This Week In WWE

I apologise about the lack of updates this week, I have been out of the country and that was why there was no Fastlane review. The quick ratings for that show are:

Kickoff: Tye Dillinger & Breezango vs Mojo Rawley, Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin **1/2

Shinsuke Nakamura vs Rusev ***1/2

US Title: Bobby Roode vs Randy Orton ***

Carmella & Natalya vs Becky Lynch & Naomi **

Smackdown Tag Titles: New Day vs Usos ***

Smackdown Women's Title: Charlotte vs Ruby Riott ***1/2

WWE Title: AJ Styles vs John Cena vs Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn vs Dolph Ziggler vs Baron Corbin ****

On with this week's TV.

• The opening segment with Reigns getting pissed that Lesnar decided to no show again, and heading to Gorilla Position to get some answers from Vince was great. Whoever is booking this is doing a top notch job. Vince suspends Reigns temporarily.
• The Bayley vs Sasha story continued with Bayley accompanying Sasha to the ring, making sure Absolution didn't get involved in the match, then leaving her to take a beating after the match. Good stuff.
• Kid Rock is going into the Hall of Fame. The thought alone gives me herpes.
• Miz is his usual manipulative self on Miz TV and as usual it was great. I'm very hopeful for the match at Mania.
• The Bar faced Miztorage but the entire tag division came out to attack them. 
• John Cena cut a fan-fucking-tastic promo where he challenged the Undertaker, calling him an egomaniac, while simultaneously stroking that ego. Another good piece of storyline build for Mania.
• The Bar ain't happy about being attacked so Angle books a number 1 contenders battle royal.
• Elias is in a neck brace, he doesn't want to perform. He blames his injuries on the fans.
• Finn Balor beat Seth Rollins with a sneaky roll up. The match was a good sneak peek at what these two can do.
• There will be a Fabulous Moolah Battle Royal at WrestleMania. Sometimes the WWE's lack of tact and common decency is astounding. This could have been named after someone who wasn't a grade A scumbag. EDIT - Since I wrote this WWE have taken the decision to take Moolah's name off it. I applaud that decision.
• Asuka and Alexa Bliss get into it again and it ends with Asuka beating Mickie James in a pretty good match. For some reason the crowd were being dicks.
• Nia Jax murders a randomer. She then sees Alexa and Mickie talking shit about her on the tron. Jax is pissed and she heads off to murder Bliss. Good setup for Mania again. 
• The Ultimate Deletion will take place next week. We get a video featuring Reby, King Maxel, Prince Wolfgang, Senor Benjamin and motherfucking Vanguard 1. Kurt Angle is flabbergasted by the whole thing and assigns a referee to the match. The ref isn't too enamoured with being given the task.
• The number 1 contenders battle royal was won by Braun, on his own. I wait to see if he will get a partner or go it alone. Either way it's another match for Mania.
• I thought Raw was pretty good this week. They did some good build to Mania and that is all I can really ask for at this stage.

• The show starts with AJ Styles cutting a promo, a very good one at that. He and Nakamura have a chat about how awesome their Mania match will be. It's nice to see both shows moving in the right direction.
• Styles beats Rusev by DQ in a match that was good enough that I feel a PPV match between them could be fantastic. 
• Big E and Jimmy Uso agree to team up to take out the Bludgeon Brothers. They fail spectacularly. The Bludgeons look strong heading into Mania. 
• Sami blames Owens and Shane for not being champion.
• Asuka and Charlotte faced off. They kept it short and sweet, which is for the best.
• Randy Orton is happy to be a grand slam champion. Good for him. Roode congratulates him and so does Jinder. They have a chat about who gets a match at Mania. 
• Jinder then beat Roode in a boring match. I do appreciate them putting three of the most unappealing in ring workers in the same match. Roode and Orton have had their moments but mostly they are just OK.
• Owens blames Sami and Shane for not being WWE champion.
• Naomi and Carmella have a dreadful match. Carmella won.
• Shane says that he is going to be taking some time off and that Daniel Bryan will be taking over. He books Owens vs Zayn for Mania. They both come out and run Shane down. They beat the shit out of him, hitting a Helluva Kick and a Pop-up Powerbomb before wrapping a chair around his neck and running him into the ring post. They then take him backstage and powerbomb him into some metal stuff. It appears that Shane is being treated as a face again after clearly acting like a dick at Fastlane. I have no idea what the fuck to think.
• Smackdown was better than it has been recently, even if it is still a bit all over the place at times. 

• The show kicked off with a tag match between Tozawa & Itami and Dorado & Metalik. It was a good match too, and it feels like they are testing the waters for a tag division. 
• A new, more focused and violent Jack Gallagher beat the piss out of someone. Drake Maverick approved.
• Mustafa Ali cut a promo saying that he will win next week.
• The main event was the semi final between Cedric Alexander and Roderick Strong, and it was fantastic. They worked a great back and forth match and took the story one way before ended it in another. I would not have been upset to see this very match as the final at Mania. It was aces. Alexander deserves his shot in the spotlight. 
• 205 Live is a tasty product at the minute. 

• SAnitY beat Moss and Sabatelli in the first round of the Dusty Classic. It was a match.
• Tommaso Ciampa once again came out to thunderous boos. He doesn't speak. This whole angle is spot on and there isn't a heel that is even close to Ciampa.
• Dakota Kai beat Lacey Evans in under a minute after catching her with a quick roll up. This led to Baszler coming down to inflict some damage. Ember Moon makes the save and her and Kai stand tall.
• Street Profits beat Heavy Machinery in the first round of the Dusty Classic. It was a solid match and the right team won.
• Pete Dunne and Adam Cole had a good match before it ended in a DQ. Following the finish Undisputed Era attacked Dunne and Roderick Strong made the save. Strong and Dunne stand tall.
• The main event segment was dedicated to the contract signing for the NXT Title match. Aleister Black comes out first and then Vega, who says that Almas isn't there. Black spends his time pissing off Vega until she slaps him. He signs the contract and says that he brought someone with him, Candice LeRae. She attacks Vega and hits the bulldog. It was a strong way to end the show. 
• NXT was as fun as always with solid build to TakeOver.

Show of the Week - 205 Live

This was a very strong week for all of the shows. I thought all of the shows did a very good job of building towards Mania weekend and I could have easily gone with Raw here but the main event of 205 Live pushed it over the edge.