Welcome to the “I’m pumped for Bayley vs AJ Lee next week” edition of The Wrestling List. A bunch to discuss this week including tonight’s Raw, Cody Rhodes winning the championship on Smackdown, and more.
Tonight’s Raw continued the CM Punk/Roman Reigns drama. Last week, the buzz coming out of the back and forth promo where Punk made the comment on Roman’s dad. This week, Punk cut a promo acknowledging the fans cheers saying he wasn’t sure how the fans were going to feel about him after last week. This week, the Usos showed up and they wanted one thing. An apology. It was a heated back and forth with a pacing angry Jey and a more subdued calm angry Jimmy. When asked for an apology, Punk turned it around talking about how great that whole family had been to him including The Wild Samoans and how he got to sit under the learning tree learning from them. He said the whole family had been good to him and respectful of him…….except for one person and that was Roman Reigns. The Usos were happy at one moment where it looked like they were getting an apology only for Punk to apologize for how Roman turned out and how Roman cares about no one else but himself. How Roman had tricked everyone. How Roman had disrespected Dusty Rhodes. How Roman had disrespected Cody. How Roman had tricked his own Bloodline family. How he tricked his own family into doing his dirty work for him. Things intensified and it got to the point where Punk mentioned Roman sending his “young boys” out there to handle business and then Jey nailed Punk knocking him down in the ring. We then had an awkward fallout moment with the Usos walking away while Punk sat on the mat in the ring. So, this was all very interesting. Does this begin the start of the Bloodline getting back together? I guess we’ll find out soon. Speaking of a group not getting back together, The Judgment Day and Finn Balor are done. Good segment with them tonight. Dom, Liv, and Raquel walk to the ring. Dom rants on losing the title and calls out Finn saying they’ll have to air their dirty laundry in front of everyone. Finn walks out with JD who is trying to cool the situation. Finn says he was trying to help Dom last week teaching him a lesson so he could be the greatest Mysterio of all time learning to fight his own battles. He said he’s been trying to help Dom but maybe all the things that Rey had said about Dom were true. That gets a swing from Dom and then Finn battles back. As Finn is about to take out Dom, JD runs in and clotheslines Finn. Then, the whole Judgment Day beats down Finn Balor. So, the long breakup storyline has finally happened. The women’s Intercontinental title number one contender gauntlet match took place and it was a fun one as expected. It had to be with that lineup of stars. The gauntlet opens with Iyo vs Lyra and this was a lot of fun. Iyo wins with the moonsault. Raquel is the next opponent. Liv came out to distract which then brought out Stephanie to counter. Iyo ends up getting the win on Raquel. After the pinfall, Raquel lays out Iyo. Ivy Nile is next who runs to the ring to take advantage of a beaten down Iyo immediately pinning her. Bayley is next. Classic babyface here as she walks to the ring checking on Iyo on the floor who then gets nailed by a heel Ivy from behind. Good back and forth here and Bayley gets the win with the Bayley to belly. The final entrant makes her way out with Asuka accompanied by Kairi. Really enjoyed this match. Bayley was taking a bunch of nasty bumps in this match. The finish had Bayley on the outside of the ring. Asuka distracted the ref. As Kairi is about to nail Bayley, Lyra runs back out and nails a nasty kick on Kairi sending her crashing hard into the apron. Bayley and Asuka battle some more in the ring. Bayley nails the rose plant for the win. Lyra jumps in the ring celebrating with Bayley. It will be Bayley vs AJ Lee next week on Raw for the title. I’m pumped for this one! This will be their first match since NXT and I know those two are going to be so excited to work with one another! We had the segment with Adam Pearce calling out Seth Rollins. This results in a flood of masked men surrounding the ring and then one ends up in the ring. Seth pulls down the mask to reveal himself. Pearce says what Rollins has done is unacceptable but not because of what has been happening to The Vision. It’s because that Rollins just had surgery not long ago and said what if there is a time that you attack them and don’t get away from them getting injured further. The Vision make their way to the ring. The masked men return doing a run around of Rollins to distract of which one is actually Rollins. They all disappear. LA Knight makes his way to the ring. That fight is on. Then, The Usos make their way into the fight. They get the better of The Vision.
Other notes from Raw. Poor Kairi, still getting yelled at by Asuka in the background of that backstage interview. I enjoy the easter egg type things in the background of segments. Danhausen ran into El Grande Americano backstage who insulted him and was then cursed in return. Penta retained his title against El Grande Americano continuing the curse curse. See what I did there. LOL. I do like that they don’t mention it after the match. It’s just something that you remember but isn’t put over. Now, the following week it will be mentioned in passing but they aren’t full leaning into the “you got cursed and lost” thing. It’s just quietly there. I like that. Oba Femi won his match against Rusev in what was mostly a squash. Geez, Rusev’s return to WWE has really been mostly uneventful to say the least outside of the Sheamus series of matches. Brock Lesnar returns to Raw next week which will continue the find Brock a Wrestlemania opponent storyline.
New champion crowned on Smackdown with Cody Rhodes defeating Drew McIntyre for the championship. This will mean that it’s now Cody vs Randy Orton at WrestleMania. Yet another short title reign for Drew. I do feel bad for him cause they just don’t seem to let him run for long and he’s been such a strong talent for them. I’ve said this before but Drew’s character is booked to that he does dumb things costing himself matches, championships, and whatever else. That’s been the story of his character for the last couple of years. I am excited for the match with Cody vs Orton. Lot of history with that match and we haven’t gotten very much with the two of them in a big match. We got a little in the last couple of years but not at what we’re about to get. They can play a ton off of Legacy and I think these two will have a very fun match and buildup. Will Orton win his 15th world title? We’ll find out soon.
A couple of moments lately on the fallout of the Chelsea Green comment made by Michael Hayes on WWE Unreal where he basically said she was a good comedy character but that her job was to make the Charlotte’s and the Tiffany’s. Yeah, it was infuriating for me as a fan watching that on that episode. Big Chelsea Green fan here. Another person that is a big fan of hers. The Undertaker. He recently had Michael Hayes on his podcast and Undertaker let his full opinion to be known on Chelsea. Hayes said to Taker about Chelsea “Amazingly entertaining. She can handle anything. But that’s the role she’s in right now.” Undertaker said “not necessarily her fault” with Hayes agreeing and then Undertaker just full put his support down on Chelsea saying to Hayes “I’ll just say, I’ll put my two cents in. I think she’s underutilized.I think she could be a top, top player. She has that thing, that ‘it’ thing. She has the ‘it’ factor and I think there’s a lot of great things coming for that young lady. I’m a big fan of hers” Hayes replied “I am too” to which Taker said “Yeah, I mean, can’t tell, really. But, hey, there’s certain organizations around that know how to use her. I mean you gotta go south of the border. I’m just saying”. Taker books AAA by the way if you are wondering what that was in response to. Chelsea recently appeared on The Nikki and Brie Bella Show where she was asked about Taker going to bat for her. Chelsea had this to say “ I was on the phone with my sister. And Matt texted me and Matt was like, did you did you go on Twitter today? And I’m like, no. I don’t have notifications on social media because otherwise, it would, oh, it would drive me nuts. So, I’ll log on like once a day and do what I have to do and get off. And so I didn’t see. So I’m on the phone with my sister and I quickly go on. I’m like, oh my, what have I done, right? Like, what have I said? Because I’m always putting my foot in my mouth. So I go on and I see it. And then I check my texts and he’s texted that to me too. Like, he has doubled down, got my phone number and texted me too. Yes, to hype me up and my sister and I just had this crazy moment of like, man, I’m doing it. I’m really doing it, and there’s someone, look, I know everyone says like, oh my gosh, you’re so funny, or I watched you and that was hilarious. There’s always the same girls that is everyone’s favorite wrestlers. Rhea is always gonna be everyone’s favorite wrestler. Stephanie is always gonna be everyone’s favorite wrestler, right? And I’m used to that and I support them. I champion them. They’re my favorite wrestlers too but to hear Undertaker saying my name, sticking up for little old me and saying it with such conviction, like, he did not hesitate for a second and he had told me that in the text. Like, what is my life??? Undertaker???!! I’m just so thankful because I feel like he really stood 10 toes down on how he felt. And look, Michael Hayes has apologized to me and we’ve spoken about it and everything. But at the end of the day, I know that Undertaker has had my back because he booked me to win the mixed AAA tag titles. So, he has believed in me since before Michael Hayes said that. And someone of that caliber or high status in wrestling, like, that means a lot to me. He doesn’t waste his breath on anyone”.
The former Dakota Kai returned to the ring this past weekend now going by the name of Charlie. The name you will also hear her go by on her Twitch gaming streams. She wrestled Kris Statlander at Wrestle Queendom 8 in London. This is her first match since her WWE release. I’ve seen clips from the match and she looked really good in the ring. She even broke out a Bayley to Belly during the match which got a Bayley reaction online. Bayley has been parading support of her return to the ring all week posting something daily on her pumping up her excitement for her and promoting her return to the ring. Everyone knows I’m a big fan of hers here so I’m excited to see her back!
I’m all in on a Danhausen Miz pairing. Those two will be so much fun. Miz will do a great job elevating Danhausen to an audience that is still learning who he is. Miz is great at everything he does. I think we are going to get very fun segments coming up with those two. Their first segment was already entertaining.
The WWE Vault You Tube channel continues to just be an absolute treasure. I would love to run that account and just find fun stuff to post. LOL. Some of the things they have put up in the last week include a Demolition vs Rockers dark match from 1990, a WWE house show from Anaheim from March 13, 1998, and a complete surprise when they uploaded the WWE Desire music video from 2001 set to Creed’s My Sacrifice. When I saw that, I said oh my, that’s awesome. However, it isn’t the best version as it’s one of the later edits on Raw of that video instead of the original from Survivor Series 2001 which is the best one. They also did some extra editing around it around talent they no longer show obviously. I really hope they put up some more of those Desire videos cause geez, those video were so special and awesome to us in that era. Some other things on the WWE Vault lately include one of the most random dark match tag team matches with Randy Savage teaming with Undertaker vs Ric Flair and The Berserker in 1992. What a random pairing of teams! LOL. This was during Savage’s second title reign. Another random tag match on there from 1992 includes Bret Hart and Ultimate Warrior against Kamala and Papa Shango. Also an Omni show from Georgia Championship Wrestling from February 5, 1984 featuring Ted Dibiase vs Jack Brisco, Road Warriors vs Pez Whatley and Sweet Sugar Brown, and Jake Roberts vs Jerry Brisco.
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