WWE Monday Night RAW #1437 Review - McIntyre & Sheamus vs. Styles, Miz & Morrison

 
 

This week’s RAW had an interesting card on paper. The on-going issues between WWE Champion Drew McIntyre and Sheamus were highlighted as the pair tagged up to take on McIntyre’s TLC opponent AJ Styles, Mr. Money in the Bank The Miz and John Morrison in a three-on-two handicap match, Randy Orton went one on one with Bray Wyatt in a rematch from their dreadful WrestleMania 33 bout and Asuka and Shayna Baszler squared off for a mouth-watering first time ever match-up. Plus, Kofi Kingston vs. Shelton Benjamin, Bobby Lashley vs. Jeff Hardy and Ricochet & Dana Brooke vs. SLAPJACK & RECKONING in a mixed tag team match.

It was the last show of WWE’s residency at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, so the ‘E were gonna pull out all the stops, right?

Three-on-Two Handicap Match: AJ Styles, Mr. Money in the Bank The Miz & John Morrison def. WWE Champion Drew McInytre & Sheamus

The main story this week centered around the issues between Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, AJ Styles, The Miz and John Morrison. Aside from a Styles promo on Miz TV, you’d be hard pressed to work out what the WWE title match at TLC was, as the problems between the two weren’t as well-defined as what we saw between McIntyre and Sheamus or even the Celtic Connection and Miz & Morrison.

Beginning with Miz TV (not sure why WWE have dropped the Dirt Sheet or why Morrison has essentially become Miz's caddy), we got a quick interview with AJ Styles. The interview was mostly generic TLC based threats, before Sheamus interrupted, followed by his pal and WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. Whilst Sheamus looks absolutely hilarious at the moment (something he’d make a nod to on RAW Talk later in the night), McIntyre was on good form ripping apart Miz and Morrison for a perceived lack of balls, including a mildly amusing line about Miz borrowing Morrison’s because Miz’s wife Maryse kept them in her purse. In someone else’s hands this probably would’ve come across as pretty lame (like Miz and Morrison’s Scottish and Irish accents earlier on) but McIntyre has a knack of taking sloppy scripts and making it sound cool. McIntyre & Sheamus brawled with Miz & Morrison to close the segment, whilst Styles and his bodyguard, Omos, hung around the outside. Of course, the fact that Styles didn’t help out would get absolutely no reference later on. A clip of McIntyre launching Miz’s Money in the Bank briefcase from the ring to the top of the entrance ramp would be replayed multiple times throughout the show.

The match was fairly standard stuff with Styles only wanting to tag in when McIntyre had been subdued. This was watchable for the most part with solid action, but not a whole lot to talk about until the finish. Actually, that’s a little bit unfair on John Morrison who pulled out some creative offence on a handful of occasions, whilst also taking a major bump off a double fallaway slam from Sheamus & McIntyre, with the Shaman of Sexy getting launched over the announce table. Outside of that you had Sheamus as the Celtic Warrior in peril with Miz and Morrison doing some good heel work, before a hot tag from McIntyre. The pace of the finish was very good however lifting the whole match as Sheamus cleaned house on the heels, until a sweet back and forth sequence with Morrison lead to the Celtic Warrior nailing his own partner with the Brogue Kick. The shock allowed AJ Styles the time to pick up the win for his team with a Phenomenal Forearm. My main takeaway from this was that Morrison is way too good for his current role and I’d be interested to see him switch to go after Miz’s MITB briefcase sometime soon (A Mania ladder match between the two has major potential).

 

The post-match brawl between Sheamus and McIntyre backstage was a lot of fun with the build-up to the confrontation being well handled, creating more tension before the pair exploded on each other. These two are fantastic brawlers and didn’t hold back for this as they leathered the fuck out of each other, until stooge Pat Buck decided to try and break them up. The hapless Buck got launched through a table for his troubles in a wicked spot, before McIntyre and Sheamus laughed off their issues. I’m enjoying the story with Drew and Sheamus at the moment and their relationship is something that hasn’t been seen in WWE for a while, as they’ve been positioned as friends with a healthy rivalry who aren’t afraid to have a scrap if they need to settle something, but will still go for a pint when it’s all over. RAW Talk put an exclamation point on their relationship with the pair coming across very well on that show, with Sheamus happy to show off the shiner that McIntyre had given him. I’m not sure why this is happening during the build-up to McIntyre’s match with Styles a week on Sunday though.

 

Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt ended in a No Contest  

 

This is a feud that we’ve seen before and as much as WWE is trying to put a new spin on it with The Fiend and Alexa Bliss, it’s still the same feud. Orton’s promo to open the show was okay, but I’ve always felt like anytime WWE try to push Orton as (in his own words) “the most evil son of a bitch on planet Earth” it doesn’t feel like a natural fit. There is some a decent story to be told here but shoehorning Orton in a box that he doesn’t really fit into isn’t the way to do it. Another issue I had with this was Wyatt’s turn in the Firefly Funhouse. I didn’t get it at all. Wyatt hosted a gameshow (alongside his puppet friends) called “Let’s Get Randy” (see what they did there?) and it went on for ages, had absolutely nothing to say and wasn’t remotely funny. I’m really not sure why this happened. Wyatt does play both sides of the coin well, but his eventually change of pace was not worth having to sit through the gameshow for so long. Eventually, Orton challenged Wyatt (not the Fiend) to a match later in the show, despite the segment having been promoted as Orton going to the Firefly Funhouse.

 

Orton vs. Wyatt went on last and produced some solid action. Despite being two talented dudes with a lot of parallels, the pairs record when opposite each other is less than stellar (WrestleMania 33, anyone?), so it was nice to see them tie up and actually work a decent match with no bells and whistles. Wyatt having a big smile on his face whilst Orton beat the shit out of him was fun stuff. The lad looked absolutely buzzing to get his ass handed to him and played his moments well. Admittedly, the match was fairly paint by numbers stuff but with a couple of nice storytelling touches to keep things interesting. Wyatt being unable to hit Sister Abigail after multiple attempts and Orton initially having his signature back drop on the announce table turned on him, before managing to hit it later on worked well, amongst the standard beatdown-comeback structure. Your mileage on the finish will probably come from how hokey you find the way WWE plays the relationship between The Fiend and Bray Wyatt, but I have to admit that I found it pretty cool when the lights went out mid-RKO and revealed the Fiend lying underneath Orton when they came back on. Finishing the show with a non-contest isn’t all the fun though and without any new direction, cliff-hanger or reason to tune in next week, this ended could have done a lot more. Personally, I’d have ended the show on the brawl with McIntyre and Sheamus as that would have worked as much a better hook for next week.

 

RAW Women’s Champion Asuka def. Women’s Tag Team Champion Shayna Baszler

The top women’s segment this week focused around the build towards the unlikely duo of Asuka and Lana challenging the previously unlikely duo of Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax for the Women’s tag straps at TLC. The scrap between RAW Women’s Champion Asuka and Baszler was the best action on the show this week with the pair have a real physical clash, with plenty of energy. In a way, it feels like a waste of their first one on one clash, as this pairing have so much potential opposite each other that it should have been saved for a PPV, rather than thrown in to push a tag team storyline that is being used as a vehicle for a less capable performer (Lana). The submission sequence with Asuka grabbing a flying armbar before Baszler was able to counter into the Kirafuda Clutch with Asuka reversing into a roll-up and grabbing hold of the Asuka Lock before Baszler got to the ropes was superb stuff indeed. So smooth and yet still full of animosity and intention. The finish, of course, saw Lana and Nia Jax get into it on the outside, with Lana eventually sending Jax into the ringpost with a hurricanrana, before Asuka grabbed a schoolgirl roll-up victory on the Queen of Spades. A good match, but one that could have been great in the right storyline and setting.

 

Following RAW Talk, I was left wondering why Jax & Baszler aren’t allowed to show as much personality on the main show. On RAW we saw them talking before the match about wanting to put Lana’s boobs on her back, but on RAW Talk the Women’s Tag Team Champions were actually entertaining, showing real chemistry and having some fun interactions with Charly Caruso and R-Truth. WWE continues to stilt it’s talent and expect them to make chicken salad out of chicken shit scripts. R-Truth comparing Lana to Goldberg and constantly chanting “Lanaberg” was also entertaining as hell and did a great job of winding up the heels. Truth really is a national treasure and deserves more credit for his work.

 

RAW Tag Team Champion Kofi Kingston def. Shelton Benjamin

Cedric Alexander def. RAW Tag Team Champion Kofi Kingston

We time-travelled back to 2008 as Kofi Kingston and Shelton Benjamin renewed their ECW feud and produced a mediocre match. I was expecting much better out of Kingston and Benjamin here, but at times they looked like they’d never seen each other before, putting together a number of awkward sequences. Moments that would have been pretty cool had they been performed with the pairs usual slickness, such as Benjamin reversing an SOS attempt with a Gutwrench Powerbomb, came off as flat because the crispness and speed just wasn’t there. After four minutes or so Kingston pulled out the victory with a Trouble in Paradise. The follow-up match Kingston had with Cedric Alexander (after Alexander had called Kofi back to the ring) was a better match, continuing to tell the story of Kingston having an injured leg and doing a much better job with that element. It wasn’t all plain sailing and was hurt by a horrible looking SOS from Kofi, but the scaffolding of the narrative helped out a short match. The aggression from Alexander as he targeted the leg and Kingston’s selling were spot on, with some great storytelling in the finish as Ceddy took advantage of Kofi tweaking his leg coming off the top rope to pick up the win with the Lumbar Check. With Alexander picking up victories over Kingston and Xavier Woods in consecutive weeks, it looks like we’ll get New Day vs. Hurt Business scheduled for TLC on next week’s show.

 

Alexander & Benjamin turned up on RAW Talk later on, but the only noteworthy moment was R-Truth confusing Shelton Benjamin with Benjamin Button.

 

United States Champion Bobby Lashley def. Jeff Hardy

 

Perhaps surprisingly this was Lashley and Hardy’s first one on one match in WWE (although they had two bouts in TNA in 2014 and 2017) and this was certainly a match that happened this week. Nah, seriously, this was solid but much more about building to feud between Lashley and Riddle than it was about putting on an impressive singles match. The wrestling here was fine, with Hardy mostly fighting from underneath as he took beats from Lashley, whilst Riddle’s appearance allowed the Charismatic Enigma some breathing space against the United States Champion. The pair put together some nice exchanges like Lashley attempting to turn Hardy’s Twist of Fate into the Hurt Lock submission and the finish where Lashley dodged the Swanton Bomb to nail a spear and get the submission win with the aforementioned hold. However, for a match that went nearly 15 minutes, there was very little of note and I feel like the pair could have made better use of their time here.

 

Post-match, Lashley lobbed Hardy at Riddle (who kept turning up with his “Bronuts” throughout the show and earlier suggested he and Jeff could team as “The Hardy Bros”). If Riddle wasn’t such a trash human then this could be an interesting feud.

Mixed Tag Team Match: Ricochet & Dana Brooke def. RETRIBUTION (SLAPJACK & RECKONING) 

Remember when Retribution were a big deal? Now they’re getting beaten by Dana Brooke in under two minutes. Brooke and RECKONING had a cat fight, Ricochet hit a rana and corkscrew tope on Slapjack, Slapjack hit a Falcon Arrow on Ricochet then missed a cannonball, RECKONING hit a Jon Woo on Brooke, who instantly recovered to win with a Samoan Driver. That was it. Quite fun to watch, but completely pointless.

After the match Mustafa Ali kicked off at SLAPJACK and RECKONING, so maybe that’s going somewhere. But let’s be honest Retribution has been a complete disaster.

 

Finally…

 

ATPW Scale Rating – 3.68/10

All in all this was a watchable episode of Monday Night RAW, but one that didn’t provide a whole lot to talk about heading out of the show. Besides, the brewing issues with Drew McIntyre and Sheamus that are completely overshadowing what should be a massive showdown between McIntyre and AJ Styles at TLC and a hokey finish between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt, I’m sure what my main takeaway from this episode was. Asuka and Baszler had a good match that was needlessly thrown away on TV, Shelton Benjamin and Kofi Kingston looked awkward as fuck with each other and the rest of the action was somewhere in between. Meanwhile, I wasn’t given much of a reason to tune in next week (Nia Jax vs. Lana?) and arguably even less of a reason to give a shit about TLC.

 

PPV Review // WWE Evolution // Ronda Rousey vs. Nikki Bella

On 28th October 2018, just over three week's removed from Super Show-Down, WWE presented it's first ever women's only PPV, Evolution, at the Nassau Colliseum in Uniondale, New York. Billed as a historic moment for women everywhere, the show was main evented by Ronda Rousey defending her RAW Women's Championship against Nikki Bella, whilst other top matches saw Charlotte Flair get a shot at Becky Lynch's SmackDown Women's Championship in a Last Women Standing match and an NXT Women's Championship match between champion Kairi Sane and challenger Shayna Baszler, whilst Sash Banks, Trish Stratus, Natalya, Mickie James and Kelly Kelly were all also in action. But was it any good? Lets take a look.

Trish Stratus & Lita returned for their first matches since the Royal Rumble in January, picking up the victory over Mickie James & Alicia Fox in a simple and fun opening match, that had more than a little nostalgia to help it through. Whilst both Stratus & Lita have performed on a number of occasions since their "retirement" matches, this was the longest either has spent in the ring since 2006, so it would be unfair to comment on some of the sequences being a little awkward, especially considering there was more than enough that worked. A handful of nice moments between Stratus and James, especially the build up to the top rope rana, made this more than worth it's spot on the card. James and Fox both worked hard to make their opponents look every inch of the stars that they possibly could, with some sound and solid heel work, helped by logical booking, whilst James in particular sold very well, in one of her best performances since her return. It's a shame that Alexa Bliss was out injured as her involvement would have upped the level of "moments" that could have taken place within the match and whilst Fox has a nice Northern Lights suplex, she felt more like someone there to make up the numbers and even ended up being out of position on breaking up a nearfall right at the end. What really made this match come together though was the crowd treating it as something special, getting behind Stratus & Lita and booing James & Fox, stuff like that makes all the difference for me as a viewer at home adding to each moment or spot the ladies went for. 

Dasha Fuentes interviewed The Bella Twins with Nikki possibly cutting her best promo of all time, heeling it up fantastically as she dedicated her match to Ronda Rousey's Mom.

The IIconis got some promo time before the battle royal, which was cute, they mocked the legends and putting themselves over. You can guess the first spot of the match. 

Nia Jax earned a shot at the RAW Women's Championship, by last eliminating Ember Moon, in an entertaining over-the-top rope battle royal. The majority of the legends included were used to put over the regular roster with that and the fact that almost every elimination felt like it's own moment, meant that there were a number of wrestlers who came out of the battle royal better off for having taken part. The IIconics got a lot of time before the match before their instant elimination, Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose eliminated Molly Holly, Kelly Kelly and Torrie Wilson before Rose turned on Deville, Carmella got to dance with Ivory before helping her new friend to eliminate Rose and Asuka worked a nice sequence to eliminate Ivory. The highlight for me had to be Ember Moon eliminating Asuka, because the crowd was hot for a showdown between the two former NXT rivals and Moon finally managed to get one over on the woman she could never take the NXT Women's title off. There was some awkardness though, as Lana ended up being out position for a spot involving Jax and Tamina, whilst Carmella and Moon ended up cocking up a tilt-a-whirl rana spot, which Michael Cole would describe as rather unique. The crowd seemed to be behind Moon winning the match when it came down to her and Jax, which is always a problem when going for a babyface final two, but if it leads to something more substantial down the two, who have been portrayed as friends on RAW, then this finish will be absolutely fine.

After the match, Jax was interviewed by Charly Caruso about whether she'd rather face Nikki Bella or Ronda Rousey for the title, with Jax wishing them both the best and telling them to enjoy the moment, because it won't last long. Short and simple and got a big pop, lovely stuff. 

Toni Storm won the 2018 Mae Young Classic in a ten minute sprint of a match with Io Shirai. The bout was choc-full of action from the beginning, kicking off with some technicality before launching into a series of big moves and reversals that didn't stop until Storm hit her second Storm Zero for the win. Obviously, with more time the pair could have worked some better storyline elements into things and created a match with more depth, but the brevity also made the match stand out on a card that was packed with big time singles matches in it's second half. The two have competed a number of times together in Stardom in Japan over the last two and half years and that was clear to see from the crispness of their action, the speed at which they moved and the number of risks they took for a couple of memorable spots. The work towards the German suplex on the apron from Storm and Shirai's beautiful moonsault to the outside stand out in particular, whilst Shirai's sunset flip was something else too. It was a shame we didn't get a few more convincing near falls for Shirai, which felt mostly down to the time the two had, but to pack ten minutes with such high quality, exciting pro wrestling is a testament to the talent of both women. Hopefully we see a lot more them both in NXT and NXT UK soon.

Bayley, Sasha Banks and Natalya picked up the win over Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan (collectively known as the Riott Squad) in a six woman tag that was put together well, but fell apart later on for a number of reasons. The first of these reasons was Sasha Banks seemingly being at least a half step of the pace for her hot tag, which did come after some lovely work from the Riott Squad and Bayley as the hugger in peril. There were a number of sequences that Banks had that just weren't up to scratch, that featured good ideas, but didn't pay off. With The Boss working the hot tag this obviously hurt the match, killing the pace and knocking timing off in other areas. The biggest problem came when Banks attempted what I think was supposed to be a tope con hilo and had to be saved by her opponents. The other issue for me was the spot that saw Bayley jumping on top of Banks to save her from a diving senton from Riott, which was just a stupid thing to do. Maybe if the timing had been better it would have looked like a heroic moment of friendship, but at the time it happened simply pushing Riott off the top rope or moving Banks out of the way made much better sense. There were some nice moments like Morgan breaking up a double sharpshooter from Natty on Riott and Logan, the bout was structured nicely for the spot on the card it had, which makes it even more frustrating that the bout didn't live up to it's potential had everything gone to plan. The Riott Squad losing another big match so soon after Super Show-Down probably means it's time to end the group and send Riott out on her own.

In the only title change of the night, Shayna Baszler won back the NXT Women's Championship from Kairi Sane in Evolution's second best match, using the Kirufuda clutch for submission victory. Whilst a notch down from their NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 4 match, Baszler and Sane continued to show plenty of chemistry, with their two characters seemingly made to get the other over. The back and forth flurry at the start grabbed the crowd well with the brawling being some of the best work in the match as Sane looked to go toe to toe with the harder striker. Sane's diving crossbody to the floor, as well as Baszler getting lobbed over the barricade onto some NXT performers at ringside provided the match with some replayable moments later on and whilst the narrative wasn't as strong as their last encounter Baszler did some solid work targeting the arm that Sane sold well. The finish was perhaps a little overbooked with Baszler's Four Horsewomen pals Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir getting involved for a couple of spots on the road to Baszler being able to lock in the Kirafuda Clutch for a second time. This followed on from a call-back near fall as they repeated the finish from Brooklyn, that perhaps deserved a better reaction from the Nassau Coliseum. I'm looking forward to seeing where this feud goes next on NXT, how Sane goes about looking to regain the title and how the Duke & Shafir play into the story.

The match of the night came in the form of a Last Woman Standing match that saw Becky Lynch retain the SmackDown Women's Championship against Charlotte Flair. This was easily in the Top 5 of it's type in WWE (maybe higher) for me, with Lynch and Flair producing a physical and compelling match-up with plenty of big spots and animosity. The crowd being almost completely behind Lynch throughout with Flair able to flip into a tweener role worked well, for a number of sequences, without diluting the edge that has made Lynch's "heel turn" so fun to begin with, including an early moment with Lynch going nuts with a kendo stick. There was some recycled tropes that from recent Last Man Standing matches, like Lynch burying Flair under a pile of chairs, but more often than not the action was creative with a general feeling of escalation for each highspot and near fall. Particular highlights for me included the nasty looking back suplex onto a chair from Flair, the Figure Eight using the ladder and the mad leg drop off a ladder through the announce table from Lynch. Flair's back suplex onto a chair. There were a couple of moments that didn't seem to go anyway, with the brawl in the crowd being a particular creative cul-de-sac, as well as the terrified look on Lynch's face when Flair escaped the rubble, which I'm sure looked good on paper but came across as particularly lame in execution. Often these types of matches can struggle to find a satisfying finish after packing in so much action, but I felt Flair and Lynch came up with big enough spot to conclude this one with Lynch powerbombing Charlotte off the apron through a table to retain her title. The move looked brutal and both women sold it well, whilst there was also a question about whether Flair could still make it back to her feet to keep the match going. Overall, I feel like this is the match that the PPV will be remember for amongst the majority of fans and both women should be proud of what is probably their best match since leaving NXT.

Whilst it probably would've had been better received in a different spot on the card, Ronda Rousey's victory over Nikki Bella, was a serviceable main event that did a stellar job of placing Rousey in an underdog role. The structure was simplistic but played to the strengths of the three characters involved, perhaps ironically using elements of the finish of Rousey's Four Horsewoman stablemate Shayna Baszler's NXT Championship match earlier in the night, as Brie Bella allowed Nikki to control the mid-section of the match following absolute domination from Rousey. It's easy to dislike the Bella Twins, especially one returning to main event a PPV, meaning there was lots of fun to be had in Rousey lobbing both of them about the place, including sending Brie over the announce table and perhaps into orbit. A couple of big spots gave the match a WWE main event feel, with  the double reverse kata-gurama, the aforementioned announce table spot and a sweet top rope transition into the armbar as the finish standing out, whilst Bella also got a strong near fall off an slightly awkward Rack Attack 2.0. Yes, it could have been longer, but another five minutes almost definitely would have exposed either Rousey or Bella, probably both. There's a strong argument to be made that Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch deserved to be the main event with the pair much more capable of closing the show, and personally I can see that this swap would have benefitted both matches, whilst also understanding WWE's decision to have Rousey (who is one of the biggest stars of any gender in the company right now) close their first ever women's only PPV as they make her focal point of the promotion. The fact that Rousey main evented the show could also provide fuel for the rumoured WrestleMania match between Rousey and Flair. 

ATPW Scale Rating - 6.94/10 

Show in a Sentence - A real triumph, that proved many doubters wrong, showcasing the depth and potential of the current female roster, whilst celebrating the stars of the past. 

Written by James Marston 

NXT TakeOver: New Orleans Preview

On 7th April, NXT is set to take over the Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LO, as part of the WWE's Wrestlemania weekend, however, in a confusing reversal of situations, the pre-Mania TakeOver is more like NXT's SummerSlam than it is their WrestleMania, their WrestleMania, of course, being the annual Brooklyn show, which takes place the day before Summerslam. Anyway, we here at ATPW sure do love our previews, so here's one for this show, think of it like a pre-show but with no Peter Rosenberg so much better. Talking of pre-shows, why not tune in for the KickOff at Midnight (if you're in America, please check your local listings) with an all-star panel including NFL All-Pro Punter Pat McAfee (whatever that means) giving us all the chat and discussion required for an hour before the actual show at 1am (once again, check your listings, US). Till then, why not enjoy this preview with the sounds of our themes for this show courtesy of New Orleans own, Cane Hill...

NXT North American Championship Ladder Match:     EC3 vs Adam Cole Velveteen Dream vs Ricochet vs Lars Sullivan vs Killian Dain

I would imagine there's a strong chance this match opens the show as its a match with little build, little in the way of emotional attachment but with six men and a whole load of ladders set to be in the ring, has the potential to set the stage with some good and crazy action. This match, and indeed, title, have been mostly made to accommodate the expanding ranks of the NXT Men's Single's division making it so that everyone going after one title is getting ridiculous. What about the United Kingdom Championship I hear you ask, surely that title could have been expanded in its focus in order to accommodate such a position? Well, the answer is fuck off, we don't need your kind of logic around here. Also, with UK Champion Pete Dunne in the Tag Title match later, it's not like they could have a non-full time talent working double duty. Still, what works well here is that there is no way to predict which of these six men will be taking the title with a strong mix of indie darlings like the debuting EC3 & Ricochet through to Velveteen Dream & Lars Sullivan, two men who've cut their teeth here in NXT and really made themselves cornerstones of their division. 

What to expect from this one is an interesting thought as beyond Ricochet, we don't really have many flippy boys in this so traditional WWE ladder match booking would suggest he'll do the really cool spot that everyone talks about but not win it, Dain & Sullivan still feel like even after this week's NXT, they still have some unresolved issues so likelihood is, the feuding between those two might distract them from climbing that ladder which leaves Cole who might not even be in the match as he might be helping O'Reilly defend the tag-team titles, Dream who is just wonderful in every way & EC3, a man who by the end of the night, everyone will realise he is what Bobby Roode pretended to be, if they don't know, now they'll know. This is my long-winded way of saying I don't know, spoiler alert though, it's probably going to be at least a little bit good.

NXT Tag Team Championship & Dusty Classic Cup: Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) (c) vs Strong x Bitter & Authors of Pain

You may notice that Adam Cole is in the photo above as well. This is because over the past month/s, NXT has been running the third Dusty Rhodes Tag-Team Classic, an eight-team tournament for the prestigious title, previously won by Finn Balor & Samoa Joe and Authors of Pain, but also a shot at the Tag-Team Championships. On the one side of the finals, we had the previous winners Authors of Pain who smashed through TM-61 and Street Profits to get here and on the other side, Pete Dunne and Roderick Strong, a make-shift team formed after Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) were forced to bow out when Tyler aggravated an angle injury while at Brighton's Riptide Wrestling, who fought past Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan and SAnitY to make it here. With poor Bobby Fish out on injury, Kyle O'Reilly and Cole decided to crash the final and cause a double disqualification, no winners, no challengers, smart eh? so O'Reilly was given three choices: wrestle alone, Cole does double-duty or Cole drops out of the Ladder Match.

Unsurprisingly, it seems he's chosen to work double duty, so one of the major factors of this match in play is card order as Cole or Cole & O'Reilly are at a significant disadvantage depending on which match goes on last of the two, though if this is the first of the two, it puts all three teams on a roughly equal-footing as Undisputed Era have beaten Authors of Pain before (twice if you count War Games), Authors of Pain have won tag gold, dusty cups and tag three-way dances before and the team we here like to call Strong x Bitter have tag-team success written through their DNA with former PROGRESS, Ring of Honor & PWG reigns between them, a UK title still in their team's grasp and the knowledge that the first Dusty Classic was won by a makeshift team like them. If it's not clear, as a Midlands boy myself, I'm calling a win for Strong x Bitter and rooting for them but mostly, I'm just looking forward to watching some good, solid tag action. Expect lots of big strikes, big moves and at one point, if we're lucky, Pete Dunne will punch Adam Cole out of the air. Won't that be a treat?

NXT Women's Championship: Ember Moon (c) vs Shayna Baszler

If you're getting a sense of deja vu, yes, we did only recently see this match at the last TakeOver and also once more in between, as well as frequent attacks on each other. The dispute between these revolves around Baszler thinking Moon isn't fit to lead as she couldn't defeat Asuka, she couldn't hit the Eclipse on Baszler who kept her grounded having to use a roll-up to get victory and when Baszler was given another match, she won but via disqualification after an angry Kairi Sane returned and attacked her, only for Baszler to make reasonably easy work of Sane. Much like last time, expect this match to come down to a David-Goliath type match-up with Moon once again seeking that Eclipse top-rope stunner while Baszler will want to lock in and preferably never let go of the Kirifuda Clutch. As to whom shall walk out of that arena with the title, it's hard to call, it feels like Ember is only ever one Eclipse away from retaining but especially with her friend Ronda Rousey making her pro-wres debut the next night, it seems like maybe Baszler is being set up to take the title and run with it for a while, especially as there's still some unsolved animosity between Baszler, Sane and Dakota Kai to sort out if Moon were to make the move Main Roster-wards...

Unsanctioned Match: Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa

This has been a long time coming, almost a year in fact. Let me take you back to Chicago as after they'd just lost their last shot at the NXT Tag Team Titles, Ciampa would turn viciously on Gargano, knowing that he was going to be out for a while on injury time, he wanted to make a statement before he did, one that for a long time, broke Gargano, forcing him to try and exorcise the monkey on his back that is Ciampa because that's what you do to monkey. Eventually Gargano started winning again, earning a shot at the NXT title but even then, wasn't quite enough and just as he was at his lowest, having lost his shot, there was Ciampa again because exorcising doesn't work on back monkeys, especially when they get involved in your Title vs Career rematch and force you to lose your job. It's at this point, the waters get muddied as Ciampa spent a few weeks struggling to get a word in edgeways as he simultaneously continued to be the best heel in NXT and also it's greatest hero for standing up to the awful sturmundrang of the NXT audience till he got tired of their caterwauling and Gargano's hounding of him and agreed to a match, unsanctioned of course because let's not forget, Gargano is fired but if he wins, he gets his job back, loses, he's gone forever.

There's almost too much history behind this match to cover but regardless, this is going to be one of the most emotional matches of the weekend, just as much, maybe more important to the wrestling scene as a whole than Kenny Omega vs Cody as every single second has the entire heart of NXT hanging in the balance, this is for something more important than the actual title, this is a match for the philosophical centre of the developmental brand, is this a place of good or evil? Also, most importantly, can this top Gargano v Almas because that shit was tight? As it's unsanctioned, expect this one to be more of a brawl than a technical classic. Ultimately, this seems like it's Gargano's match to win as he needs his job and assuming they get enough time for this, it's unlikely Ciampa looks any weaker in loss, especially coming back from a lengthy spell on the injured list but never count out the Sicilian psychopath as he might well pull it out of the bag, setting up his own chance at going after that big slice of NXT gold (and who amongst us doesn't see money in Black v Ciampa?) while Gargano, surely the bright post-mania lights of RAW or Smackdown could be a' callin'.

NXT Championship: Andrade Almas (c) vs Aleister Black

Cast your mind back to NXT TakeOver: Orlando last year, Tommy End, now going by the name Aleister Black made his official NXT debut (having competed against Neville at the United Kingdom Championship tournament) against Andrade 'Cien' Almas. It was a well-fought match but in the end, Black came out on top with reasonable ease. That was, however, a different Almas, that was Almas before he met Zelina Vega, that was Almas before his five-star classic with Johnny Gargano, that was the Almas that I usually dismissed by just calling him a 'lad'. He was floundering, now he's at the very top of the NXT pyramid of greatness and the man who calls himself 'The Idol' and '100' is a far more motivated and more dangerous man than he was this time last year, for proof of that, see how he dragged Black from car park to the ring, destroying and nearly drowning him along the way. Though in the other corner, somewhere between good and evil, sits Aleister Black, a man with only two losses to this particular name in NXT and one of those he wasn't even in or around the ring for, he's someone who's been on a tear and seemed like he's been destined for the NXT title since he stepped into Full Sail but no one should expect Almas and definitely not Vega to go down without one heck of a fight.

Pardon the innuendo but expect this one to go long and stiff as even with their differing backgrounds, both men are known as much for their technical expertise as the swift, hard-hitting nature of their strikes. They are both also known to bust out a moonsault or two every so often so that'll be fun. As much as Gargano-Ciampa is the biggest story going into the show, I'd still expect this one to go on last as it's the main title, it really should and I don't see any world in which if Gargano and Ciampa haven't tore the entire house down, that these two don't tear down the rest. As to who's walking out with that lovely golden belt, as much as I'd love to see Almas hold on to it forever, I think that Black is walking out with his first WWE prize slung over his shoulder and you know what, if the crowd chant 'you deserve it' at him, yeah, he bloody well does.

Any Other Predictions...

So with Pete Dunne in the Tag match, it's unlikely there'll be a separate UK Championship match, as a result, I'm going to assume the card is just these five matches and I'm fine with that as I can't see any of them not being at least good. This being a TakeOver, this is really the bit where I mostly speculate about what 'hottest free agent' will be in the crowd, this time around, I will keep saying that it could be Christopher (Donovan) Dijak but really it could be anyone. I mean, as part of the deal with PROGRESS and EVOLVE, Keith Lee, WALTER, Zack Gibson and others will be participating in Axxess so who knows? If it turns out to be Jason Kincaid, I don't really know anything about him so you'll have to come up with your own thoughts. Of course, the big question we all have is will Triple H appear and do a big crowd warm-up 'we are NXT' speech? I hope so, who doesn't pop for those every, damn, time?

Article By Jozef Raczka (@NotJoeRaczka)

WWE NXT Review // 21st March 2018

On 21st March 2018, WWE aired its 292nd episode of NXT, filmed at Center Stage, Atlanta, GA on 7th March. Our main event saw a pair of PWG Champions face off in the form of Adam Cole and Kassius Ohno. The undercard featured Raul Mendoza taking on NXT Champion Andrade Almas, Ember Moon against Aliyah and Dusty Classic First Round action in the form of Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch taking on Roderick Strong and a mystery opponent. But was it any good?

Ciampa Still Has Something to Say

Ciampa did his routine that he's done the last two weeks but this time actually said something as he told the crowd that Johnny Gargano was gone and he was never coming back and that all the people in the crowd with their signs should get used to it. He went around the crowd tearing up signs and squaring up to Nans till he went to tear up a sign near a man in a snazzy black and gold Lucha mask who turned out to be Johnny Gargano! Gargano leaping barricade would wail on Ciampa till security were able to separate them. This was well thought-out as clearly Gargano wasn't looking to wrestle, he just wanted to Ciampa in his stupid, bald face (definitely no bias here). If this isn't building to an Unsanctioned Match at TakeOver: New Orleans, I'll be damn surprised.

Charly Caruso gives us a recap of the Dusty Classic First Round thus far and 'exclusive' footage of Tyler Bate talking about his injuries forcing Moustache Mountain to drop out of the tournament. Roderick Strong does a mobile phone camera promo requesting a shot in the Classic in their place and thank goodness the production team don't add any word graphics to this.

Adam Cole & Kassius Ohno have a Twitter spat. The Undisputed Era, they talk about Roderick Strong being a loser, how no-one likes him and how whoever wins the Dusty Classic is heading for a loss, as is Ohno later.

Dusty Rhodes Classic First Round // Dunne & Strong def. Lorcan & Burch // Pinfall

So we get the debut of the team that Across the Pond Wrestling would like you to know as either Roderick Strong Style or Strong x Bitter, as I like my tag-teams like I like my coffee, I'm going for the latter (if anyone can organise Omari & Joe Coffey aka Black Coffey to face Strong x Bitter at Fight Club: PRO, please do). This wasn't quite the masterpiece I'd expected from these four who are capable of delivering some of the best performances in modern wrestling but for the time they were given they made the most of it with team Strong x Bitter working a technical masterclass and team Lorcan x Burch going for striking really, really hard and really, really often. It started strong and finished well but seemed to lose an amount of excitement in the middle section as Strong x Bitter worked on top, leading into the Lorcan hot tag but the crowd didn't seem willing to split their sympathies away from the de-facto heel team. The finish came as Strong got the pin off an End of Heartache on Burch. These two against Eric Young and Alexander Wolfe should be a lot of good, a lot of good indeed.

We get a video package for Trevor 'Ricochet' Mann who is coming to NXT TV soon.

Ember Moon def. Aliyah // Pinfall

Quick squash m8. Shayna Baszler came out and did guest commentary duties for this one and as often is the case with the WWE guest comms. style, there was no actual play-by-play, it was just an interview with Baszler while Moon and Aliyah grunted in the background. Moon won with the Eclipse if you cared.

Next Week: The Dusty Classic Semi-Finals come to town as Authors of Pain face Street Profits & SaNitY face Strong x Bitter.

Andrade Almas Vs. Raul Mendoza // Never Happens

As Mendoza was making his entrance, Almas jumped him and threw him off the stage before delivering an intense promo, calling Aleister Black a 'piece of shit' and telling the man in Black to face him in the ring. He doesn't, probably because he wasn't just hanging round backstage on a day he wasn't booked. While normally I prefer letting Zelina Vega do promo duties over her charge, Almas, he did a good job here of selling his seething rage. Keep going like this, he might not need Vega soon. Who am I kidding? Everyone needs Vega.

William Regal announces that next week he'll be making an announcement. Hopefully it will be announcing a best of seven series of him making announcements.

Adam Cole def. Kassius Ohno // Pinfall

There was one very annoyingly loud Adam Cole fan near one of the crowd mics, I will never not give credit to whoever created Ohno's current black and gold look outfit with 'boxing hoodie/wizard robe', I will continue to give no credit to this crowd who were about '60-40' split in support Cole-Ohno. Boo. The Heels. I'm getting bored of saying this because I think it's part-crowd response, part-Cole's performance style but whenever anyone calls Cole over as a heel, he is over, yes, but he never gets boos, this was basically face vs face. If you ignore that theoretically Cole was meant to be the villain here, this was very good in-ring action as two of the American Indies best quite simply beat the piss out of each other with a refreshing lack of interference by Fish and O'Reilly forcing Cole to step his game up to make his clean victory seem more convincing. While the intensity had a good build, for me, the match peaked in the first few minutes when during a running-the-ropes, leapfrog segment, Ohno booted Cole out of the air. It was nice seeing competition for competition's sake, beyond a few tweets, these two men were both just fighting to prove that the victor was worthy of more opportunities. The finish came as Adam Cole hit a Shining Wizard to the back of the neck for the pinfall. We all know that when it comes to violence, Cole has earned his stripes, now NXT needs to just work out if they can make people boo him or if it's worth making him the hero Atlanta clearly wants him to be. 

On The YouTubes

Johnny Gargano shmoozes with the fans outside but security stop him getting back into the building, he points out that they are selling his merch but not letting him inside and announces he's staying out there till Ciampa comes to him. See you next week, Johnny.

When the video says Kassius Ohno is speechless about his defeat, they aren't kidding.

Finally...

This was one of those weeks where a lot of what happened seems like it was more to push the story into the next act than it was to present a compelling section of the story in itself. Cole vs Ohno was definitely the match highlight of the show but it can't be argued that the biggest response of the show was the surprise return of Johnny Gargano. While they weren't here, I can't help but feel big things are on the horizon for the yellow brand. I'll see you when we get there.

Written By Jozef Raczka // @NotJoeRaczka