This Week In WWE

This will be a breezy run through this week as real life is eating into my writing time.

• Steph talked about how great she was, so Rousey smashed up her arm again. Understandable.
• Ember Moon made her debut, tagging with Nia Jax against Bliss & James. She pinned Bliss clean as a whistle.
• Braun and Nicolas vacated the tag titles due to the clash with Nicolas' school work.
• No Way Jose beat a jobber in 25 seconds. I forgot he existed.
• The Bar want the titles back but Angle tells them that they will face the winners of a tournament at the Greatest Royal Rumble.
• The Revival beat Anderson & Gallows in that tournament.
• Miz, Rollins, and Balor have their customary chat before being interrupted by a returning Jeff Hardy.
• Mandy Rose beat Sasha Banks after more shenanigans between Sasha and Bayley.
• Paige announced her retirement. It has been known for a while but it was still a sad moment.
• Elias did his thing but is attacked by a returning Bobby Lashley. He is better than he was when he left but I can still take it or leave it. 
• Angle says that Owens and Zayn can fight for a contract. 
• Authors of Pain debut and do some of the murdering on Slater & Rhyno. They then apparently leave Paul Ellering. 
• Roman Reigns talks about how he will beat Lesnar, even though he never does. This BS is enough to make Samoa Joe recover from his injuries to tell him to shut the fuck up. I have missed Joe.
• Hardy and Wyatt beat Titus Worldwide and will face the Revival next week in the tournament final.
• Owens and Zayn draw when neither man can beat the count. We shall see where this goes.
• Bray Wyatt hugs Brother Nero while Balor and Rollins look on bewildered. 
• Jeff Hardy, Rollins, and Balor beat the Miztourage in the main event. Fun way to finish the show. 
• Raw was really good. It had a number of fun moments and it never dragged, which is a miracle for Raw.

• Shane talks about Mania, and Daniel Bryan. Bryan has stepped down from his GM role and the new GM is Paige. She announces Bryan vs Styles for the main event. 
• The Usos beat New Day in a good match to get a tag title shot at the Greatest Royal Rumble.
• Naomi beat Natalya and celebrated with the Uterus Trophy. 
• Renee tries to interview Nakamura but he says that he doesn't speak English. Classic.
• Charlotte talks about beating Asuka but is interrupted by the debuting Iconic Duo. Or as they are now called, Iiconics. Dumb. They beat the shit out of Charlotte which allows Carmella to cash in the MITB briefcase. The ref took forever to sort his shit out and looked like a ridiculously stupid human being.
• Randy Orton beat Rusev and Bobby Roode to become the number 1 contender to the US Title. I don't give a single fuck about seeing Orton vs Mahal again.
• Styles and Bryan have a very good match until they are interrupted by Nakamura. It was inevitable but still disappointing. 
• Smackdown was fun. A touch below Raw though.

• Kalisto beat Akira Tozawa in another match in this feud. It was good. There will be a tornado tag match next week. 
• Drew Gulak beat Mark Andrews in another good match. After the match he attacks Andrews and Tony Nese makes the save. 
• The main event was Cedric Alexander's celebration. Alexander and Ali compliment each other before Buddy Murphy sneaks in and hits Murphy's Law on Alexander.
• Another good week for 205 Live. 

• As this the post-TakeOver show it featured a lot of recaps. 
• Kairi Sane beat Lacey Evans. It was probably the best that Evans has looked. 
• Heavy Machinery and Moss & Sabatelli went to a no contest when the debuting War Machine, now rebranded as War Raiders, turned up and cleaned house. I dislike the name change. 
• There was next to nothing on this show but what was there was decent enough. 

Show of the Week - Raw

I enjoyed Raw more than I have in ages. Overall it was a pretty strong week in general.