Road to WWE Wrestlemania 35: Week 1
The Royal Rumble was this past Sunday and it has definitely set the tone for the Road to Wrestlemania. During this Road to Wrestlemania, I will be reporting on major storylines, providing results for each show and update viewers on the Wrestlemania card. I will not be reporting rumors, speculation, and anything that hasn’t been seen on TV. With that being said, Monday Night Raw definitely got everyone’s attention. Ronda Rousey had another hard fought battle, but this it was against Bayley. After the match was over, Becky Lynch came out and declared her intentions to challenge Rousey for the Raw Women’s Championship at Wrestlemania. This feud has been brewing for several months now and now we get to see it come fruition. Another person who had a decision to make was Seth Rollins and it became clear that he is going after Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 35. Monday Night Raw also saw the start of a feud between Finn Balor and Bobby Lashley, which is interesting considering how close Balor came to winning the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble. A lot of people would love to see Balor have a championship again and this could be a great opportunity for him to get some gold again. The Elimination Chamber Pay-Per-View is less then a three weeks and the Women’s Tag Team Championships will be decided. The Riott Squad and Nia Jax and Tamina have qualified for the Chamber. The Elimination Chamber will be the key stop on the Road to Wrestlemania.
Smackdown also had some major Elimination Chamber implications to the show. Daniel Bryan introduced his new eco-friendly WWE Championship to the WWE Universe, but soon after Triple H announced that he would be defending the championship inside of the Elimination Chamber. His five challengers are AJ Styles, Randy Orton, Samoa Joe, Jeff Hardy, and Mustafa Ali. I personally think Orton and Styles should have been kept out of the match and had the Mysteri0-Andrade feud inserted in the match. Rey Mysterio and Andrade have had one of the best feuds on TV in a recent memory. I feel like they should be feuding over the WWE or United States Championship. Some feuds are title worthy and this is one of them. Speaking of the United States Championship, Shinsuke Nakamura regained the title at the Royal Rumble by defeating Rusev. That U.S. title had an interesting forty eight hours because on Smackdown Nakamura lost the title to R-Truth who then immediately defended it against Rusev. In the aftermath, it seems as if Nakamura and Rusev have formed a new alliance, which I find intriguing because of how good they have been as opponents. I am curious on how long Truth will run with the United States Championship since his character has always been a comedic character. The argument could be made that there are more deserving stars who should carry the title but in time we will see what happens.
Tuesday Night ended with 205 Live and a couple of interesting things happened. Mike Kanellis returned in a losing effort to Kalisto. Maria was on commentary and she had some very strong opinions, which make me think that something big is going to happen with her and Mike. I said I wasn’t going to talk about rumors but there has been a lot speculation about Mike, Maria and The Revival leaving WWE. It was already announced that Dean Ambrose would not be renewing his contract and that Hideo Itami was granted his release. With these rumors and speculations I am curious as to how this will effect things going into to Wrestlemania. Hideo Itami lost to Akira Tozawa and then was attacked by Daivari to end the show, which led to the report of Itami being released. 205 Live really needs to be pushed harder and put into the spotlight more than they are now. They should be on the main card of every pay-per-view. The last couple of years Wrestlemania Weekend has played host to NXT Takeover events, which have been nothing short of phenomenal. I will be including their road as well, because NXT plays a big part in WWE these days. This week’s Wednesday was more of a recap of this past Takeover, but there two great tag team match on this week’s episode. Kairi Sane and Io Sharai beat Jessemyn Duke and Marina Shafir, and in the other match The Forgotten Son beat the Street Profits. The Women’s and Tag Division will be interesting heading into NXT Takeover Brooklyn due to their being new champions. I am intrigued by who will challenge Tommaso Ciampa, Shayna Baszler, Johnny Gargano and War Raiders for their respective titles. Stay tuned on this journey to find out.
The Road to Wrestlemania has officially begun. Raw, Smackdown, 205 Live and NXT are working and striving to be a part of the biggest show of the year. Over the next nine weeks get ready to go on a journey towards the greatest show of the year. I hope their are some good twists and turns along the way. The Showcase of the Immortals is upon us. Who will be immortalized this year at Wrestlemania weekend?
RESULTS
WWE Raw
Seth Rollins defeated Dean Ambrose
Nia Jax and Tamina defeated Alexa Bliss and Mickie James
Baron Corbin defeated Kurt Angle
The Revival defeated Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins
Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan defeated Natalya and Dana Brooke
Ronda Rousey defeated Bayley
Braun Strowman defeated Drew McIntyre
WWE Smackdown Live
R-Truth defeated Shinsuke Nakamura
R-Truth defeated Rusev
The Uso’s defeated Heavy Machinery, The Bar and New Day
205 Live
Kalisto defeated Mike Kanellis
Akira Tozawa defeated Hideo Itami
NXT
Io Sharai and Kairi Sane defeated Jessemyn Duke and Marina Shafir
The Forgotten Sons defeated Street Profits
Current Wrestlemania 35 Card
WWE Universal Championship: Brock Lesnar(c) vs. Seth Rollins
Raw Women’s Championship: Ronda Rousey(c) vs. Becky Lynch
