This Week In WWE

• Heyman and Lesnar kick off the show by taking the piss out of Roman Reigns for getting his ass kicked last week. Heyman says that he set up the US Marshals last week. Reigns turns up but gets beaten down by Lesnar, to the joy of the fans. 
• Nia Jax beat Mickie James in a pretty rubbish match. After the match Bliss tried to attack Jax but it did not go to plan. 
• HHH and Stephanie act like complete dickheads and they are very good at it. It was the exact sort of segment that it needed to be. 
• There was a cruiserweight tag team match and while it was fine it didn't have the quality of what is being presented on 205 Live. At this stage I would rather they just remained on their own show where they aren't treated as an afterthought.
• The Miz TV segment was great. Miz, Balor, Rollins, Miztourage and the Good Brothers all played their part. The Miz, and the Miztourage, are absolute fucking gems. I've said it before but 2018 Miz would be a great WWE champion.
• Asuka murders local jobber. 
• Matt Hardy says that he has deleted the spirit of Bray Wyatt and will win the Andre Battle Royal.
• The issues between Bayley ans Sasha finally boiled over. They drop some truth bombs on each other and Sasha fucks her up in the locker room. I wish they had a singles match at Mania.
• Braun Strowman beat Sheamus in a solid match. 
• Ronda Rousey is out next and apparently she has pink eye. She talks about Steph before Absolution come out. They want Rousey to join them but she tells them to fuck off. They attack but Rousey easily dispatches them. It was a pretty awkward segment but not terrible.
• The Good Brothers beat Miztourage in a nothing match.
• Elias promised the performance of a lifetime at Mania, ran down Cleveland and beat Rhyno in 2 minutes. Elias is great. Everything he does is great.
• John Cena beat Kane in a boring no DQ match. He then runs down Taker again, calling him a coward and tells him to stop being a bitch and answer his challenge. 
• Raw was a bit wonky this week. The Miz TV segment was amazing and there were a few good promos but the wrestling was below par throughout. 

• The show starts with Rusev taking Singh's place in the tag match with Mahal against Roode and Orton. The match was unnecessarily long and a bit slow but fuck it, Rusev won. Not sure why they feel the need to keep trying to make him heel. Embrace the love. Rusev gets himself added to the US Title match at Mania.
• Nakamura says he wants Styles in his corner for his match with Shelton Benjamin. 
• Becky Lynch beat Ruby Riott in a decent match. 
• Daniel Bryan is here and he says that he is going to give Owens and Zayn one more chance. If they can beat him and Shane at WrestleMania they will get their jobs back. He also says that he will kick their ass. After months of cruising by, Bryan is back to being fantastic.
• The Bludgeon Brothers wrestled the New Day but it served mostly as an excuse to have a big brawl before they make the match official.
• Dolph Ziggler pinned Tyler Breeze in 2 minutes. Nothing else to report.
• The main event was Nakamura vs Benjamin, which WWE advertised as their first match ever even though it was actually their 5th. Nakamura obviously won. The match was pretty good. After it finished Nakamura teased kneeing Styles in the face but pulled up before it hit. 
• Overall Smackdown was pretty good. Almost everything served a purpose, and that is the most important thing in Mania season.

• Tony Nese and Mark Andrews had a good match to kick off the show. Andrews won with a shooting star press. He is a good addition to the show.
• Drew Gulak said that he is the ultimate submission wrestler and will beat Andrews next week. Zack Sabre Jr might have a claim to the first of those things. Any wrestler that has a submission move called 'Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than The Last; The Inexorable March Of Progress Will Lead Us All To Happiness' has a lot of submission moves.
• Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali had a sit down interview. They have a nice chat and get across that they will both do what is necessary to win. It was a good segment. 
• The main event was a fatal 4-way between Buddy Murphy, Kalisto, TJP and Akira Tozawa, and it was aces. Buddy Murphy is made for this show. This is exactly what I want from 205 Live, great wrestlers going all out. Lovely stuff. Murphy won with the Murphy's Law and will probably be the first challenger to the title after Mania. I'm on board with that.
• This was a great, minimalist episode of 205 Live. Everything was great.

• Ciampa is fucking pissed at Gargano getting all up in his business and wants him gone for good. Regal books an unsanctioned match between the two with Gargano facing banishment if he loses. It's going to be a banger.
• Regal then says that he is introducing the NXT North American Title. This brings out EC3 for his re-debut. He thanks Regal for making a title for him but Regal tells him to stop being a daft sod. There will be a 6-way ladder match at TakeOver. The rest of the participants were announced throughout the night. They are EC3, Adam Cole, Lars Sullivan, Killian Dain, Velveteen Dream and, in a great closing moment to the show, Ricochet. Stacked.
• Authors of Pain destroy Street Profits in surprisingly short order to advance to the final of the Dusty Classic. It was not good for the Street Profits.
• Lars Sullivan killed indie wrestler John Silver. He's dead.
• Dakota Kai is out for a match but it never happens as Andrade Almas is beating the fuck out of Aleister Black. Almas isn't playing around and lays in some chair shots. No tranqillo whatsoever. 
• Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne beat SAnitY to advance to the final of the Dusty Classic. It was a good match. I am looking forward to the tag team match at TakeOver.
• NXT was a fun show, even if they tried to cram a ton of stuff into a small amount of time. 

Show of the Week - 205 Live

This week's episode of 205 Live was the personification of how to book a show. No wasted time at all. The main event was great too.