RAW is bad and Karrion Kross sucks, but Jimmy Uso is back and Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell won the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles.
Working Man’s Recap
Good Work: Omos, Sheamus, Leon Ruff, Indi Hartwell, Mustafa Ali, Noam Dar, Roman Reigns, The Usos, Cesaro, Ikeman Jiro
World: RAW is Bad, Karrion Kross Sucks, Candice LeRae Wins Gold, Return of the Maharaja, Return of Jimmy Uso
Wrestling: Falls Count Anywhere: Leon Ruff vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott (NXT 5/4/21), NXT Women’s Tag Team Title: Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart [c] vs. Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell (NXT 5/4/21), Ricochet vs. Mustafa Ali (Main Event 5/5/21), Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins (SmackDown 5/7/21)
Entertainment: Noam Dar’s Superstar Sessions w/ Nathan Frazer (NXT UK 5/6/21), Bayley/Bianca Belair promo (SmackDown 5/7/21), Jimmy Uso tells Roman he wouldn’t have quit (SmackDown 5/7/21)
RAW (5/3/21)
RAW just sucks every week now. The best part was three great clotheslines during the show by Damian Priest, Shelton Benjamin and Angel Garza. I don’t know why they were all on the same show, but I’m appreciating the wins RAW affords me.
Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville are lead characters now, the authority with no actual authority, and oversaw a show where Randy Orton got tomatoes thrown at him to setup a tag match and Angel Garza shoved a rose up Drew Gulak‘s ass.
In the tag division, Omos tossed New Day around again and Cedric Alexander dropped Shelton for some reason before Naomi & Lana lost their Tag Title challenge in about a minute.
Mansoor made his RAW debut losing to Sheamus by DQ, and Eva Marie is coming back. For the perverts.
The main event was Bobby Lashley vs. Braun Strowman with Drew McIntyre on commentary, like a big last gasp before live crowds come back and have something to say about something.
NXT (5/4/21)
The rules are clear: the wrestling blogger cannot complain if the show opens and closes with great wrestling.
Leon Ruff vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott was the best part of the Gauntlet Eliminator at Stand & Deliver, a good singles match a few weeks ago, and an awesome Falls Count Anywhere opener here. It was one of those matches like Ali/Murphy from a few heads ago where there’s a clear directive that there are no directives. Ruff was a bumping machine, a DVD to the floor especially dangerous. In a world of so many crazy moves too, particularly a lot of reverse hurricanrana’s, the one Ruff did to Swerve off the apron was something special. Swerve got himself a crew to help win, and I’m sure we’ll hear more about that. Not quite breakout because Thunderdome, but breakout-worthy.
Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell won the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles from Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart in a Street Fight main event (we love gimmicks), and it might’ve been a breakout performance for Hartwell – or at least confirmation she’s a player as well as confirmation she can do a tremendous elbow drop through a table. High-energy chaos is one of the best kinds of wrestling and this had it.
Sarray had a tremendous follow-up to her debut with Zayda Ramier too, wrecking a game Ramier with a dropkick and backdrop suplex.
LA Knight beat Jake Atlas in a solid match; Cameron Grimes beat Asher Hale (the former Anthony Henry) in one too before getting out-hustled again by that damn Ted DiBiase.
Also, Franky Monet’s dog shit in Shotzi’s tank.
Great opener and closer aside though, the NXT Title scene right now might be loaded with individual talents but it’s bad TV when all roads are leading to Karrion Kross.
MAIN EVENT (5/5/21)
Ricochet vs. Mustafa Ali are officially having what wrestling fans used to call a “series” on Main Event and the matches just keep getting better as they try wackier shit in lieu of being on RAW. Highlight spot saw Ricochet throw Ali off the top causing Ali to backflip and land on his feet, only for Ricocheg to immediately follow up with a Shooting Star Press to a standing Ali. God bless.
Jeff Hardy meanwhile is clearly running out a contract and lost to the returning Jinder Mahal, who is now flanked by the baseball guy from Indus Sher (now Veer) and a guy named Shanky, last seen on Superstar Spectacle earlier in the year. I have nothing else to say about this — I just want you to know I know.
NXT UK (5/6/21)
NXT UK keeps pushing. The main event saw Kenny Williams beat Amir Jordan in a Loser Leaves NXT UK match, and it was not exactly Reigns/Bryan. Amir sold his arm well enough and did a neat one-armed Swanton before the show ended with him in tears.
They’re doing a solid job building Ilja Dragunov as a monster and Nathan Frazer as a likable upstart. Ilja hit Dave Mastiff so hard their match was stopped, and Frazer trading lines with Noam Dar was rare good comedy in WWE.
Tyler Bate and A-Kid reflected on their previous matches in advance of their next one, and big Saxon Huxley did an elbow drop off the apron before he lost to Trent Seven.
The women’s division was all promos for the 5-Way Match this week before Amale attacked Xia Brookside backstage and vaccinated her from the match.
SMACKDOWN (5/7/21)
There was nothing throwback or retro about this SmackDown besides graphics and Michael Cole’s denim jacket, but the blue team stacked a show again this week and tied it together by bringing Jimmy Uso back and telling a story all show with mostly well-acted scenes throughout the show.
It looks like Roman Reigns might have to teach Jimmy to bow down to his Tribal Chief soon, but he’s got Cesaro next because Cesaro beat Seth Rollins in a fun sprint of an opener. It’s all connected and whatnot; I’m not used to this.
Like Sasha, Bayley’s obnoxious laugh has quickly gone from silly to memorable and she should probably just keep the Robert Plant look she had going this week.
A 10-man tag on this show was a good idea, not because it’s a throwback but just because 10-man tags are good ideas. It had plenty of the usual but also Chad Gable giving Kevin Owens a German suplex on the floor and Nakamura crushing Sami Zayn with a Kinshasa. I dug the promos beforehand too, especially Apollo Crews being the promo guy over Corbin.
There was also some crap. Carmella tapped Ruby Riott in a minute; Tamina wrestled Reginald. Dominik Mysterio scored a win over Dolph Ziggler, but with a rollup and in two minutes.
Show came around and ended with Jimmy not bowing down yet and Cesaro hulking out on the Bloodline. Very cool.
205 LIVE (5/7/21)
The 205 Live Superstar Initiative (not real) led me to seeing for the first time the former Alex Zayne wrestle, now going by Ari Sterling. He seems like a capable high-flyer though as per usual it will take something special to stand out on this show. I saw Jiro Ikeman wrestle for the first time too, though Captain Lou prepped me enough. I can tell you he definitely did not say “Prepare to be entertained!” as Nigel McGuinness did when Jiro emerged from the curtain.
