The WWE turned in what felt like episodes of Seinfeld this week – a few shows about absolutely nothing.
A combination of injuries and preserving hot storylines for what is to come at WrestleMania in April left the WWE without much in its creative arsenal to keep up the momentum it built with a solid first month of programming in 2019.
Before I breakdown the best of what happened in our AllWrestling Weekly Power Poll, I wanted to point out a few problems WWE should address quickly before they inadvertently alienate more fans over how certain Superstars or matches are being handled.
The obvious starting point here is SmackDown Women’s Champion Asuka. The Empress of Tomorrow scored the biggest victory of her career at Royal Rumble by tapping out the top Superstar in the company right now, Becky Lynch. However, Asuka did virtually nothing but limited promos on Tuesdays leading up to Royal Rumble and has now gone two SmackDowns without anything more than a brief vignette. At this point, WWE is treating Asuka as nothing more than a placeholder champion and unless they get her involved in something soon all of the restoked flames around her career will blow out and they’ll have another fallen star on their hands.
Ironically enough, another problem WWE is getting fan backlash on also involves Asuka indirectly. Check any of the online polls done by either WWE or other wrestling fan sites on social media and they all overwhelmingly cry for the RAW Women’s Championship to be a straightforward singles match. Yet, if you want a clear sign WWE will likely include Charlotte Flair in the WrestleMania match with Lynch and RAW Women’s Champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey, it’s Asuka’s inactivity. Asuka has fallen victim to all the other SmackDown women being involved in the Elimination Chamber Women’s Tag Team Championship match, Lynch’s kayfabe injury suspension and Flair seemingly being saved to feud with Lynch again in a match already being advertised for Fastlane in March. Flair obviously would deserve to share in the honor of being one of the first women to work a main event at WrestleMania, but I just think it’s to the detriment of the story, chemistry and passion Lynch and Rousey have worked up in recent weeks if she’s included.
Lastly, the WWE should defy convention a bit and announce their intentions for the main event at WrestleMania. If you believe Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, Charlotte will be part of the Lynch-Rousey showdown in a triple-threat match being labeled now as a “co-main event” along with Seth Rollins taking on Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship. I’m sorry, but no fans will buy that crap if Rollins and Lesnar close the show. The main event is the last person standing victorious as the fireworks are going off at Metlife Stadium. If the WWE does not feature whatever version of the RAW Women’s Championship match they decide to use as the last match of the night, they are doing a disservice to their fans and the talented women – Flair, Lynch and Rousey – who have carried the company since last summer. Quite frankly, it’s difficult for me to imagine any women’s match going forward that would deserve the honor of being the first women’s WrestleMania main event over this one. If not now, when?
Now, on to the best of the best this week in our AllWrestling Weekly Power Poll:
They Didn’t Quite Make the List
Braun Strowman – The Monster Among Men got a little revenge on Drew McIntyre and Baron Corbin this week as he helped Kurt Angle in a tag match that main evented the show. Despite the prime positioning of this match, it just came up lacking. Strowman saving Angle by losing in a disqualification seemed like the wrong way to finish it. However, I’ll give Braun some credit for something positive happening for him after Lesnar made him look so weak before Royal Rumble. Also, this RAW made it glaringly apparent that Seth Rollins is the top dog on RAW. This was one of the weakest RAW shows in weeks and a big part of that was due to The Architect getting some time off.
Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura – The team I’ve nicknamed the Kick Artists worked well together in a victory against The Good Brothers. If you listened to Rusev’s interview with Lillian Garcia or followed his or Lana’s social media feeds this week, you know how desperately Rusev is working to stay relevant. I think it’s going to be hard in the crowded SmackDown tag team landscape for Rusev & Shinsuke to make a mark. On top of New Day, The Bar and The Usos, Miz and Shane McMahon are currently heading the division as champs. Here’s hoping these two guys find some traction as partners.
Carmella & Naomi – Though they didn’t win their triple threat match this week, they scored a big victory just in getting paired up to compete in the Women’s Tag Team Championship at Elimination Chamber. The two former SmackDown Women’s Champions have not been featured in the ring or on TV much of late. Most of the Naomi-Mandy Rose feud has played out in vignettes, while sadly Carmella has not gotten many opportunities outside of being included in the No. 1 Contender triple threat match won by Becky Lynch at the start of the year. The Staten Island Princess certainly deserves better than to be an afterthought each week.
Dean Ambrose – For the first time since he returned from injury, I enjoyed watching Dean. He interrupted “A Moment of Bliss” and stole the show as the wisecracking interviewer who didn’t let EC3 get a single word out. Maybe I just enjoy him more as a babyface or his heel never really worked with me, but this was a return to vintage Dean for me. If in fact he does leave the company in April, fans at least received the good news that they could say farewell at WrestleMania to one of the best male Superstar talents that’s come out of the NXT Era.
Top 10 (In Reverse Order)
10. Ruby Riott – Though technically she was the only member of Riott Squad not to have a match this week, she emerged as the big winner of the group. It appeared WWE is not so subtly teasing a potential RAW Women’s Championship match opportunity for Riott after “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey dismantled Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan on Monday. It was nice to see Riott Squad get involved on TV this week because they had been put on the backburner with the lead up to Royal Rumble. Hopefully, Riott can use this momentum to keep Riott Squad at the forefront more consistently this year. Given the right opportunities, this group could break out as the biggest heels in all of the women’s division.
9. Mustafa Ali – Yes, he lost his match to Randy Orton. That didn’t stop him from being put over by The Viper as a dangerous contender to watch at the Elimination Chamber WWE Championship match. Orton sold Ali’s high-flying arsenal of kicks and flips. Ali even unintentionally was helped in selling his all-heart gimmick as he wrestled the tail end of his match with Orton with one eye swelling shut. This was an important match to keep eyes on Ali, and it’s nice to see SmackDown still pushing him after his initial promotion to the main roster.
8. Samoa Joe – Joe consistently spits some of the most savage lines not coming out of Becky Lynch’s mouth on Tuesday nights. Though he didn’t have an actual match, none of the Elimination Chamber WWE Championship contenders looked more dangerous than the Samoan Submission Machine. He ambushed both Randy Orton and Champion “The New” Daniel Bryan and put in excellent promo work to sell chaos for the upcoming match and his competitors.
7. EC3 – I was beginning to wonder whether EC3’s pictures would start showing up on milk cartons because he didn’t get anything other than brief backstage cameos on either main roster show in the past five weeks. The One Percenter scored a huge victory over Dean Ambrose in the next-to-last match of the night on RAW. Though Renee Young dragged him for using too much baby oil on his abs, EC3 looked every bit the impressive specimen that RAW is collecting. Much like Bobby Lashley, WWE didn’t let him talk, either. Not a single word during the “Moment of Bliss” or after the match. However, his appearance was a breath of fresh air and sorely needed for a Red Brand that was a little short-handed this week.
6. The Revival – Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder won yet another No. 1 Contender match, and got a tad too excited celebrating after the match. Dawson actually chipped Wilder’s tooth in his excitement. Though Heavy Machinery looked the most impressive of the four teams involved, this was a big win for “The Top Guys.” However, WWE must eventually let Dawson and Wilder strike gold in one of their challenges against RAW Tag Team Champs Bobby Roode & Chad Gable if they want fans to take them seriously.
5. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville (Fire & Desire) – It’s becoming more and more apparent WWE believes Mandy Rose can breakout and become a huge Superstar. They continue to book her strongly and keep heat on her rivalry with former SmackDown Women’s Champ Naomi. Rose played head games all match long in a triple threat tag match that also involved the IIconics, tagging out every time Naomi tagged into the match. Yet, God’s Greatest Creation came off looking strong after getting a clean pin herself. Also, Deville really sold how dangerous Naomi’s kicks are to keep the heat between Rose & the Glow Queen red hot.
4. Bayley – Based purely on her work in the ring, The Hugger has an argument to make as the most impressive performer on RAW the past two weeks. This week, Bayley worked essentially a handicap match against Alicia Fox & Nikki Cross to help the Boss N Hug Connection qualify for the Women’s Tag Team Championship with the victory. With Banks rumored not to be cleared to compete since sustaining an injury at the Royal Rumble, WWE worked around it by not having Bayley tag out during the entire match. They also played up an ambush angle with Fox and Cross laying out Banks and Bayley before the match on the entrance ramp. Last week, Bayley saved Rousey during a foundering promo and then gave the RAW Women’s Champion one of her most competitive and physical matches in her career. It’s good to see Bayley not treated like a door mat by WWE creative the past few weeks.
3. RAW Women’s Champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey – WWE essentially turned The Rowdy One into an Authority-backed heel this week. It’s an ironic twist considering that Rousey’s first big splash on WWE was taking out Stephanie McMahon and Triple H at WrestleMania 34. Though many fans online dissed Ronda for her mic work, she executed her confrontation with Lynch well. I think it’s the fault of the writing that some of her criticisms seemed hypocritical because Rousey herself has engaged in some of the behavior she used to cut down The Man. Nonetheless, this week successfully helped build Rousey back up after a rough RAW last week that saw The Baddest Woman on the Planet get booed out of Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix and upstaged by Lynch on her show. It was clear WWE made it a priority to make Rousey look like the imposing beast of a champion she had been booked as before recent matches with Sasha Banks and Bayley went back and forth. Rousey systemically took apart Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan – legitimate contenders to win the Women’s Tag Team Championship. It will be interesting to see what develops between Rousey and Riott Squad.
2. Becky Lynch – The Man opened both shows and smacked not one, but both members of The Authority power couple while her kayfabe injury storyline continues to be sold by the suspension she received from Stephanie on RAW for refusing medical attention. Believe it or not, Triple H shredding Lynch on SmackDown can only help Lynch look stronger in the end. The Game actually used material from an interview Lynch gave about leaving wrestling during her career hiatus following a brain injury in 2006. Becky talked about having a fear of success and that being ultimately one of the reasons that kept her away from her first love as a profession until she resumed her career in 2013. This was covered in the WWE Chronicle episode featuring Lynch’s recovery from the broken nose sustained by Nia Jax’s punch during the RAW Invasion. You can view that episode for free on YouTube by following this link: https://youtu.be/-M4qKQKZxPM. In her trademark, pitch-perfect style, Lynch tweeted out on Wednesday a picture of the damage to her face right after the Jax incident and how she was unafraid of anyone or anybody, much less facing Rousey. I know there are Lynch critics popping up, but for the life of me I don’t know how she could be performing any better right now.
1. WWE Champion “The New” Daniel Bryan – Washington’s Favorite Son got a special moment this week in the SmackDown episode from Everett, Washington. Bryan was forced to retire in his home state on Feb. 8, 2016, over concern for concussion-related injuries so it had to be sweet for him to return home nearly three years to the date as a WWE Champion. Unlike every other arena since his heel turn, the fans in Everett gave Bryan a warm welcome and you could see how good it felt for the champ in his facial expressions. As for the actual content of his screen time, Bryan continued to deliver in a promo segment where he lodged a complaint about having to defend his title against 5 competitors in the Elimination Chamber. His alliance with Rowan also continued to look imposing as the bearded giant effectively provided protective muscle from Samoa Joe and Bryan’s in-ring opponent this week, Jeff Hardy, allowing Bryan to gain the upper hand. Rowan also ended Hardy’s chances of winning by attacking The Charismatic Enigma and getting the disqualification. Both Bryan and Joe excelled in selling the Elimination Chamber matchup as a chaotic spectacle to behold and one that will no doubt have to go over well for the pay-per-view to be viewed as a success.