This Week In Pro Wrestling: Elimination Chamber shocks the world w/ Bobby Lashley injury and AEW goes all in
Before I get into this week in professional wrestling, wanted to send a get well to Bobby Lashley who ended up in concussion protocol on a stunt went wrong. Will explain more later.
What a really entertaining week of wrestling over the last seven days! WWE came full circle with most of their stories at the Elimination Chamber, and AEW went ALL IN for their upcoming pay per view next month. Let’s start with the Elimination Chamber.
Not to anyone’s surprise, Roman Reigns retained against an aging Goldberg. I want to get this straight. I have no issues with Goldberg, and all he contributed to wrestling over his career. He was a great performer at one point in time. Now…not so much. Roman took a couple spears, but the match was never in question. Roman got the guillotine in and put him to sleep. We now have confirmation of at least the Universal Champ Roman Reigns will hold his spot going into Wrestlmania.
After that, the show got pretty interesting, setting up other storylines for the show of shows. Miz may have lost to Rey Mysterio, but he’s had to make a call to a soon to be tag partner going forward. There is rumor swelling around the return of Cody Rhodes. I seriously hope they do better than that for him. It would be an AWESOME reveal, but I am thinking it will be someone like one of the Paul brothers. The Women’s chamber match was great as well, with Bianca Belair finding a way to win among Raw’s top women. I was rooting for Liv, but her time just isn’t there yet. It will be, just keep watching.
Becky defended her title in typical Big Time form, as she has done many times. Setting up the much anticipated rematch between her and Bianca. Will that live up to last year’s match with Sasha? Have to wait and see. They are more than capable of stealing the show. The build is going to be fun for this one. Guess what, the road to Wrestlemania is in full effect. Raw and Smackdown are going to be must see television as the build up is growing.
Circling back to Bobby Lashley. He did not even get to compete in his title defense in the Chamber. A stunt gone bad with Seth Rollins and Austin Theory took a bad turn as Bobby was hit with the plexiglass as Theory was thrown into Bobby’s pod. As the match continued for me it was Riddle who stole the show. This guy has a HUGE future in front of him. He has had many instances of wanting to build something with Brock Lesnar, and after that performance in the Chamber maybe he has something with him in the future. But, Brock understood the assignment once Lashley couldn’t compete. Lashley’s pod was set to open but Brock kicked his way out of his and squashed EVERYONE. Even went as far as to hit Austin Theory with an F5 off the top of a pod. Super dope spot, and then we have a new WWE Champion. Setting up Brock v. Roman, Champion v. Champion.
…and then there was AEW
AEW came through in the clutch this week as well. CM Punk went with a pipebomb style promo against MJF. He got personal breaking out the viral picture of MJF as a kid taking a picture with his then hero. After winning last week, Punk got to pick the stipulation and location of his rematch with MJF. And now we have a Dog Collar match at AEW Revolution. MJF for the first time in his career was left speechless.
Bryan Danielson went to war with Lee Moriarty, and it was fantastic. Danielson wanted to send a message to Jon Moxley. Message was received and Mox came out to address Danielson about his proposed team up. Mox didn’t say yes or no. More so, it sounded like he wanted to fight him first to see if it’s worth his time and energy. Did you all get the same vibe? The wild card wants a fight, shocker. I hope we get it too, because those two are capable of setting a place on fire.
The return of Eddie Kingston put the Inner Circle in shambles. Jericho was all sorts of distracted and Jack Hagar couldn’t get it back on track. After Santana/Ortiz picked up the victory, Jericho went straight after Kingston. The time is coming for these two to settle it on the mic and in the ring. So, if you’re a fan of deep cutting promo’s and shoot style comments, you’re in for a treat. It’s coming. Just sit back and enjoy the chaos.
Lastly, Darby/Sammy. They just continue to set the bar for quality matches. Just such a well done and put together match. The match hit its peak when Andrade SMASHED his tablet across Darby’s head setting up the GTH for Sammy to pick up the victory. Andrade has time after time said he will be the one to take the TNT title. Andrade is making his claim to be next in line. Is Sammy going to take on the challenge? If that’s what’s next, AEW is going to get nuts during this build to Revolution.
As always, if I missed anything this week you wanted to discuss, hit me up on the social’s or in the comments section. Twitter: @Zero2Hero IG: Rproctor23 Until next week ATC fam.
