This Week In WWE

• Raw opens with Alexa Bliss coming out with Mickie James. No real explanation as to why they are besties but who gives a fuck. She runs down Asuka, Sasha and Bayley and inevitably Asuka comes out. Nia Jax attacks her and Sasha and Bayley make the save. That can only mean one thing...
• ...It's time for the 1000th 6-woman tag match of the last year. It was alright. Bayley refused to tag Sasha, which was nice, and Asuka won.
• John Cena talks. He say that he would challenge the Undertaker for a match at Mania but he has been told that won't happen, so he is gonna try to get a title shot on Smackdown. That's how Cena works.
• Bray Wyatt kills Slater & Rhyno and wants to continue the Great War with Matt Hardy. Fuck it.
• The Miz goes off his nut about not knowing who his WrestleMania opponent. He says that Angle is fucking useless at being GM and he is right. He might find out his opponent tonight.
• Miz faces Seth Rollins and loses in a very good 15 minute match. Does that mean that Rollins will be his opponent at Mania? Who fucking knows cuz here comes Balor. Balor beats Miz too. We are no closer to understanding what is happening at Mania.
• Roman Reigns cuts a genuinely fantastic promo about how Lesnar was a lazy, greedy piece of shit who only shows up when the money and city is right. As Lesnar may actually be leaving after Mania, this hit the nail squarely on the head. This Reigns has a chance of being cheered when he takes the title.
• The Bar beat Titus Worldwide 2-0 in a 2 out of 3 falls match that was as good or better than the match they had the previous night. The Bar are excellent and I am interested to see who they fight at Mania. 
• Elias comes out and sings us a song. He also burns Corey Graves, which is a nice touch. 
• The match between Elias and Braun wasn't good at all. It ended when Elias used a fire extinguisher. 
• Ronda Rousey is ending the show. She looked far more comfortable here than she did the previous night. Angle says that he had double pneumonia the previous night and that is why he said what he did. Rousey wanted an apology for the slap. Steph gave a disingenuous apology then HHH punches Angle in the face out of nowhere. It was properly random, and pretty funny.
• All in all Raw was pretty good. Miz was great and so was Reigns.

• Big match John is back and he wants in on the title match at Fastlane. It already has 5 people in it so why not make it 6. Shane seems happy to see Cena but Bryan comes out and says that if Cena wants in on the title match he will have to beat AJ styles in the main event. It doesn't matter who starts the show, it will end up being about Shane and Bryan.
• Baron Corbin and Sami Zayn had a match that meant fuck all because half of the match was spent watching Shane McMahon eat popcorn and act like a grade A bellend to Daniel Bryan. I think Corbin won after Ziggler caused a distraction. 
• Shane then acts like a cock to Owens and zayn, as is customary.
• Ruby Riott beat Naomi in a match that was a bit shit.
• Josh Duhamel met with the Fashion Police and it went about as well as you would expect from a celebrity appearance. What I find funny is that Duhamel was accused in the same steroid scandal as Reigns was recently. That is some good coincidence.
• The Usos and New Day had a great segment to build their match at Fastlane. It had a good level of intensity, with the Usos mentioning that they haven't ever featured on the main card of WrestleMania. These teams play off each other brilliantly. 
• Roode says Orton's ranking in the Smackdown top 10 is shit. Orton turns up and says who gives a fuck. I'm with Orton.
• Shinsuke Nakamura beat Aiden English in a match that was only there to remind people that Nakamura still exists. And Rusev.
• John Cena beat AJ Styles in the main event to put himself in the title match at Fastlane. The match was very good. Not a patch on their other matches but very good. The show ends with a big brawl. 
• Smackdown was a show that happened. Not a great deal was particularly worthwhile other than the main event and the tag title segment.

• This show has the first 2 quarterfinal matches in the title tournament, the first of which was a great match between Cedric Alexander and TJP. They got more than 15 minutes to go at it and it paid off. Alexander won and will face the winner of the other match.
• Drake Maverick outlines his vision for 205 Live. It was a good promo and it gave me hope that they will maintain this.
• Mustafa Ali says he will win next week, Buddy Murphy disagrees.
• Roderick Strong beat Kalisto in the other match, so he will be the one facing Alexander. The match wasn't quite as good as the opener but it was still good. Alexander vs Strong should be very good indeed.
• 205 Live was pretty great. It just got on with it's business of putting on good wrestling matches.

• Velveteen Dream beat Tyler Bate in the opener. The match was decent but nothing more than that. I'm not sure where Bate's losing streak is headed but having Dream win was the right call.
• Paul Ellering said that AoP will win the Dusty Classic.
• Adam Cole offered Cezar Bononi a t-shirt, then beat him in a couple of minutes. Undisputed Era then beat him up some more.
• The Street Profits talk about the Dusty Classic.
• Shayna Baszler beat Kairi Sane in a solid match. I understand that they need to make Baszler look strong but I'm not sure that using Sane for that is the best option. It may well work out fine though for all I know. Baszler is 37 after all so they don't have a great deal of time to get her going. 
• The last segment was Almas and Vega gloating over their defeat of Johnny Gargano, and it was fantastic. They are spectacularly dickish here and it is more proof that they are as good as anything on WWE TV at this time. Aleister Black turns up to say he wants a title shot, but Killian Dain wants to fight him. They brawl, with Dain standing tall, while the heels leave unscathed. 
• NXT was decent but there was nothing that you need to go out of your way to see.

Show of the Week - 205 Live

Raw was fun this week but the immediate hit of quality wrestling that 205 Live is currently providing is just better.