It used to be the Road to WrestleMania; now it’s just a bunch of stuff leading to a bunch of other stuff.
This was the last week before a packed week: RAW, TakeOver, Prelude, SmackDown, WrestleMania. Couple nights of each. Broken Skull Sessions with Chris Jericho. Maybe The Bump.
I could wonder why there has never been so much stuff with less wrestlers on the show to actually care about, but why add more stuff to the stuff? Here’s to those getting rich. Pray for those getting hurt. The work continues. Mostly.
Working Man’s Recap
Good Work: MVP, Sheamus, Roderick Strong, Johnny Gargano, Aoife Valkyrie, Sami Zayn
World: The Hurt Business Splits, Road to WrestleMania, NXT’s Bloated Roster, SmackDown’s Good
Wrestling: Sheamus vs. Riddle (RAW 3/29/21), Roderick Strong vs. Cameron Grimes (NXT 3/31/21), Street Fight: Daniel Bryan vs. Jey Uso (SmackDown 4/2/21)
Entertainment: The Way remembers the Finger Poke of Doom (NXT 3/31/21), Sami Zayn’s Red Carpet Premiere with Logan Paul (SmackDown 4/2/21)
RAW (3/29/21)
Three hours of RAW a week and it hurts, folks, it hurts. Boring stories, bad jokes — that’s the brand now.
The Miz did a music video, The New Day did a Game Night, and Shane McMahon made fun of Braun Strowman for being stupid. Where did it all go so wrong?
Drew McIntyre yelled at his colleagues and the show ended with him getting attacked by King Corbin.
They split up The Hurt Business for a cheap WrestleMania twist. Hurt. Heal?
Protect Asuka and Sheamus at all costs.
NXT (3/31/21)
“OK, what’s with the dog?”
This show hurts too, but a little less. Lots of promos this week, because TakeOver. Karrion Kross, WALTER, and Finn Balor all said some things. There was a mini-Prime Target special for Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly too. It was rather good.
Cameron Grimes and Roderick Strong had a good match that Grimes won with an armband. The Tag Title and Cruiserweight Title matches got built up in one convenient Santos Escobar/Tyler Breeze match.
“Dude. That killed the business!”
Io Shirai and Raquel Gonzalez brawled multiple times throughout the show, and Tian Sha sprayed a mist that knocked Kayden Carter out. I don’t know what to tell you.
Zayda Ramier seems good.
It’s great that there is so much talent on this roster; it’s bad when they are all so underserved that it’s commonplace to throw them in a big Gauntlet Match. Dunne, Dexter, KUSHIDA, Bronson, Atlas, Ruff, Rust, Swerve, Knight, Theory, and Grimes all had themselves a fine bunch of wrestling to see who enters in what spot for a shot at Johnny Gargano‘s something or another. Gargano’s commentary was rather good.
MAIN EVENT (3/31/21)
This show is basically 205 Live but with zero story instead of kind of one. Angel Garza lost to Mansoor, who according to Byron Saxton is very excited about Rob Van Dam being in the Hall of Fame. Drew Gulak lost to Humberto Carrillo, who I guess Byron didn’t talk to before the show.
NXT UK (4/1/21)
NXT UK got themselves in place for NXT UK Prelude real quick in the last couple weeks, with three semi-interesting matches set: WALTER/Rampage Brown (who did a promo), Tyler Bate/Noam Dar (who had a video), and Kay Lee Ray/Isla Dawn vs. Meiko Satomura/Millie McKenzie (the latter of whom returned in an angle).
Kenny Williams & Amir Jordan couldn’t win Pretty Deadly‘s Tag Titles, mostly because Kenny turned on Amir. That was the main event of a light in-ring show, highlighted by Aoifie Valkyrie‘s top rope axe kick.
SMACKDOWN (4/2/21)
RAW has got hijinks with Bad Bunny and The Fiend; SmackDown has close to 10 actual wrestling superstars who are all headed to WrestleMania in a feud that they seemingly want to be in. That makes for a good wrestling show, even if Cesaro still can’t cut a promo. Sorry Cesaro. But come on.
Seth Rollins and his suits are facing Cesaro, Rey Mysterio gets to team with his son, and Big E is getting both himself and Apollo Crews over even if “WWE is having a Nigerian Drum Fight at WrestleMania” is a painful prospect.
Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair are trading shots on the way to their “historical matchup,” a phrase I promise you Michael Cole will never elaborate on.
WHERE TF IS BAYLEY?
Hammy Sami Zayn cracked me up as he wore a sleazy suit and danced like a goof and welcomed Logan Paul to SmackDown en route to getting a Stunner from Kevin Owens. I think that match is gonna be fun.
Reginald cold-shouldering Carmella cracked me up too.
Edge was angry all show, though he shouldn’t be since Daniel Bryan is doing the work for everybody on the way to WrestleMania. SmackDown built some last-minute heat for the Triple Threat main event with Bryan and Jey Uso beating each other up in a Street Fight. Bryan blasting Jey with a chain repeatedly before tapping him with a YesLock, then knocking out Edge and putting Roman in a YesLock was excellent TV.
205 LIVE (4/2/21)
Mansoor continued his 45-match winning streak with a win over August Grey, then Ariya Daivari & Tony Nese lost to the team of Bolly-Rise, which is when The Bollywood Boyz and Ever-Rise… forget it.
