Road to WWE Wrestlemania 35: Week 7
This week on the Road to Wrestlemania challenges were issued and challenges were also put in front of competitors on the Road to Wrestlemania. Monday Night, Batista returned to Monday Night Raw to lay out his challenge to Triple H. I have been initially against this match from the start and Batista’s awkward promo made me even more against it. I have never seen anyone fumble, stumble and botch his words more than what I saw this past Monday. Other than Triple H and Batista being made official for Wrestlemania, no other matches were announced on the Monday Night Raw side of things. Smackdown was a totally different story in terms of matches being made. At Wrestlemania, AJ Styles will take on Randy Orton and Shane McMahon announced he will be taking on The Miz after the brutal beat down at Fastlane. Smackdown ended with Mr. McMahon telling Kofi Kingston that he will have to go through a five men in a gauntlet in order to get his one on one WWE Championship Match at Wrestlemania.
Tuesday Night ended with 205 Live and the Semifinals of the Cruiserweight Tournament. Tony Nese and Drew Gulak went to war which was intriguing, because they are both heels much like Cedric Alexander and Oney Lorcan are both faces. The way they setup the brackets didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Nese and Alexander will meet in the finals to determine who will face Buddy Murphy at Wrestlemania. The week ended with one of my favorite tag team matches I’ve seen in a long time. In a Dusty Rhodes Classic Match, the newly reunited DIY took and Aleister Black and Ricochet. This is the match I’ve been wanting to see for a months now, and with Black and Ricochet working on Raw and Smackdown I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen. Ricochet and Black won the match, but it seemed if Johnny Gargano got injured in the match. Tommaso Ciampa and Candice Lerae helped Gargano up the ramp until Ciampa attempted to ambush Gargano once again. Unfortunately for Ciampa, the crafty Gargano tricked him and took him out in the same fashion that took place almost two years ago. It was a great way to make the story come full circle. The bad news is Ciampa recently underwent neck surgery and he had to vacate the NXT Championship. We will have to wait and find what the fallout will be for the NXT Championship at Wrestlemania weekend.
As for Aleister Black and Ricochet, they have a chance to be the highlight of Wrestlemania Weekend. They have been on Raw, Smackdown and are in the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Classic. If they win the Classic than they take on the War Raiders for the NXT Tag Team Championship, but they have to get through The Forgotten Sons first. We are nearly three weeks from the biggest show of them all and I personally can’t wait for it all to happen. Until next, this has been the Road to Wrestlemania.
Raw
Seth Rollins defeated Shelton Benjamin
Bobby Lashley defeated Finn Balor to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship
Aleister Black and Ricochet defeated Chad Gable and Bobby Roode
Nia Jax defeated Natalya by DQ
Kurt Angle defeated Apollo Crews
Drew McIntyre defeated Dean Ambrose
Smackdown
Aleister Black, Ricochet, and The Hardy Boys versus Shinsuke Nakamura, Rusev and The Bar went to a No-Contest
Asuka defeated Sonya Deville
Rey Mysterio and R-Truth defeated Samoa Joe and Andrade
Daniel Bryan and Rowan defeated Kevin Owens and Mustafa Ali
205 Live
Tony Nese defeated Drew Gulak
Cedric Alexander defeated Oney Lorcan
NXT
The Forgotten Sons defeated Moustache Mountain
Io Sharia and Bianca Belair went to a No Contest
Current NXT Takeover
NXT Women’s Championship: Shayna Baszler(c) vs. Io Sharai vs. Kari Sane vs. Bianca Belair
Current Wrestlemania Card
WWE Universal Championship: Brock Lesnar(c) vs. Seth Rollins
WWE Raw Women’s Championship: Ronda Rousey(c) vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch
No Holds Barred: Triple H vs. Batista
AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton
The Miz vs. Shane McMahon
