Daniel Bryan is gone from SmackDown and RAW is still really, spectacularly bad.
Working Man’s Recap
Good Work: The Miz, Toni Storm, Indi Hartwell, Aoife Valkyrie, Bianca Belair, Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, Ever-Rise
World: RAW Still Bad, The Way Carries NXT, Is Daniel Bryan Done?
Wrestling: WWE Universal Title: Roman Reigns [c] vs. Daniel Bryan (SmackDown 4/30/21), Toni Storm vs. Zayda Ramier (NXT 4/27/21)
Entertainment: Paul Heyman backstage interview (SmackDown 4/30/21), Cesaro runs off Roman Reigns (SmackDown 4/30/21)
RAW (4/26/21)
Another nightmarish RAW, highlighted by maybe Damian Priest and New Day being friendly backstage because at least that was a reminder there are humans here.
Mustafa Ali (that guy who was cutting awesome promos for a few months) worked a Hulu exclusive prior to the show; T-BAR & MACE (still their names) wrestled Drew McIntyre & Braun Strowman and proved nothing.
Charlotte Flair returned from last week’s controversy with no noticeable change in demeanor, while Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza appear to have been called back to RAW — one to go after Sheamus, the other Nia Jax. Decisions. Decisions everywhere.
Randy Orton is moving on from the black liquid and evil box to team with scooter Riddle.
The show ended with Adnan Virk saying that “the stakes have been raised immeasurably!” to describe the Triple Threat Match that got setup for Backlash.
NXT (4/27/21)
A better offering than RAW, but this is still a show with Karrion Kross as champion. You can’t go anywhere with that, and they’re just killing time with Adam Cole poolside, Kyle O’Reilly leering, and Finn Balor on vacation.
And jokes. Lots of bits and jokes that more often than not are working, just because people are swinging. Cameron Grimes finally met that damn Ted DiBiase and The Way just has this show on their back now with solid wrestling and comedic timing.
Building up another Bronson Reed title challenge as a follow-up to the weak TakeOver title challenge is a weird move, but look: as Indi Hartwell told Dexter Lumis, maybe I talk too much. God, even Eli Drake is growing on me from all this.
Did Timothy Thatcher sing or was that a dream?
Mercedes Martinez/Dakota Kai had some solid work but was mostly uninteresting as NXT takes too long to figure out how they want to present Dakota and Raquel. Heel or face doesn’t matter, just anything other than what this void is right now.
Zayda Ramier hit a mean Shooting Star Press to beat Toni Storm, who is 0-2 with the rookies now but 2-0 having good and effective matches with them. NXT has kind of got a tag division now too, but I’ll let you know when it seems headed somewhere other than a Fatal 4-Way Ladder Match.
MAIN EVENT (4/28/21)
Mustafa Ali/Ricochet and Drew Gulak/Tozawa — Main Event is 205 Live now. Wish I could say seek it out but I can’t.
NXT UK (4/29/21)
Aoife Valkyrie bringing the fight to Meiko Satomura delivered; rest of the show kind of stunk.
They setup A-Kid/Bate, Gradwell/Seven, Dragunov/Mastiff, and a 5-Way Match to determine Kay Lee Ray’s next challenger.
Rohan Raja made his debut and commentary mentioned him as a trainee of Yuki Ishikawa, so it kind of pissed me off when he lost by referee stoppage to the Teoman.
Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster and Dani Luna are in a group called Subculture, at least based on video promo. Eddie Dennis, Primate & Tyson T-Bone are in a group called Symbiosis now, at least based on a match with Gallus that they lost.
SMACKDOWN (4/30/21)
SmackDown is the only show WWE is running right now that feels like it has a purpose, and the last half-hour of this week’s was Daniel Bryan vs. Roman Reigns for the Universal Title with a stipulation or Bryan leaving SmackDown if he lost. So it was a good show.
The match had the no-bullshit urgency the environment called for, a sprint from the bell when Bryan ran at Roman with a dropkick. It was an ultra-tight match, all about momentum via ass-kicking and cut-offs via signature moves. There was a sprint pace that still built into an exciting finish and a build that took advantage of each previous thing they did.
Bryan goes at Reigns, goes goes goes…. clothesline. Bryan manages the backflip off the top rope, run ropes run ropes… back elbow. Bryan uppercuts and uppercuts, tries a hurricanrana… top rope powerbomb. Bryan runs the ropes, dives through the ropes… suplex on the floor.
Bryan manages his backdrop superplex on big Roman then does the Yes Kicks until Roman ducks and hits the Samoan drop for 2. Roman charges with the spear but Bryan counters with a small package, then as they stagger up he charges with and hits the Knee+ for a foot-on-the-ropes near fall. Bryan stomps Roman’s head in and applies the YesLock, but Reigns powers out and hits the spear — Bryan kicks out! Reigns goes for the guillotine, Bryan escapes and wrenches Reigns’ arm into the YesLock, Reigns uses his good arm and hooks the guillotine until Bryan passes out. Tremendous match, two of the greats in the big spot.
The rest of the show wasn’t very exciting, but that’s why you have purpose. Cesaro came to the rescue as they wrote off Daniel Bryan. Bianca Belair whipped Robert Roode with her ponytail. Natalya & Tamina beat the tag champs. Apollo Crews vs. Big E was a good sprint.
205 LIVE (4/30/21)
I’m not sure when it became official that 205 Live was just two matches packaged for international distribution, but it leaves little room for anything to actually happen other than the slow development of these decent wrestlers.
Jake Atlas & August Grey vs. The Bollywood Boyz was the first match, Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari vs. Ever-Rise the second. I wish the latter wasn’t the most complete Ever-Rise match in WWE since they worked Enzo & Cass, but it might have been.
