One of the joys of having a billion dollars is you get to employ all these people who are very good at wrestling, and those who are good at wrestling provided some Good Work this week: you had Meiko Satomura challenging for the NXT UK Women’s Title and Sheamus and Drew McIntyre opening up RAW with a random MOTYC for the in-ring content, while angle-wise you had Daniel Bryan going after Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley (with MVP) winning that WWE Title.
Working Man’s Recap
Good Work: Bobby Lashley, MVP, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, Johnny Gargano, Meiko Satomura, Kay Lee Ray, Daniel Bryan
World: Lashley Wins WWE Title, Undisputed Era Problems, Adam Pearce on NXT, Apollo Crews is a Real African-American, Daniel Bryan Challenges Roman Reigns
Wrestling: Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus (RAW 3/1/21), Finn Balor vs. Roderick Strong (NXT 3/3/21), NXT UK Women’s Title: Kay Lee Ray [c] vs. Meiko Satomura (NXT UK 3/4/21)
Entertainment: The Way Psychiatry Sessions (NXT 3/3/21), Daniel Bryan goes after Roman Reigns (SmackDown 3/5/21)
RAW (3/1/21)
Bobby Lashley beat The Miz for the WWE Title to close another rough 3-hours of RAW, and I don’t know how or why they spent three hours stretching out something that should’ve happened ten years ago but they got to the right place eventually.
It wasn’t much of a match or angle, but details aren’t going to ruin the moment THIS week!
Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus opened the show and ruled so much, like a passive aggressive wrestling match by two guys not getting the WrestleMania match they may have been building to. They just beat the fuck out of each other for 25 minutes and I don’t use that F word very often. The best New Japan Cup Round 1 match.
Damian Priest (with Bad Bunny!) wrestled a really bad match with Elias. Mustafa Ali is running the lamest Bullet Club. Charlotte Flair wants Asuka, but she’s going to have to get through apathy first.
MVP said bullshit on TV!
NXT (3/3/21)
NXT counter-programmed Shaquille O’Neal and Jade Cargill with Timothy Thatcher/Tommaso Ciampa vs. Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch, and look: I’ve already seen enough tubby and pasty skin from my own self during lockdown.
Fine wrestlers are all over here, but they’re mostly caught up in a bloated and aimless wrestling midcard: Bronson Reed (who did a tope), Cameron Grimes (who despite his riches still calls Regal “Mr.”), even new guy LA Knight.
Shayna Baszler/Nia Jax vs. Dakota Kai/Raquel Gonzalez for the WWE Women’s Tag Titles was fun if only to see Shayna and Dakota continue to scrap, but it wasn’t much else. I like Kai and Gonzalez as singles but they haven’t hit as a team.
Johnny “The Calm” Gargano bribed a therapist and Aliyah took a heck of an Eclipse. Fandango got attacked in a spacesuit. Raul Mendoza‘s hair is wilding. Imperium wants Thatcher.
The NXT Title picture is OK if not a little emo, but the main event — Finn Balor vs. Roderick Strong — was the really solid, really good match you’d expect from those two.
MAIN EVENT (3/3/21)
Drew Gulak had a fine but sad match with young Mansoor, while the Ricochet vs. Tozawa production team felt the need to replay a dropkick. Ricochet seems mean now.
NXT UK (3/4/21)
Besides the WALTER/Ilja Dragunov title match, this was the best episode of NXT UK yet just because almost everything was pretty good for once.
The main event was Kay Lee Ray defending the NXT UK Women’s Title against Meiko Satomura and you can watch plenty of wrestling matches these days but not many will be better than any random Meiko Satomura match — let alone a championship match! Witness how after ALL OF THIS, Meiko just smoothly and logically hits a Code Red in the closing stretch.
Xia Brookside is making Jim Halpert faces. Noam Dar is funny. Ben Carter is likable. Tyler Bate is either going full zen or in rehab.
Sam Gradwell is pretty much the perfect guy to match up with Ilja Dragunov, who was sporting amazing bedhead in their match. It was so rock solid I bet they’ll have another one.
SMACKDOWN (3/5/21)
Just an OK show from the SmackDown crew this week: lots of solid matches that I wouldn’t really recommend. Montez Ford and King Corbin had a developmental special, which I kind of mean as a compliment. Dominik Mysterio and Chad Gable had a whole match with sweet counters and a Tiger suplex, while Shayna Baszler and Bianca Belair just couldn’t help themselves and overcame only getting 5 minutes by having a fun match.
The paranoid Sami Zayn saga is getting even darker: the knee shots to his documentarian were just MEAN and created an uneasy feeling you rarely get on WWE TV (besides always). Also, Bayley hosted a backstage version of Ding Dong, Hello!.
Sasha Banks definitely pitched being an alpha to a guy (Reginald) and man her slapping him around rules.
Apollo Crews with soldiers and a spear… not so much.
Daniel Bryan got the match with Roman Reigns at Fastlane by doing a few things: cutting a great promo, attacking Jey Uso backstage like a badass, and beating Jey in a solid Steel Cage Match. Loved that FOX TV Steel Cage rundown by Corey Graves too.
205 LIVE (3/5/21)
Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari vs. Jake Atlas & August Grey, then Mansoor vs. Curt Stallion. It was that kind of show. Mansoor vs. Curt Stallion was actually good but these two need a crowd before we really know.
