The Road to WWE Wrestlemania 33: Week 8
This week on the Road to Wrestlemania we saw The Authority abuse their power and superstars punished for their loyalties. We also saw Wrestlemania matches changed and effected by those in power. Monday Night Raw started off with Mick Foley being fired by Stephanie McMahon. It resulted in Sami Zayn coming out to defend his mentor. Unfortunately for Zayn he was punished by taking on Samoa Joe. Zayn was not the only one punished throughout the night. Bayley was forced to face Nia Jax and if Nia won she would be added to the Women’s Title Match at Wrestlemania. Nia did win and now it will be a Fatal Four Way for the Raw Women’s Championship. Stephanie McMahon tried punishing Cesaro and Sheamus by putting them in a four on two handicap match against The Club and Big Cass/Enzo. The plan back fired because the two teams couldn’t get along which allowed Cesaro and Sheamus to get the victory. Raw ended with Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman in a pretty physical encounter. Before Reigns could finish off Strowman out came The Undertaker. The Deadman chokeslammed Strowman but found himself getting speared by Reigns to end Raw. Roman Reigns and The Undertaker will square off at Wrestlemania in which will be a match that fans will never forget.
Smackdown was very interesting to say the least. The show started off with AJ Styles accepting Shane McMahon’s challenge for Wrestlemania. AJ said he was going to beat up Shane again but before we got to that there was a classic tag team match. The Uso’s captured the Smackdown Live Tag Team Championships in a very classic match. They have had some good matches against each other but this was their best one yet. I wonder how much more they can raise they bar if they square off against each other at Wrestlemania? Throughout the night there were parodies by The Miz and Maryse mocking John Cena and Nikki Bella which was called Total Bellas Bulls***. They were actually quite entertaining and I am sure the mixed tag match at Wrestlemania will be just as entertaining. Smackdown ended with Shane McMahon in the middle of the ring wanting to confronting AJ Styles. Shane wasn’t having anything to do with AJ’s apology. In typical Shane fashion he leaped through the air and put Styles through the announce table. This match could possibly steal the show at Wrestlemania and I for one can’t wait to see how crazy these two get.
Following Smackdown 205 Live continued to be about two things. Those two things are a revolving door of men in Alicia Fox’s life and the fact that Neville continues to have great matches. Neville has been having some of the best matches of his life and is making his opponents look awesome. He’s been involved in some hard hitting battles which the Cruiserweight Division needs to keep doing. I am looking forward to Neville’s match against Austin Aries at Wrestlemania. I think it’s going to be match that people are going to be talking about at the end of the night. On NXT we saw a huge six man tag with Sanity taking on Roderick Strong, Tye Dillinger and No Way Jose. It was an all out brawl in the beginning and an all out brawl to end the show. The show ended with Ruby Riot(Heidi Lovelace) taking out Nikki Cross to even the odds for Strong, Dillinger and Jose. Even though there wasn’t much buildup Oney Lorcan an Andrade Almas had a very good match. It as announced the Almas will be taking on Aleister Black(Tommy End) at Takeover Orlando. There is one more week left until the show of shows, the grandest stage of them all and the showcase of the immortals. Wrestlemania weekend is coming together and it looks it will be a phenomenal weekend. Check back next week to find out what takes place in the final week on the Road to Wrestlemania
Matches of the Week:
Raw: Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn
Smackdown: American Alpha vs. The Uso’s for the WWE Smackdown Live Tag Team Championships
205 Live: Neville vs. Mustafa Ali
NXT: Oney Lorcan vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas
