’m sure a lot of people we’re happy to see them joining forces again just like the old days, that being said though, overall the match was pretty good and both teams performed well.
Other Thoughts: I really hope that they continue to push Zack & Hawkins as a team again, I didn’t get to see them perform when they were a tag team before, so I would really like to see them come back and surprise people. I know that they were once tag team champions, so it would be cool to see them go after the tag team titles again.
The superstar shake-up is coming up soon and I think it would be pretty cool to see them make their way to Smackdown Live and try to go after the Smackdown Live tag team championships, if they don’t get an opportunity to go after the Raw tag titles.
They could be like Heath and Ryno and surprise everyone, by going after the titles and winning them as well, I think that’d be pretty cool.
Bayley Vs Ronda Rousey (Open Challenge Match For The Raw Women’s Championship match): Okay so I had to re watch this match a bit, because I had it as a pretty good match in my notebook and I wanted a bit of a refresher, so this match happened after a segment with Ronda that could’ve been better in my opinion, but we’ll just move on from that………..
Ronda Rousey Vs Bayley (Raw Women’s Championship Open Challenge Match) Source: WWE.com
During her segment though, Bayley came out and challenged Ronda to a match for the Raw Women’s championship, even though the segment wasn’t all the great, the match however was pretty good. I really enjoyed it, there were a few moments that happened during the match, but one of the moments that I thought was pretty impressive was when Bayley caught Ronda with a jumping leg bar in mid air when Ronda went for an attack, that was pretty awesome in my opinion.
Another nice moment that happened during the match was when Bayley used Sasha Banks submission on Ronda, when I saw that I was actually quite surprised, so was everyone in the crowd, Bayley was actually very impressive during this whole match, which i’m happy about, not that her matches are never good, it’s just in her match with Ronda you kinda saw something different in her when they faced off which I loved.
The winner of the match ended up being Ronda when she caught Bayley with her arm bar finisher from off the top rope, making Bayley tap and letting Ronda retain the Raw Women’s Championship, now even though Bayley didn’t become the new champ, she still did pretty great in their match, Ronda performed well too. After the match Ronda showed respect towards Bayley for giving her a fight back when they faced off which was pretty noble of her, I don’t know about you guys, but I sure wouldn’t mind seeing them face off again, I really enjoyed that match.
The Usos Vs The Bar Vs The New Day Vs Heavy Machinery (SDL-Fatal 4 Way Elimination Match For A Chance At The SDL Tag Team Championships at Elimination Chamber): Okay so this match was probably one of my favorites to be honest. It was super entertaining and everyone performed very well in my opinion, i’m just going to start off by saying that the Usos are one of the best tag teams in the WWE hands down.
Their always giving it everything they got and they always never seem to fail on putting on great performances whenever they have a match, they’re just always on this level that always leaves you wanting to watch them more and more, it’s incredible!! The New Day and The Bar are two other great teams that are also pretty entertaining to watch as well and although I don’t know Heavy Machinery because they’re a new team, they were pretty impressive as well during this match.
The Usos Vs The Bar Vs Heavy Machinery VS The New Day (Fatal 4 Way Elimination Match) Winners of the match get the chance to challenge The Miz & Shane McMahon for the SDL Tag Team Championships at Elimination Chamber. Source: WWE.com
There were a lot of great moments that happened during the match, Jey Uso delivered a really nice samoan drop to Sheamus, there was also a moment where The Uso’s went to do their tag team move our the top rope and dive on their opponents, but only Jey went flying over the ropes, while Jimmy got tagged out by Cesaro and later thrown into the time keepers area by Cesaro & Sheamus (The Bar)
Another impressive move was from one of the Heavy Machinery members, Otis hitting an interesting move called the Caterpillar to Cesaro, there were a whole lot of different moments that I enjoyed during this match, but moving on to the eliminations…………..
The first team to get eliminated were the New Day, although Kofi tried to keep his team in the match, almost landing a close elimination to The Bar (until Cesaro broke up the pin) he ended up getting pinned afterwards by Heavy Machinery when they landed their tag team finisher to him, which caused the New Day to get eliminated from the match.
The next team to follow the New Day in the elimination department were actually the team who eliminated them Heavy Machinery, they got eliminated by The Bar when Sheamus hit his finisher the Brogue kick to Knight, even though they didn’t move forward to have the opportunity to face Miz & Shane at the Elimination Chamber, I gotta say they performed pretty well in this match against everyone, pretty impressive team!!!
Now we come down to our last two teams, The Bar & The Uso’s…………it was a close one between the two teams, they both wanted that tag team title opportunity and they both gave it everything too, however after The Bar eliminated Heavy Machinery, the Uso’s (best team) didn’t waste any time capitalizing against The Bar, hitting their super kick move, then landing an over the rope dive to The Bar, topping off the match with their finisher and finally eliminating The Bar which means they not only won the match, but they have earned the opportunity to face off against Shane & The Miz at Elimination Chamber for the SDL Tag Team Championships.
Maaaan you gotta love the Uso’s they’re just a really great team, I look forward to watching them face off against Shane & Miz at Elimination Chamber for the tag titles, that’s gonna be some match there.
Last match I want to talk about off Smackdown is a match that I found to be both odd, yet interesting………..R-Truth Vs Shinsuke Nakamura (United States Championship Match): This match was actually the first match on SDL, now this wasn’t a bad match, it was just very odd and confusing, so again we had Shinsuke defending his championship against R-Truth who was given a chance at the title by the McMahon’s, a few interesting moments happened R-truth attempted his lie detector move to Shinsuke, didn’t quite land it fully, but it was still nice to me at least.
Shinsuke Nakamura Vs R-Truth (Jan 29th United States Championship Match) Source: WWE.com
Moving towards the ending of the match, I think Nakamura was attempting a move to Truth, however that move ended up turning to a roll-up pin and well………..R truth is now the NEW United States Champion!?………..now here’s the weird part to this match, when the roll-up happened it looked like Shinsuke kicked out before the 3 count, however they replayed that part of the match and even though Shinsuke looked as though he kicked out before the ref counted 3, his shoulders were still on the mat…………..!?
So this was a very weird match because although everyone was excited R-Truth won, it was still very confusing the way it ended………….it was so confusing that both Truth and Nakamura continued on fighting each other, even though the ref called the 3 count and determined R-Truth to be the winner of the match, so yeah………..that happened, congratulations though to R-Truth, I mean he performed really well in this match, but again that was just a very weird ending to a match, but hey……….
I still have to watch last weeks Raw & SDL to see what they do, because whenever something weird like that happens, they always talk about it, but maybe they won’t I don’t know, interesting match though……………after the match was over we had Rusev head to the ring and challenge, well demand more like, that R-Truth put his title on the line because he felt that the title deserved better than Shinsuke and R-Truth and so he challenged him and lost, letting R-Truth retain.
Rusev challenges R-Truth to a match for the United States Championship Source: WWE.com
While Truth was celebrating, Shinsuke came down to the ring and ambushed him and then Shinsuke and Rusev went and teamed up against him, maybe a tag team match happened last Tuesday, maybe even a triple threat, i’ll have to just watch and see won’t I!?…………no spoilers!!
Alright so originally I was going to list the other segments that happened during both brands in this post as well, but I decided not to talk about them. I’ll try and work on reviewing everything properly with the next review I write when I catch up on last weeks Raw & SDL, we’ll see, it might just be highlight moments again.
Originally Written Feb 5———Looked Over and Edited Feb 6
Alrighty so as you all probably know i’ve talked about possibly reviewing wrestling again, but in just written form this time, I started to sorta get back into it last week, starting with the Royal Rumble and then following with Monday Night Raw and literally just watching last weeks Smackdown Live episode yesterday.
Now i’m actually going to do things differently and talk about the opening segments to both shows and tell you which one I thought was better in my opinion in this post and in another post I will talk about the matches of both shows along with some of the small other segments in the show also this will be all from last weeks episode, not this weeks. I don’t know how this will turn out, but we’ll figure it out along the way.
Moving on let’s start with Monday Night Raw’s opening segment:
Raw 1/28/19: We opened Monday Night Raw with Seth Rollins heading to the ring talking about wining the Royal Rumble and being able to live out his dream, pointing at the WrestleMania sign, knowing he’s gained the opportunity to main event WrestleMania.
Now although he may have won the Royal Rumble, he knows that, that’s only the beginning process of heading to WrestleMania,in the segment he contemplates on two big decisions, those decisions being whether he should go on to face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania or challenge Daniel Bryan who’s on the opposite brand to his at Smackdown Live for the WWE Championship instead.
Triple H then heads to the ring, congratulating Seth on winning this years Royal Rumble while expressing how proud he is of him for testing the limits and fighting through 29 other competitors, but also telling Seth that although he gets the hard decision he has to make, they both know that the machine keeps going and that he’ll have to make his decision during the night.
The opening segment gets much more interesting when Dean Ambrose (one of my favorite wrestlers) makes his way to the ring, reminding Seth of who had his back when Triple H didn’t believe in him, calling Seth a suck up, which causes Triple H to interject while adding a little fuel to the fire by bringing up Roman and reminding Dean on when he backstabbed Seth the same night Roman announced he was leaving because he’d been battling Leukemia again.
Dean gets agitated, leading him to challenge and demand a match against Seth to where Triple H refused to give to him at first until Dean provoked him, leading Triple H to make the match between the two in the end
My thoughts on this segment: I actually thought that the opening segment to last weeks Raw was pretty alright, both Dean and Seth are great, both in ring and on the mic and their chemistry is always good whether their friends or rivals. Triple H also always does great on the mic, although i’m not the biggest fan of his, you can’t deny that he does know what he’s doing when it comes to running things behind the scenes, like it or not.
Thinking about it though Seth really didn’t say all that much in the segment when it was the three of them in the ring, the only people that really said much were Dean & Triple H, but overall I thought the opening to Raw was pretty alright, that’s all the thoughts I have with that though.
Moving on down to the Blue Brand known as Smackdown Live and it’s segment:
Smackdown Live 1/29/19: We open Smackdown Live with Becky Lynch heading down to the ring and talking about her surprise visit to Monday Night Raw, challenging Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania for the Raw Women’s Championship after winning the Rumble (not having to really think too hard on who she wanted to face)
She admits to not having the best start at the Rumble in her match with Asuka (who’s the SDL women’s champion) but that unlike Ronda, she got back up and won the rumble with just one good leg.
She mentioned how Ronda stated Becky having to work her way up in the WWE, while she was already main eventing in the UFC, but that she (Becky) isn’t ashamed of that, if anything she’s proud of coming from nothing and crossing paths with the people she had to face to get to where she is now.
As well as being mostly proud of working her backside off from being on the kick-off show of last years WrestleMania to now main eventing this years Mania without being handed anything.
She talks how when she looked into Ronda’s eyes last week on Raw, she saw the one thing that she no longer has anymore which was doubt and talks breaking Ronda’s arm off at Mania and if she doesn’t believe that going into Mania, she’ll be carried out knowing it.
We then had the queen that is Charlotte Flair come out to the ring, congratulating Becky and being proud of her for getting off the kick off shows and i’ll try and sum this part up, pretty much Charlotte took credit for Becky being in the main event at WrestleMania stating that Becky learned something from her, Becky laughed, then sent a real nice shot to Charlotte’s face before leaving the ring leading to a brawl between the two.
Now for my thoughts on SDL’s opening segment: I thought this segment showcased greatly if that makes any sense at all, I thought it was great pretty much, same with Dean & Seth, Charlotte & Becky also have incredible chemistry and i’ll say it again whether they’re on the same team or sitting across from each other at the same table, like Seth & Dean, they’re just great, Charlotte brings out the best in Becky and Becky brings out the best in Charlotte, although both equality shine brightly separately.
They’re both great talents, they know how to work the mic especially when they’re together in my opinion and they really know how to either have you hate them or love them. Becky as she is now people love her, but they also loved her before and Charlotte she always knows how to give you mixed emotions whenever she’s playing a heel or face, overall though I really enjoyed the segment, Becky she’s amazing!!
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Now although both opening segments to Raw and Smackdown were pretty good, if you were to ask me which one brought a little bit more to me, i’d go with Smackdown Live. Not saying I didn’t enjoy Raw’s opening segment, I did, but I just prefer Smackdown’s opening segment just a liiiiittle bit more.
Becky now being known as The Man and seeing how much her character has developed since the last time I watched her, it’s just incredible!!! Becky is one of the best underrated WWE Superstars in my opinion. She’s also always been one of my favorite wrestlers to watch, it didn’t matter what match she was in, I always loved watching her, win or lose.
She’s great in ring and great overall, the moment she made her main roster debut, automatically she became one of my favorites, there was just something about her that I couldn’t put my finger on, but I just really admired and still admire her, overall she’s just great and i’m glad to see this version of her, she just suits it so well and i’m sure everyone will agree on that as well and if not then that’s alright, no worries.
Now Seth, I know you call yourself the Man and everything, but you might want to make way for Becky because she’s real close at being much more identified as The Man then you are, no offense, you’re still great though, but Becky she’s something and that’s meant to be taken in a good way.
Alrighty that’s all I have with this, although I know this isn’t this weeks Raw & Smackdown, I still wanted to talk about it, I will discuss the matches and other segments from last weeks episode of Raw & Smackdown Live in my next post. I was meant to post this earlier, but I kinda took a bit of a long break, sorry about that………I got distracted, it’s midnight now here, but this will still be posted though.
For those who watch wrestling, if you watched this episode of Raw & Smackdown, let me know in the comments below whether you preferred Raw’s opening segment or if you thought Smackdown Live’s opening segment was better instead.
The Wandering Daydreamer 