Black Wrestla’ Recap 4/1

Raw

We’re less than two weeks away from Wrestlemania, and the Intercontinental Championship is still not booked on the card. That is until tonight. It was announced that Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush would be challenged by Finn Balor to give the Balor the opportunity to compete for the title at Mania. Instead, it would be Jinder Mahal joining Lashley since Rush wasn’t cleared to perform. Mahal, like Rush, would let Lashley down, and he and the Singh Brothers were demolished by the Almighty for their transgressions.

Ricochet and Aleiester Black are back tagging up against the Raw Tag Champs, the Revival. The new squad continues to roll after some push back from the champions. Black landed a double Black Mask and sent Dash Wilder into a 630 splash.

The Women’s tag division continues to get spicier. Enter Sasha Banks and Natalya for their one on one match. We didn’t even get to a commercial break before Nia Jax and Tamina came wrecking shop. Their actions gave the champions the opportunity to back up their claim to take on all challengers and taking us one step closer to a multi-team championship match at Mania.

Apollo Crews was back to face Baron Corbin in Corbin’s bid to make right his previous loss. There was no shock in effect for Crews this time out bringing him to 1-3 versus the participants in the Angle Farewell match.

SmackDown Live

Shelton Benjamin surprise attacked Seth Rollins on behalf of Paul Heyman a few weeks ago, but this week he was a victim of Super Miz’s rage to get at Shane McMahon.

The highlight of the week has to be the New Day doing exactly what they’ve always said they aimed to achieve, and that is put Kofi Kingston on their back and carry him into a WWE Championship match. Vince McMahon set up the gauntlet, and they knocked down all the comers for the second straight week of New Day greatness.

205 Live

I spoke of being victimized earlier. Cedric Alexander took yet another L; this week it was to Ariya Daivari. The hits keep coming with Oney Lorcan rushing in to attack Cedric after the bell.

NXT

Just as a teaser, Vanessa Borne and Aliyah would start a match against Lacey Lane and Kacy Catanzaro. It’s not quite Lane’s and Catanzaro’s time to be highlighted, and Borne and Aliyah made a less that swift exit as soon as Shayna Baszler and her crew reared their heads. Lane was targeted first and didn’t seem to get off any reasonable amount of defense before being tossed out the ring.

I would have never called the win, but Ricochet and Aleister Black took that momentum from their Raw and SmackDown appearances into the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tournament. I should have known that the Forgotten Sons were not about to be put over in this spot. On to TakeOver for Ric and Black for the NXT Tag Titles.

Impact! Wresting

Impact took a page out of Lucha Underground’s story telling by having a rather long drawn out dramatization featuring Kiera Hogan, Rosemary, Allie, and Su Yung that ended with someone getting stabbed up Freddie Kruger style.