The WWE started revealing what Fastlane, its last pay-per-view show before WrestleMania, will look like during this week’s RAW and SmackDown shows, but the obvious theme of the week became the return of top Superstars.
As we break down the AllWrestling Weekly Power Poll, the returns of Roman Reigns, Batista and Kevin Owens factor into it as well as the continued dominant start to the main roster careers of NXT callups Aleister Black and Ricochet.
Before we get into the best of the week, some have asked for me a take on Superstars who also are down after a rough week. The RAW Tag Team Champions The Revival are tops on that list after losing a second straight week to NXT callups – Aleister Black and Ricochet – who aren’t even normally a tag team. SmackDown Women’s Champion Asuka also continues to be marginalized as she was off TV this week after losing to Mandy Rose last week. Though it was only a promo interview, Baron Corbin added nothing to RAW when asked backstage about his comments bashing Reigns while he was away from WWE TV. Likewise, Elias seems to be treading water with his interrupted performance gimmick while also defying logic in joining in with heels who terrorized him to gang up on Dean Ambrose.
Now, let’s take a look at the Superstars who came out of this week as its biggest winners:
They Didn’t Quite Make the List
Batista – Plenty cheered the return of Drax the Destroyer’s wrestling persona as he set up his desired return feud with Triple H for WrestleMania. I’m in the camp of I didn’t necessarily have to see this, but am interested to see where it goes. However, I was not on board with the story being told so far because it defies everything we know about these characters to this point. Batista always had a deferential relationship with Ric Flair, including a SmackDown 1000 appearance just months ago. In that show, Batista appeared as a face and Triple H played his trademark villain. Suddenly, Batista attacks his beloved mentor to get Triple H’s attention, flipping the roles of their characters. With no further story explanation, it didn’t work for me.
Charlotte Flair – The Queen didn’t give us anything we haven’t heard in her promo, and fans were chanting for Becky Lynch in The Queen City of Charlotte, N.C., where SmackDown took place. However, her appearance kept her in the spotlight and maintained the heel heat she’s been cultivating since Vince McMahon named her as Lynch’s replacement for WrestleMania. Charlotte got the job done, but may want to start thinking of other promo material rather than she’s the standard of the division; she’s always there doing what she’s supposed to do; and Becky and RAW Women’s Champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey are scared of her. She’s made these themes part of each promo she’s made the past few weeks, and the message will get stale by April if that’s all there is to it.
span style=”font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; color: #000000;”>Mandy Rose – God’s Greatest Creation lands on here purely for the announcement that she’ll get a one-on-one title shot against Asuka at Fastlane. It’s obviously the biggest match of Rose’s career to this point. Furthermore, it’s also fair to wonder whether Rose might walk out of Cleveland with the belt. She beat the Empress last week and WWE clearly has not given us any reason to believe they value Asuka as a champion. Given that Rose is one of the only members of the SmackDown women’s division not involved in the RAW title hunt to get TV time consistently, she may be a good bet to get that anticipated big push as a champion starting at Quicken Loans Arena.
Nia Jax & Tamina – Jax ate a singles loss to Bayley in one of the better matches on RAW, but the bigger news is that the imposing Samoans will get the first chance to unseat The Boss N Hug Connection as Women’s Tag Champs at Fastlane. This booking makes a lot of sense after Jax and Tamina looked dominant at Elimination Chamber, but lost when Jax lost consciousness after crashing through one of the chamber pods. Bayley and Jax also work well together in the ring, so this sets up as an entertaining matchup for a pay-per-view that is usually mediocre because it falls right in front of WrestleMania.
Top 10 Superstars List (Reverse Order)
10. Lio Rush – I grumbled a bit when The Man of the Hour and Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor put on a pedestrian promo during “A Moment of Bliss” to set up their match, but the in-ring work won me over. Rush used his high-flying offense and worked over Balor and his kayfabe knee injury to make this perhaps the most successful match on RAW this week. Though Balor ultimately won as everyone expected, Rush convincingly pushed him to his limits. I wasn’t as excited for Rush to patch things up with Bobby Lashley as they both got trucked by Braun Strowman in the next match. After Lashley attacked Rush recently, I was hoping Rush would join sides with Strowman or faces against The Almighty.
9. United States Champion R-Truth – Many fans bash The Dance Break King as champ, but he put on one of the more entertaining segments of the week in his Open Challenge match against Andrade and Rey Mysterio. Truth also set up a decent gimmick as wanting to be the leader of Cenation while Big Match John is off filming movies. Though the challengers did most of the heavy lifting in the ring, Truth asked himself WWJCD – What Would John Cena Do? – and rolled up Mysterio to get a big win himself. I may be in the minority, but I’m a fan of Truth getting some champion run for as long as it lasts.
8. Women’s Tag Champ Bayley – The Hugger continues to remind the WWE Universe that it wasn’t long ago that she and The Boss were putting on Match of the Year candidates. For the past month, Bayley has wrestled her butt off and that didn’t change in her singles victory over Jax this week. They have good chemistry with the physical nature with which they work, and put on a brief but entertaining match that helped hype their impending tag team tussle at Fastlane. Though NXT Superstar Kairi Sane probably owns the most impressive top rope Elbow Drop these days, Bayley looked impressive with the one she hit on the Irresistible Force.
7. Drew McIntyre – The Scottish Pyschopath scored another victory over Dean Ambrose, this time in a No Disqualification match. Following the victory, McIntyre initiated a 4-on-1 ambush of Ambrose with Corbin, Lashley and Elias that led to Seth Rollins and Reigns coming out to clear the ring of the heels. McIntyre needed some victories after racking up several Ls to get Balor his push as champion. Though nothing is official yet, this might wind up being an important match that sets up McIntyre and Corbin against Reigns and Ambrose for what may be Dean’s last match at WrestleMania. Though some rumors are circulating WWE hopes Reigns can talk Ambrose into staying, McIntyre could benefit greatly from a storyline where he ends Ambrose’s WWE run should he remain firm that he wants to leave.
6. Aleister Black & Ricochet – The two NXT Halftime Heat buddies teamed up to knock off both the current RAW Tag Team Champs – The Revival – and the team of former United States Champions – Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev – on SmackDown. It’s the second straight week they pulled double duty and emerged with a pair of victories. Though I hope this isn’t the start of a long run as tag team partners on the main roster, they are an entertaining team to watch and work well together. Whether they wind up as future tag champs or both being inserted into mid-card title feuds, the sky appears to be the limit for two of the more impressive Superstars at the moment. Triple H is the one reportedly behind the decision to build up the NXT callups and it’s been incredibly effective to this point.
5. Becky Lynch – As expected, Lynch crashed RAW, whacked a few “dopes” with crutches and got arrested at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. As usual of late, she appeared on TV for 5 minutes or so and set the wrestling fan base on social media on fire and even inspired the birth of new WWE merchandise with a new mug shot T-shirt. Lynch also managed to do some of the most effective promo work of the week without a monologue – yelling “I need these hands to hold up the title” and that the McMahons should be arrested for robbing her of her WrestleMania opportunity at the indie wrestlers WWE cast as Atlanta police officers. Lynch brought the chaos and spectacle needed to make it the most effective scene of the week for WWE outside of the returning Superstars.
4. Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor – The monster push for Finn continues as he’s very quietly racked up victories in all 9 of the singles/tag matches for which he’s been booked on RAW in 2019. He came off a little too vanilla to Alexa Bliss’ over-the-top flirting before Rush came out to interrupt “A Moment of Bliss.” Though the Balor-Rush promo went over with a thud, their match effectively gave Rush creditability as a threat and made Balor look like a resilient champion who can overcome all obstacles to retain his belt. The Balor Club hasn’t had this type of momentum since winning the Universal Championship shortly after his main roster promotion in 2016. Expect him to keep rolling all the way through WrestleMania.
3. Kevin Owens – The former Universal Champion returned to WWE TV for the first time since October after having surgery on both knees. He certainly knew how to make an entrance, too, coming out in the opening segment of SmackDown with Chairman Vince McMahon who promptly named him as Kofi Kingston’s replacement in the WWE Championship match against “The New” Daniel Bryan at Fastlane. This isn’t entirely the Owens we remembered, though. He’s now doing work as a face and is using a new finisher – The Stunner – made famous by the iconic Stone Cold Steve Austin. It’s a new wrinkle for Owens, but I’d be shocked if he isn’t a heel again soon. He teamed up with Kingston in the SmackDown main event and worked a good return match against Rowan and Bryan, who is celebrating the longest singles world title run of his career now at 107 days.
2. RAW Women’s Champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey – For once, some of the awkwardness Rousey experiences doing promos worked in her favor as she delivered her ultimatum to Stephanie McMahon. Ticked off that Lynch assaulted her best friend Natalya and crashed their tag match with the Riott Squad, Rousey came off as authentic in being a champion at her wit’s end who wants nothing more than a chance at giving Lynch her comeuppance. Now that she’s laid down her belt in protest of Lynch not being reinstated for their showdown at WrestleMania, Rousey will be in an interesting position on RAW. It’s a strong possibility the title winds up in Charlotte Flair’s hands when she appears on RAW next Monday. WWE made a big deal on Wednesday of Lynch no longer being included on the advertised Fastlane card. It seems unlikely that Flair, Lynch and Rousey all sit out a pay-per-view show, doesn’t it? Though it’s not out of the question, I’d feel cheated if I bought a ticket to that show and nobody in the hottest feud in the company worked it.
1. Roman Reigns – It’s good to have The Big Dog back. Unquestionably, the best news to come out of WWE programming this week is that Reigns is in remission in his bout with leukemia. Regardless of what you think of his work as Reigns, you have to cheer the health of Joe Anoa’i, a family man who has gone out of his way to help charities throughout his time in the WWE. Though I’d hoped his absence and the ensuing ratings plummet that occurred on RAW after his health announcement in October would give fans perspective on how good he is, I’m already seeing plenty of “I’m happy for the man but already dreading the performer” takes on social media. As the roster is currently constituted, Reigns is the best talent on RAW right now. He will undoubtedly make the show stronger and anybody but hardcore Reigns trolls can see that.
One More Thing on Reigns
On a side note, one of the worst things I’ve seen this week is the growing number of people spouting opinions that Reigns’ leukemia was all a work and demanding proof it’s not. Putting the ridiculousness of faking leukemia and the backlash that would cause aside, it’s disgusting to me that people don’t respect what Reigns did. He didn’t owe the fans an explanation about his personal health; he volunteered it. As a fellow cancer survivor, I can tell you that when you are first diagnosed it’s a crushing feeling. I can only imagine the emotions going through his mind that night in October. Reigns opening up that part of his life to fans deserves more respect and feelings of endearment, not blatant disrespect and calls for him to share his medical records. Here’s hoping wrestling fans can be better than this going forward.