Fyah
The week of wrestling kicked off with a lot of colored hair and cakes when Raw rolled out the women’s fatal 4-way. Ember Moon seems to be victim of her own speed and athleticism. You can tell she’s over shooting some of the spots, but she doesn’t falter in getting to the next one. If I can catch it with Sasha Banks, imagine how far ahead she’ll be with the likes of Alexa Bliss, who is pretty agile in her own right but not up to the speed of Moon. Sasha still got the nod as the woman to beat in the division even though Natalya proved to be resilient one. Neither of our favorite sistas took the L. If you didn’t see it last week, three of the eight women in the ladder match are Black compared with the fact that there are 3 Black men but only one of them will be in the match.
The Money In The Bank match did everything to satiate my desire to see some of our weekly favorites mix it up in the ring. They did not waste time getting Ember and Sasha in the ring only to have Naomi join them. Neither of them avoided the bumps and ladder spots with Ember taking two big ones at the hands of Charlotte. Nonetheless, neither of the mentioned seized the briefcase by the end of the match; I still sense some work coming for Ember. Sasha will most likely flush this rivalry with Bayley. I’m not sure what the heck is going to happen with Naomi. She didn’t even play much of a role in the 10 woman tag during the SmackDown show.
The EST of NXT should get have new names every time I see here on TV. So far she’s also the Total Package, and now I’m crowning her the REAL Premier Athlete. Bianca Belair made short work of Aliyah to make her claim as the next woman to fear on the roster. She didn’t leave us without memories either. Her video package of a week ago showed that she’s more than the fitness freak that Tony Nese claims to be, and she has more than a six pack to flash; add in traps and delts done with such precision. I shall not forget to mention that she, once again, cleaned and pressed a grown woman. Next week, she accepts the challenge of Dakota Kai. Get ready for her newest monikers; I’m thinking something like Mother Nature’s gift to all man kind.
The Bobby Lashley-Sami Zayn feud has taken a turn for the better. I’m not feeling like this is the Money in the Bank filler match that really is. Zayn challenged Lashley to prove his military background by participating in an obstacle course around the ring. Naturally, Bobby would win the toss to go first. The 260+ lb freak would showboat his way around the course only to be “outsmarted” by Zayn and ambushed on his way down the rope climb. I’m fine with the squash of Zayn during the pay per view. The addition of the tweet by Zayn let me know it was going to be a definite squash.
I noticed that the New Day were missing from SmackDown’s match featuring its men’s Money In The Bank competitors. That was until the after match shenanigans of the Miz retrieving the briefcase to find out it was filled with pancakes. Cut backstage, and we see an overly amused trio hooping and hollering at his dismay. Why was Kofi and Xavier in same shirt? I have no idea. It was Kofi, as I hoped it would be, taking the spot in the ladder match. There was no need in matching him with the power of the heavy hitters of the match, but I felt there could have been a lot more opportunity for spots featuring him and the likes of Finn Balor, Miz, or Bobby Roode. I was waiting on the edge of my couch when he climbed Braun’s back in attempt to grab the case. My pride took a fall right along with Kingston when he was tossed.
One of the best matches of the week has to be The Velveteen Dream and Ricochet in bout of one-upmanship. The highlights were aplenty. Dream made his way to the ring donning a Hulk Hogan-esque theme and proceeded to perch on the Spanish announce table to take in Ricochet’s entrance. The two traded big spots from a vertical suplex to the floor to Dream’s snapping DDT to Ricochet repaying with his own death valley bomb. They pushed the limits when both attempted to land long distance vaults from the top turnbuckle only to be thwarted. Do yourself a service and go check this match out in whatever way you can.
Meh
Jonathan Gresham is the Willie Mays Hayes of this wrestling business. When you need a good opening match that will set the tempo for things to come, book JG. It may seem slow and methodical; just sit back and enjoy the ride. Flip Gordan was an excellent pairing because their style mesh so well. There was nothing real flashy to discuss outside of the fact that the climax gave a great lead-in to the post match happenings of Bully Ray.
Look at Shelton Benjamin doing the veteran work and giving Daniel Bryan some work a couple of nights before DB’s match with Big Cass. Benjamin executed a mix of technique and power to attack Bryan’s knee in and out the ring. Bryan persevered in the end pulling out the win in front of the Memphis crowd.
One promotion may book a performer like a queen while another bills her as a scrappy underdog. This is definitely true of Kiera Hogan. I would figure she’d get more than a hot start in her cool contested feud with Tessa Blanchard. I would say that it’s because they’re both relatively new to the brand, but Hogan has been around since November or so and has picked up some victories over worthy opponents. She’s not established enough of a contender to be the Knockout to beat yet. Still, she was booked to allow Blanchard to go over one more time in this week’s no-DQ match.
Our guy, Moose, got another shot at Eli Drake, and this time it was for a Impact Heavyweight Title shot. It didn’t really seem like a big deal to Impact being that it took place at the bland House of Hardcore arena and was poorly edited with several cuts in action. Moose earned the win and will face Austin Aries at Slamaversary.
The Mack and Killshot were gifted a new partner for their Trios Championship on Lucha Underground then proceeded to be eliminated from Aztec Warfare rather quickly. Hell, Killshot eliminated The Mack.
Boo
Why? Why have Nia Jax issue the challenge to Rhonda Rousey only to have outside interference end the match? Nia getting DQ’d by her own action would be fine, but the company vested all this time in this angle of the Irresistible Force putting the rowdy one in her place. Now if this was something that was encouraged by the likes of Stephanie, I’ll take this back partially, but as it stands, this was a terrible move.