This Week in Pro Wrestling: Wrestlemania hype is real, The Miz's clout is growing, King Woods finally returns
IT’S FINALLY HERE ATTACK THE CULTURE FAMILY! IT IS WRESTLEMANIA WEEK! It was an exciting week to build to this point as well. Raw and Smackdown were awesome. So let’s start there.
The Raw truth…
Raw had one of the best opening segments I have seen in a long time. Let’s just say, KO 3:16 just stole the whole damn week. The glass broke and even I was like “HOLY SH*T! NO WAY!” And KO didn’t fail. He came out in his best cosplay version of Stone Cold Steve Austin. He straight up crushed his promo. This is turning into one of the most anticipated segments for Mania weekend. KO has built this up phenomenally. How does Stone Cold take this going into their ‘interview?’ I can’t wait to see.
The Miz had a great night as a heel as well. During the Mysterio’s tag match Miz used this time to capitalize on a moment to humiliate the legend. The unspoken rule of not messing with a luchador’s mask was broken. Miz snatched it off Rey’s head. Big no-no. Miz has indeed raised the stakes for their match at Mania. The Mysterio’s are going to be on a war path toward Miz and Logan Paul. Going into Monday night, the Mysterio’s have to counter with something big to show they’re not backing down.
Seth Rollins is DESPERATE to get his moment at Wrestlemania. So much so, he challenged AJ Styles for his spot against Edge on the grandest stage. This match was nothing short of Mania worthy itself. AJ was all set to go for the Phenomenal Forearm and here comes Edge to ensure he gets AJ at Mania. It cost Seth his last chance at Mania. Seth snapped.
He lost by no fault of his own and he made sure management knew his frustration as the show went off air. What will Seth do now? Per twitter Seth has a meeting with the boss Vince Mcmahon on Monday morning. Is this how we the the Visionary at Mania? Is there a plan in place? I hope so.
Time to layeth the Smackdown…
Smackdown was even better. Brock staked out Roman’s locker room. In the most savage of ways, he just put his feet up and hung around all night waiting for the Tribal Chief to arrive. He waited a while, so we will come back to this.
The return of one of my favorites in King Woods was fantastic. No one expected him to return, much less compete. He stole a victory from The Fight Night crew’s Ridge Holland. It was a glorious moment. The King is back and he got redemption for his injured brother, Big E. (We miss you E!)
It was a rough night for Intercontinental Champion Ricochet though. Both Los Lotharios proved to outsmart the champ and pick up victories over him. They earned the right to challenge Ricochet for his IC title on Mania Friday before Mania in a triple threat match. Even in a triple threat match, Ricochet against a tag team is tough. Should be a high flying one next week.
Brock is waiting and waiting and here comes the tribal chief with Paul Heyman. Roman cut his promo calling out Brock, and Brock responded by coming through the crowd with a chair in hand ready to draw blood. He hit anything that moved with a chair as the Head of the Table made an abrupt exit. Advertised as the biggest match of all time, we will have to wait and see. These two are at their peaks right now and if the match is as good as the build, it may very well be in that conversation with Rock/Austin, Taker/Shawn Michaels, hell even Hogan/Andre the Giant. Only time will tell this coming week.
Don't forget about All Elite Wrestling…
With all the excitement around Wrestlemania, AEW had a pretty good week in Texas this week. CM Punk had a really dope match with Dax Wheeler of FTR. I did not expect what they put out. It was entertaining as hell even with the Gunn Club making a surprise run in.
The match of the night though was Adam Cole and Jay Lethal. These two tore it down in the ring. redDRagon made an appearance with proved too much for Lethal. He had the match under control until they had the ref distracted for Adam Cole to drop the BOOM on Jay. Afterwards, Cole called out Hangman Page who couldn’t help himself in coming to confront Cole. This is going to be a long burn, but damn if it isn’t a good one. I still believe Cole will walk away champion soon, it’s just a matter of when. Page has had a good run, but Cole is too damn good not to have gold around his waist.
Maxwell Jacob Friedman. MJF. The guy who can cut a promo harder than anyone in the world right now, lit the damn mic on fire this week. He got personal when it comes to his new target Wardlow. Wardlow made a deal with the devil, and it shows. MJF cut SUPER deep going after Wardlow’s mother and his status in AEW. The security team holding Wardlow back earned their paycheck this week. This could get a little uncomfortable to watch as I am sure this one is going to get EXTRA violent. Give MJF credit. He takes his role as heel seriously. There is nothing he won’t say, much like Chris Jericho of old.
Speaking of Jericho. The Jericho Appreciation Society made their debut. In dominating fashion, they made light work of their opponents. Eddie Kingston with Santana & Ortiz were not at the show. They will have their revenge, but when and where is something we will have to wait and see.
What an amazing week. So much so I couldn’t cover it all. Hit me up on the social media if you want to discuss this week more. Like, the Jeff Hardy Swanton or Mox/Bryan Danielson spots. Hell even Sami Zayn had a good spot. Hit me up on twitter: @zero2hero or IG: Rproctor23. I will be attending Wrestlemania Saturday night in Dallas, so I may not have an update for next week. Make sure you tune in!
