This week on WWE TV, Brock Lesnar went from babyface stalking Roman Reigns to heel taunting him over the course of a match. The only thing it cost was Big E’s run with the WWE Title — hey.
Note: With WWE’s Premium Live Events (I call them PLEs) moving from Sunday to Saturday nights, the WWE TV week at HWL begins on Monday now.
WWE TV Highlights (1/3 – 1/9/22)
- Bianca Belair interrupts Becky Lynch and Liv Morgan (RAW 1/3/22)
- Fatal 4-Way Match – Winner Faces Brock Lesnar for WWE Title: Big E vs. Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens vs. Bobby Lashley (RAW 1/3/22)
- All four New Year’s Evil matches (NXT 1/4/22)
- NXT UK Women’s Title: Meiko Satomura [c] vs. Blair Davenport (NXT UK 1/6/22)
- Street Fight – SmackDown Tag Team Title: The Usos [c] vs. The New Day (SmackDown 1/7/22)
Stuff Happening: Big E loses WWE Title, Bianca Belair confronts Becky Lynch, Omos squashes AJ Styles, T-BAR squash on Main Event, Carmelo Hayes wins NXT Cruiserweight Title, Bron Breakker wins NXT Title, Meiko Satomura/Blair Davenport, Johnny Knoxville in the Rumble, Rollins Challenges Reigns
Good Work: Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Bianca Belair, Big E, Carmelo Hayes, MSK, Imperium, Mandy Rose, Tommaso Ciampa, Bron Breakker, Meiko Satomura, Naomi
RAW (1/3/22)
What’s the wrestling term? Hotshot? The first RAW of 2022 was stacked with championships and gimmicks, not many of which could overcome having to be a part of RAW.
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Suddenly, Brock Lesnar is WWE Champion again. The four losers who lost to him closed the show in a Fatal 4-Way where the winner challenges him at the Royal Rumble, and though Big E got shafted on Saturday WWE was doing everything but pointing bright cartoon arrows at Bobby Lashley all night.
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Bianca Belair finally re-entered the title picture by triumphantly interrupting another exchange between Becky Lynch and Liv Morgan, and the cadence and delivery was incredible.
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The Alpha Academy scored an upset over the RAW Tag Team Champions. There were, also, matches for WWE’s Tag Team, United States, and 24/7 Championships.
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Reggie hit an incredible standing somersault press in that last one.
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WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix joined her husband (also Hall of Famer) Edge on MizTV, Mr. McMahon did a Larry David bit for Austin Theory, and no less than two tag teams and a silver-haired Johnny Knoxville announced they were entering the Royal Rumble.
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Alexa Bliss‘ journey back to RAW begins next week too. Hopefully she brings Mahaan.
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Bobby Lashley will, indeed, wrestle Brock at the Rumble.
NXT (1/4/22)
New Year’s Evil 2022 wasn’t quite “Premium Live Event” but it was mostly comprised of four really good wrestling matches. Always nice when the wrestlers wrestle.
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Carmelo Hayes vs. Roderick Strong for both the North American and Cruiserweight Championships was one of those matches NXT used to have. A really great version of one actually, and young Hayes was setting the pace against one of its’ wisest practitioners. That top-rope X-plex too. You kidding me?
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Did Grayson Waller say a guy in the front row didn’t watch RAW? Is it OK to joke about RAW at the office?
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The Riddle & MSK vs. WALTER & Imperium was pretty breezy, a fun novelty rather than something incredible even though it could probably be something incredible.
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Mandy Rose defended the NXT Women’s Title against Raquel Gonzalez and Cora Jade in a Triple Threat Match that honestly rivaled the quality of at least 50% of Wrestle Kingdom. Kay Lee Ray and Io Shirai would’ve made for more interesting challengers (a singles match would be nice too), but somewhere among the weapons and spills to the floor this just held together.
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Andre Chase‘s fan club/student body in the crowd has been one of the more adorable things to come out of NXT 2.0. On the other hand, as a wrestling obsessive I am pretty desensitized to bad wrestling but Von Wagner‘s promo was really, really bad.
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Less than 3 months since first appearing in our homes and on our screens, Bron Breakker has finally reached the mountaintop. The son of Rick Steiner beat Tommaso Ciampa for the NXT Title in a big improvement over their first match and something everyone involved can be proud of. Bron’s missed crossbody and spear both hit with dedication, and Tom Ciampa did all he could with the situation at hand. WWE crowns a new hero as well as they seemingly can, though the last time someone beat a guy McMahon wasn’t hot on with a Camel Clutch the someone actually led to someone else.
MAIN EVENT (1/5/22)
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Special alert: T-BAR squash. Teebs really dished out a beating on poor Dennis Daniels, so much so that maybe it goes somewhere.
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Special alert: The Mysterios vs. The Hurt Business. It was conventional, but they should keep running these back for Dom.
NXT UK (1/6/22)
On the same day WWE announced William Regal was leaving the company, NXT UK’s success story WALTER announced next week will be his last match before NXT U.S. or SmackDown or something.
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Ashton Smith & Oliver Carter advanced over Symbiosis in a tournament for a shot at the NXT UK Tag Team Titles, though it feels as if there has been some variation of one happening since NXT UK began.
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The middle of the show was a Xia Brookside squash and pretty solid Ilja Dragunov promo.
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Meiko Satomura defended the NXT UK Women’s Title against Blair Davenport in a quality TV main event between an icon of credible pro wrestling and a capable opponent who can hit really freaking hard. Blair attacked Meiko after the match, which is WWE’s way of saying there will be more.
SMACKDOWN (1/7/22)
The first SmackDown of 2022 featured Roman Reigns attacking Brock Lesnar and a New Day/Usos match.
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The Universal Champion made his return to WWE TV after Christmas break and little bit of Covid, and he just seemed bored talking his way into another match with Brock that’s just a raincheck for a match that was already a rehash.
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WWE’s most trusted and gifted celebrity handler Sami Zayn was thrown over the top rope by Johnny Knoxville to promote the Men’s Royal Rumble, and for the Women’s Rumble they just listed over half the field.
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Naomi went long enough with Charlotte Flair to seem competitive, but the match was not very good. Sonya Deville may be headed towards a second singles match at WrestleMania, which is a little complicated but genuinely impressive.
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Madcap Moss dressed up as Drew McIntyre.
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New Day vs. Usos, it was good again. It was a Street Fight.
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Roman ended the show learning that his Royal Rumble opponent was Seth Freakin’ Rollins, who knocked on his locker room door to the comforting beats of The Shield theme. It’s, uh… yep. I guess!
205 LIVE (1/7/22)
205 Live really needs Nikkita Lyons or somebody kicking through a purple “2-0-5” sometime to really sell the shift. Might need a new show name too.
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Malik Blade beat Draco Anthony with a pretty sweet springboard dropkick.
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Nikkita Lyons dropped Erica Yan with a front-face DDT that was either a safety hazard or the next best finisher in wrestling.
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Ikeman Jiro returned to 205 Live and beat young Ru Fung in the main event. Vic Joseph really said it was a return. Acted like a homecoming or something.
