If we entered the Fastlane last Sunday, do we remain there all the way to WrestleMania? Or when Sunday’s show concluded, did we change lanes? Are we now simply on the Road to WrestleMania that is neither fast nor slow? Are we-
Working Man’s Recap
Good Work: Kofi Kingston, WALTER, Johnny Gargano, Ilja Dragunov, Sam Gradwell, Sami Zayn, Bianca Belair
World: Ripley Challenges Asuka, Bad Bunny Wrestles, The Saga of Reginald, Matches in Search of Purpose, Daniel Bryan Gets to WrestleMania
Wrestling: Gran Metalik w/ Lince Dorado vs. Angel Garza (Main Event 3/24/21), No DQ Match: Ilja Dragunov vs. Sam Gradwell (NXT UK 3/25/21)
Entertainment: Tommaso Ciampa challenges WALTER and Imperium beats him down (NXT 3/24/21), Johnny Gargano confronts William Regal (NXT 3/24/21), Daniel Bryan challenges Roman Reigns (SmackDown 3/26/21), The Kevin Owens Show w/ Sami Zayn (SmackDown 3/26/21), Bianca Belair pre-match promo (SmackDown 3/26/21), Adam Pearce announces the WrestleMania main event (SmackDown 3/26/21)
RAW (3/22/21)
Bad Bunny attacked The Miz after The Miz beat Jeff Hardy is a more impressive sentence than thing I had to actually watch here.
Bobby Lashley/Drew McIntyre as the WWE Title match at WrestleMania is something I can grow to appreciate, even if build-up can only work for this when the crowd noise is controlled. Bob putting a bounty on Drew’s head was fun too, but I don’t know why the rest of The Hurt Business have to look like such chumps on the way.
Peyton Royce had what probably would’ve been a Fastlane title match with Asuka, and it was good though not completely — too soft to really hit, especially with Asuka in there. Rhea Ripley made her RAW debut right after and challenged Asuka. Now we wait. Woooo!
The New Day had some fun with AJ Styles and Omos in the form of a promo and Kofi/AJ match, while Nia Jax Shayna Baszler wrestled Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke while Naomi & Lana did commentary. I forgot about it until just now.
Should WWE get credit for the Shane McMahon and Elias pairing continuity?
Braun Strowman has choo choo train sounds piped in during his matches now.
The burnt Fiend.
Man.
NXT (3/24/21)
On the way to another TakeOver, NXT’s big problem continues: it’s a brand makes matches more than books them, and when you do that you are always searching for a purpose for your matches instead or proactively building towards them.
Johnny Gargano’s little pause before opening William Regal‘s door was like the only good thing on this show. That and the WALTER video sponsored by Cricket Wireless.
Tommaso Ciampa going right at WALTER’s UK Title feels a little sudden but WALTER’s chops look and sound so scary that they were able to just heat the match up right there.
Danny Burch is out hurt so he and Oney Lorcan have vacated the Tag Titles, and it seems like NXT is just going to act like “The Brand” with McAfee and Dunne never existed. Oney lost to NXT Championship challenger Karrion Kross, who couldn’t even have a good match with Oney.
The Kross showdown with Finn Balor after was just not very compelling TV, nor was the show-closing showdown between Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly. Too much one-note wrestling.
Bronson Reed beat Eli Drake already, lol.
The Io Shirai/Zoey Stark vs. Dakota Kai/Raquel Gonzalez opener and Ember Moon/Shotzi Blackheart vs. Mercedes Martinez/Aliyah Tag Titles match were both solid but if you’re going to actually seriously name drop “best women’s division in the world” then you’ve got to do more than throwing them all out on TV in hastily put together matchups.
I wish KUSHIDA/Jordan Devlin was better.
MAIN EVENT (3/24/21)
Akira Tozawa vs. Drew Gulak was the same match those poor guys have all the time; Gran Metalik vs. Angel Garza had more near falls (like 3!) than one might be used to on Main Event.
NXT UK (3/25/21)
Fun main event this week, although that was really it. Sam Gradwell has been impressive since he returned from a long absence sporting a mohawk and actual charisma – the feud with Ilja Dragunov helped move both guys along and their No DQ match was just nasty – tons of slaps or smacks into the turnbuckle that just looked like they hurt.
The rest of the roster did the usual where they do a lot of stuff even if nothing happens. Trent Seven reminded us he built this brand and Moustache Mountain may be headed for a reunion. Noam Dar and Sha Samuels became a team, Joseph Conners beat Jack Starz, and Isla Dawn beat Aleah James with a sweet half-nelson suplex before she made spooky noises at Kay Lee Ray.
I forgot Pretty Deadly won the Tag Titles, but they’re defending them next week. Also forgot Wild Boar was dismissed from The Hunt — now Tyson T-Bone teams with Primate and somebody else can explain that.
SMACKDOWN (3/26/21)
This week, SmackDown was the story show and not so much the wrestling show. That’s fine. Daniel Bryan, Edge, and Roman Reigns cut quality promos all through the show to get to the closing angle where the WrestleMania match was turned into a Triple Threat and Edge really took a chair to poor Bryan. This is fine.
Bianca Belair cut a great short promo before she beat Natalya, and her match with Sasha Banks really finally seems to be heating up.
Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn, Big E/Apollo Crews, and Seth Rollins/Cesaro as actual WrestleMania matches is very cool too. Rollins had another (lesser than Fastlane) match with Shinsuke Nakamura before Cesaro went swinging. Looks like Rey Mysterio is going to team with his boy at Mania too.
Ding dong, where’s Bayley???
205 LIVE (3/26/21)
Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari got back on track with a win over The Bollywood Boyz, then August Grey beat Ashante “Thee” Adonis. This August kid is on a roll! Until he isn’t.
