Road to WWE Wrestlemania 35: Week 6
This week on the Road to Wrestlemania, it was the lead up to WWE Fastlane and I can honestly say that there is not a lot that stuck out to me. The biggest thing coming out of Raw this week is Ronda Rousey finally turning heel and unleashing a ruthless attack on Becky Lynch. This is one of those things that WWE often does that I don’t care for. For a while now, it’s been common knowledge that it’s going to be a Triple Threat Match at Wrestlemania 35. It really annoys me when the pro wrestling world tries to insults the fans intelligent. Unfortunately, the internet has ruined that mystery, suspense and surprise factor to a lot of these big storylines. Even though the the story has been wacky I do believe Rousey, Flair and Lynch are going to have one of the greatest Women’s Matches in the history of the company. The other notable news coming out of Raw this week is The Shield reuniting once again. At Fastlane, they will take on the team of Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre. I really feel like this reunion is forced and poorly timed, because we all know that Dean Ambrose is reportedly leaving the company. The other reason this is taking place is, because our reigning, defending and undisputed Universal Champion Brock Lesnar hardly shows up on the Road to Wrestlemania. I hope over the next four weeks Lesnar actually shows up more than once to start building towards the biggest show of the year.
Smackdown finally saw the crowning of a new champion. R-Truth who has been an absolute joy to watch recently had another United States Championship Open Challenge. This time Truth was met by three opponents in the form of Samoa Joe, Andrade and Rey Mysterio. These four men had an incredible match, which any of them could have won. It was Samoa Joe standing tall at the night of the match as the new United States Champion. This has been a very long time coming for Joe as he has not yet had a Wrestlemania match since he’s been in WWE. I don’t know who Joe’s opponent will be going into Mania, but hopefully it’s a match that will help elevate the United States Championship. Smackdown also saw the return of Mustafa Ali who returned from being injured several weeks back. He came to the aide of Kevin Owens, while he was being attacked by Daniel Bryan and Rowan. Ali was originally suppose to be in the Elimination Chamber and getting the massive push that Kofi Kingston is getting. I will be curious to see what they do with Mustafa Ali going forward. I do think he deserves a chance at the WWE Championship and a prime spot, but we will have to wait and see what they have planned for Mustafa Ali.
Tuesday Night ended with 205 and the continuation of the #1 Contenders Tournament for a shot at Buddy Murphy at this years Wrestlemania. Even though I am not happy about the division not bringing in new talent both matches were stellar. Lorcan and Carrillo tore the house down and I was really shocked to see Oney Lorcan get the victory. Cedric Alexander and Akira Tozawa also had a great match that could have gone either way. This tournament is now down Alexander, Lorcan, Tony Nese and Drew Gulak. All four of them have good cases as to why they should be facing Buddy Murphy at Wrestlemania, but it remains to be seen which one will win this tournament. Another tournament taking place is the Dusty Rhodes Classic, which is a tag team tournament where the winners get a NXT Tag Team Championship Match at NXT Takeover NYC. Teams like DIY, Moustache Mountain, The Forgotten Sons and the team of Aleister Black and Ricochet have all moved on in the tournament. The winner will have the uneasy task of taking on the War Raiders. NXT Takeover is starting to take shape, but it will be very interesting to see who will get to perform on NXT’s biggest show of the year.
Wrestlemania is just four short weeks away and there is a lot we don’t know. Once Fastlane is over this Sunday I am sure we will know more. One thing for sure is that the next four weeks of television are going to be some of the most exciting TV we have seen in quite some time. Until next week, the Road to Wrestlemania rolls on.
Raw
Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley & Baron Corbin def. Intercontinental Champion Finn Bálor, Braun Strowman & Kurt Angle
Natalya def. Ruby Riott
Heavy Machinery def. The B-Team, The Ascension and Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins (Tag Team Gauntlet Match)
Elias def. Dean Ambrose
Tamina def. WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Sasha Banks
Raw Tag Team Champions The Revival def. Aleister Black & Ricochet by DQ
Smackdown
The Miz defeated Jey Uso
Samoa Joe defeated R-Truth, Andrade and Rey Mysterio to become the new United States Champion
Ricochet and Aleister Black defeated The Bar
Kevin Owens defeated Rowan by DQ
205 Live
Oney Lorcan defeated Humberto Carrillo
Cedrick Alexander defeated Akira Tozawa
NXT
Aleister Black and Ricochet defeated Fabian Aichner and Marcel Bartel
The Forgotten Sons defeated Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch
Moustache Mountain defeated The Street Profits
DIY defeated Undisputed Era
Current Wrestlemania Card
WWE Universal Championship: Brock Lesnar(c) vs. Seth Rollins
Raw Women’s Championship: Ronda Rousey(c) vs. Charlotte Flair
