WWE held its Fastlane fallout shows this week and as we
compile the AllWrestling Weekly Power Poll there’s some storylines dividing the
WWE Universe over who should main event WrestleMania a month from now.
I believe a majority still supports the first ever women’s main event for the
RAW Women’s Championship between an ever-growing renegade champion “Rowdy”
Ronda Rousey and challengers, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. However, the thus-far
pitch perfect handling of underdog, 11-year veteran Kofi Kingston repeatedly
being denied a WWE Championship shot is gaining a groundswell of support should
he somehow accomplish the unprecedented feat of beating everyone else in his
SmackDown gauntlet match this week and gain a match with “The New” Daniel
Bryan. Meanwhile, traditionalists, who I believe are the minority, are still stumping
for Universal Champion Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins to be the main event.
Several rumors hit online this week that Vince McMahon has yet to set the main
event match. Whether that’s true or showmanship, only the chairman knows.
However, it has many of the WWE’s billion social media followers worked up
online, no doubt helping the company keep some intrigue and interest from fans
who are debating the merits of their desired match every day.
Keeping all of that in mind, it’s time to run down the best
of the week from WWE.
They Didn’t Quite Make the List:
RAW Tag Team Champions The Revival – Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson survived Fastlane
with their championship belts and then jumped all over Ricochet and Aleister Black
in a sneak attack after their RAW match. Though WWE is putting in the investment
of time on tag team wrestling over the past few weeks, it doesn’t seem like The
Revival or Bobby Roode and Chad Gable are being helped much. If anything,
crowds seemed to be wowed by Black’s striking prowess and Ricochet’s superball-esque
bouncing all over the ring. However, I think most of their fans from NXT would
rather see them working singles matches. Yet, The Revival getting a vote of
confidence to retain their belts, rather than a surprise upset at Fastlane,
tells us WWE still wants to give them a chance to gain more traction.
United States Champion Samoa Joe – The best news on Sunday was that the new
United States Champion would be defending his belt. The Samoan Submission
machine worked another entertaining 4-way match with Andrade, Rey Mysterio and R-Truth,
locking in the Coquina Clutch to retain the gold. Though he lost a tag match with
Andrade against Truth and Mysterio on SmackDown, Joe looks like he’s just
starting a decent push with the belt and it will be interesting to see what
WrestleMania has in store.
SmackDown Women’s Champion Asuka – It was great to see so much of the Empress
this week, considering WWE has only sparingly put her on TV in the ring since
the Royal Rumble. Asuka scored victories over both halves of Fire & Desire,
Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville. God’s Greatest Creation and her buddy each inadvertently
sabotaged each other by tripping up the other with the ring apron in their
respective matches at Fastlane and SmackDown. Though they were fluke victories,
Asuka looked strong throughout each of the matches. Here’s hoping the WWE
chooses to make her a fighting champion from here on out.
Mandy Rose-Sonya Deville – Speaking of splitting fandoms, the arc of the
storyline for Rose and Deville after this week appears to be causing some
ripples in the WWE Universe. My gut instinct tells me that this is when WWE
finally turns these two against each other in a move that seemed to be teased
with Mandy eliminating Sonya from the Battle Royal at Evolution. Though WWE
appears to be higher on Rose, the fans wanting this to happen the most are
ardent Deville supporters wanting to see her get more shots at Asuka.
Meanwhile, the other side of the fandom is clamoring for Mandy and Sonya to
stick together for a possible run at The Boss N Hug Connection and the women’s
tag belts. However, recent tweets and this week’s promo would lead you to
believe The IIconics are up next for Sasha Banks & Bayley. Either way, this
is one of the juicier storylines to come out of this week and bares watching.
Top 10 Superstars of the Week (Reverse Order)
10. Dana Brooke – In a welcome change, RAW used a number of Superstars
struggling to get TV time in Shelton Benjamin, Apollo Crews and No Way Jose,
but none of them did more with their opportunity than Brooke. WWE reportedly
has taken to more reality-based promos recently and nobody came off as more
sincere throughout the night than Brooke did. She chastised Rousey for trashing
WWE as fake garbage watched by cowards who worship a coward like Becky Lynch while
also making what seemed like a heartfelt promo about a lack of opportunities in
demanding a chance against The Rowdy One. Bravo, Dana. I bought it hard, and
hope to see you get more of a chance. However, Rousey went on to dismantle
Brooke before a match could start, so who knows if we will see her again any time
soon?
9. Triple H – To quote the old D-X entrance theme, “Bow to the Master” of the
mic. When Hunter uncorked the “I will tear my way through The Guardians of the
Independent Scene” line in addressing the security surrounding Batista on the
entrance ramp, I laughed so hard it shook the recliner I was sitting on so much
that my cat woke up and bolted the room. For casual fans who may have got the obvious
Drax connection but were wondering about the “independent” part, WWE often uses
indie wrestlers to play security, police, fans, etc. in their storyline work. Going
back to the regularly scheduled program, Triple H continued to almost
single-handedly hype fans for the WrestleMania match between the old Evolution
faction members with his superior mic work. Although, Batista did manage to let
loose an alarming amount of saliva on the mic, leading one fan to make a meme
declaring that The Animal didn’t have to spit on it so much just because the
band Saliva made his entrance music.
8. Shane McMahon – The long-rumored heel turn for the
SmackDown Commissioner finally came to pass at Fastlane. Shane O’Mac layeth the
smacketh down on The Miz and Dad Miz after their loss to The Usos for the
SmackDown Tag Team Championship. Shane-O then doled out the ultimate diss,
calling Dad Miz “a potato face” during his SmackDown tirade where he dragged
everyone in Ohio and noticeably worked over ring announcer Greg Hamilton, who
does most of his stellar work off camera. Shane is usually the likeable McMahon
so his heel turns almost always seem to bring the heat, and that seems to be
the case. His match with The Miz may be the No. 1 guilty pleasure match (one you
don’t want to admit to your friends you want to see, but you really do look
forward to it) on the WrestleMania card.
7. Intercontinental Champion Bobby Lashley – Those F bombs
you saw exploding all over wrestling Twitter on Monday likely came after “The
Almighty” took back his belt from Finn Balor with the help of a well-timed
distraction from Lio Rush. In what was one of the few seemingly random and almost
universally-hated bookings of the week, Lashley received a second turn as
champion and left us wondering where the heck they are going with both “Bob”
and Balor. Later in the week, teases for “The Demon” version of Balor began hitting
social media for WrestleMania. It would seem like a waste to me for the
Intercontinental belt, but it might just be another way for WWE to draw
interest to the show. When Balor lost the belt, my first thought was WWE wanted
to clear a path for him to go after bigger fish after WrestleMania, but that
wouldn’t seem to be the case if we have The Demon versus The Almighty at
MetLife Stadium.
6. AJ Styles – No feud got more interesting with the
interjection of more reality-based promos than The Phenomenal One’s new beef
with Randy Orton. The Viper got the majority of the licks in to start, but AJ
handled his business. When he answered Orton’s vitriol about his indie career,
Styles got in one of the most impactful drags when he said Orton would’ve never
made it in the indies with only his trademark pose, where he throws his arms up
in the air and seems to say “admire me,” and a glorified diamond cutter. Trashing
Orton’s RKO finisher? Yeah, it got real this week between these two veteran
A-Listers, who somehow only managed to get a random, brief interaction at Fastlane.
These two can work the fans up in a frenzy for their WrestleMania showdown with
more work like this.
5. Randy Orton – I ranked The Apex Predator slightly higher
than AJ because he got more mic time and came across as realistically offended
by how Styles is perceived as the one who built the house on the Blue Brand.
Orton rattled off all the years he won championships, main evented WrestleMania
and every pay-per-view show there is. He spoke about becoming one of the
most-decorated champions in WWE history while being a part of SmackDown for so
many years as AJ was building his career on the independent scene. For a guy oft-criticized
for wooden, emotionless promos, Orton brought the heat, perhaps signaling he
didn’t always buy into the script enough in the past to put the passion behind
his delivery. Either way, Orton and Styles sizzled with their time this week.
4. Kofi Kingston – Vince McMahon’s personal punching bag
just kept taking the hits this week. First, Kofi thought he was getting a triple-threat
match for the WWE Championship at Fastlane, only to get dismantled by The Bar
in a handicap match. Then, Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods confronted The
Chairman in another segment that jumped off the screen with intensity near the
end of SmackDown. The relieved look Kofi got when Vince granted him the opportunity
to wrestle his way to a WrestleMania match for the WWE Championship soon vanished
when he saw he was being put into a gauntlet match against Rowan, The Bar,
Orton and Samoa Joe. Since WWE Stats Twitter account mentioned that no one has
ever defeated all other competitors in their gauntlet match, it seems like Kofi
may be primed to accomplish the unprecedented on his road to WrestleMania.
3. RAW Women’s Champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey – Admit it. It’s
much more fun to hate “The Baddest B***h on the Planet” than it was to try to
love the babyface who seemed too overcome by her worship of Sasha Banks to want
to hand her a beating. Sure, she’s calling us cowards and idiots for paying to
watch the “fake” WWE and its overmatched Superstars who aren’t good enough to
share any ring with her. Yet, Bully Ray made a good point on Busted Open Radio.
All of us should’ve been sending thank you notes to Ronda on Monday after she
interfered to give us what we want – The Man – getting her shot at
WrestleMania. Finally, the end of the convoluted suspension-injury-arrest cycle
appears to be over. Ronda appears to be embracing the heel heat now, too. It
seems like she’s back to having fun at work again. As a result, Rousey has
turned in some of her best promo work this year since becoming a heel.
2. Becky Lynch – The Man is going to WrestleMania. Again. Really.
WWE promises this time. Though fans have vented their frustration about the
handling of her storyline since her triumphant Royal Rumble victory, Lynch
somehow took all of that angst, a physical beating from Charlotte Flair at
Fastlane and a gift win by disqualification from Rousey, and worked her mic
magic, yet again, to spin it like it was her masterplan all along. In a promo
that blended both her playful and vengeful sides, Lynch admitted it’s hard to
play mental games with a mindless Rousey and dragged Flair as a plastic-faced dope.
Admittedly, I’m a fan of The Man. But with talk like that, I’m not sure why everybody
isn’t. Regardless, Lynch is riding high again with Rousey and the WrestleMania
main event in her sights.
1. Drew McIntyre – In typical fashion, WWE followed a mostly
babyface-friendly pay per view with a RAW booked with heel heat layered upon
heel heat. The reason the Scottish Psychopath vaulted to the top of the
rankings this week is his heat became volcanic and erupted with beatdowns of
two-thirds of The Shield, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. That McIntyre meted
out punishment on some babyfaces isn’t new. The question is where does WWE go
with him from here? McIntyre’s inconsistent booking seems to be the only thing
that has been standing in his way from launching into the Universal title
picture. For every time McIntyre looks dominant, he spends the next few weeks
putting over babyfaces like Rollins or Balor. Though the Falls Count Anywhere
stipulation on the RAW main event added some memorable punch to his match with
Ambrose, McIntyre will not be able to progress until WWE decides to go all in
with him as an unbeatable force of evil on Mondays.