As RAW and SmackDown Live hit their stride building toward WrestleMania, both shows spiced things up with a few surprises this week,
The Blue Brand came out firing heading into the big Elimination Chamber WWE Championship match.
With Mustafa Ali having to leave the match due to an injury, The New Day was offered the spot and chose to let Kofi Kingston enter a gauntlet match to chase the privilege of being in the final pod.
Kofi proceeded to defeat Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe and WWE champ Daniel Bryan before running out of steam against AJ Styles. It was a spectacular performance for the high-flying New Day member and really brought to the forefront that The New Day can be singles competitors without breaking up the longtime friends.
Randy Orton snuck in to RKO Styles and steal the important Elimination Chamber match. The two of them appear to be on a collision course for The Granddaddy of Them All.
It seems the NEW Daniel Bryan will be heading into Mania as the champ, but it is really unclear who his opponent will be. Could the top brass be pushed toward Kingston after his performance this week?
It also seems sure that The Miz and Shane McMahon are closing in on a match at the big event, but with The Usos being a little in flux this week, it would be surprising to see the tag titles shift at Elimination Chamber.
It was refreshing to see a week that had more going on than just Becky Lynch and Daniel Bryan and Charlotte has really stepped into the heel McMahon muscle role well.
She is embracing the boos and is a perfect foil to set up Lynch’s rise to the top at WrestleMania. The biggest problem the WWE is going to have is they are hoping Charlotte can keep the fans from turning on Ronda Rousey.
It won’t work.
Rousey has been great in the year since she has joined. Her title reign has helped bring the women into the main event. She is believable and she has a ton of mainstream appeal.
But, eventually the fans always turn on Superman and with The Baddest Woman on the Planet appearing to be the main obstacle to The Man’s ascension, the fans aren’t going to buy the McMahon’s inserting themselves and Charlotte into the mix to try and save Rousey’s babyface appeal.
Lynch has to come out of this looking good and should come out of it making Rousey tap. Not sure if that is there they go as Charlotte has always absorbed losses well, but it is the correct move for the feud.
Having Triple H and Stephanie force Becky to apologize only to have Charlotte get thrown in seemed like typical ways for the power trio to hold talent back from ascending too high. Lynch caving in and saying sorry was not needed for the storyline to work, but it was needed to turn just a small fraction of the crowd off on Lynch.
As for the rest of Monday Night it still remains a little all over the place, but Seth Rollins has done a good job of taking the top guy mantle heading toward his matchup with Brock Lesnar at The Showcase of the Immortals.
Rollins tells a great story with the mic and in the ring and is believable as the Beast slayer. He is ready to pick up where Roman Reigns left off and carry the show following WrestleMania and heading into the Superstar Shakeup.
What they are doing with Elias really shows the incompetence from the red brand over the last year. Heel, organic face for a few months, heel again? Why? It makes no sense. This guy makes the crowd eat out of his hand. Has a good look in the ring. Can work. And could be a legit babyface in an era where it is super easy for everyone to be heels, and they force him back heel for … Jeff Jarrett? Seriously?
Meanwhile Finn Balor has been forced into a pointless feud with Bobby Lashley that does not help anyone whether they have the Intercontinental Championship or not.
Balor continues to show why babyfaces don’t get cheered in this company. Being told to constantly smile and look like he doesn’t take things seriously enough means the only way he can become the true superstar he should be is by releasing the Demon or by turning heel and being tired of being treated unfairly.
It is frustrating to watch his storyline constantly be that he is small, when he has so much more to offer than that.
But the show did pull a good move by finally rewarding The Revival with overdue Tag Team Championships. They are over. They are good in the ring. They are decent on the mic and they really are a throwback to other eras where tag teams had a little more clout.
I am not sure what is to be done with Bobby Roode and Chad Gable, but it seems like a good time to raise up some legitimate contenders to fight The Revival for their prize.
Both shows have done a decent job in building up for the Women’s Tag Team Championship match at Elimination Chamber. The teams are solid and it is difficult to really see who will win. It seems that Bayley vs. Sasha Banks could be on the table for WrestelMania, so this could be where that starts building up. But they could certainly get the first run with the titles.
The buildup has also given the IIconics a very good spot to stand out and they would be solid first time champs as well.
RAW Top 10
- Seth Rollins
- Becky Lynch
- Ronda Rousey
- Braun Strowman
- The Revival
- Finn Balor
- Bobby Lashley
- Boss and Hug Connection
- Kurt Angle
- Elias
Smackdown Top 10
- Daniel Bryan
- Kofi Kingston
- Charlotte Flair
- Randy Orton
- AJ Styles
- Samoa Joe
- Jeff Hardy
- The Miz and Shane McMahon
- IIconics
- Carmella and Naomi
Overall Top 5
- Daniel Bryan
- Seth Rollins
- Becky Lynch
- Kofi Kingston
- Charlotte Flair
The following editorial was written by Geoffrey Rowland and does not reflect the opinions of WrestleZone as a whole. We encourage you all to discuss Geoff’s thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this post or by tweeting him @Geoff_Rowland
