NEWS

Card subject to change. The WWE Women’s Revolution is almost seven years old and the changes that it has brought have been outstanding for women’s wrestling. After so many years of the wrestlers having almost nothing to do and being little more than an eye candy sideshow, women’s wrestling has become a featured attraction in WWE. One of its bigger stars was missing this weekend though.
According to F4WOnline.com, Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch missed this weekend’s WWE live event in Youngstown, Ohio. Lynch was originally scheduled to defend her title in a four way against Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan and Doudrop, with the three challengers facing off in a triple threat in her absence. There is no word on why Lynch missed the show. She appeared on this week’s Monday Night Raw, losing in a six woman tag.
Opinion: This is kind of a confusing situation, but the fact that Lynch was back in the ring the following Monday would suggest that she isn’t hurt in any serious way. There is every po..

History has been made! Titles have been one of the key points in wrestling since the beginnings of the sport and they will continue to be for a long time to come. Anyone can understand the idea of a championship and anyone can idea of someone winning a title from someone else. That was the case this week, as not only did a title change hands, but something else happened after the match.
Finn Balor defeated Damian Priest to win the United States Title for the first time this week on Monday Night Raw. After the match, Priest said the fans carried Balor to a win and that they never supported him like that during his title reigns. Priest said he would get the title back and then attacked Balor, giving him a Razor’s Edge on the announcers’ table, turning heel in the process. There is no word on when a rematch will take place.
Opinion: This feels like a WrestleMania title match and that is not a bad idea. At the end of the day, Balor has been needing something to do for a very long time no..

At least he has a place. The WWE roster has been turned upside down in recent years and there is nothing to suggest that the changes are over. WWE has wiped out large portion of its roster and nearly two hundred wrestlers are no longer with the company. That leaves WWE with a pretty thin roster, but now we know a bit more about how WWE sees what it has left over.
According to PWInsider.com, Ricochet is currently seen as the #2 babyface singles wrestler on the SmackDown roster, behind only Drew McIntyre. New Day and Shinsuke Nakamura, with Rick Boogs, are considered part of the tag team division. Ricochet is currently scheduled to challenge Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Title on this week’s edition of SmackDown.
Opinion: Having watched the last several months of SmackDown, it is a little difficult to imagine Ricochet as one of the top singles stars. While he has won his last two singles matches on television, his most recent televised singles win before that was back in July 2021..

There’s your WrestleMania match. We are just over a month away from WrestleMania 38 and the show is still starting to come together. There have been a few matches announced for the card but WWE needs to start putting some things together to make it feel bigger. The show needs some non-title matches to build the card up and now we have another on the list.
Last week on Monday Night Raw, Edge issued an open challenge for WrestleMania. This week, AJ Styles accepted the challenge, with Edge saying that he wants the bulldog Styles and not the one who has been teaming with Omos for most of the last year. Edge then attacked Styles and laid him out with two Conchairtos to end the show, turning heel in the process. This will be Styles and Edge’s first ever singles match.
Opinion: Now that is the first non-title match that feels WrestleMania worthy and that is a nice thing to see. WWE has gotten the top of the card set but they need to fill in more of that next level. Edge and Styles have the ..

Monday Night Raw
Date: February 28, 2022
Location: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
Commentators: Jimmy Smith Corey Graves, Byron Saxton
We are just over a month away from Wrestlemania and it would be nice to have the show actually get some more matches announced. There are only a handful of things set for the card and WWE is running out of shows to build them up. Maybe they can put some of them together tonight, as they kind of need to. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Here is Kevin Owens, in a sideways cowboy hat, to open with the Kevin Owens Show. He brings out his best friend and his tag team partner, Seth Rollins, to talk about how they’re going to win the Raw Tag Team Titles next week. Owens talks about how he can’t stand Texas but they have to find a way to get to Wrestlemania. Therefore they are going to win the titles next week and defend them at Wrestlemania, which will take place in that stupid Texas.
Owens stomps on the hat but for now, we need to bring out this week’..

One more on the card. We are rapidly approaching WrestleMania 38 as the show will take place over the first weekend of April. The show only has a handful of matches set, meaning there is quite a bit of room left to fill up on the card. You can probably guess some of those matches from here and now we probably know what one of the other title matches will be added to the show.
Last week on SmackDown, Sasha Banks defeated Shotzi in a match. After Banks won, Naomi got in the ring and said that the two of them would be the next WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. According to PWInsider.com, Naomi and Banks will be challenging Carmella and Queen Zelina for the titles at WrestleMania 38. Naomi and Banks have teamed together in one two on two tag match in the last year, defeating Natalya and Shayna Baszler on the November 26, 2021 Smackdown.
Opinion: I’m a bit surprised that this match is happening, but it shows you more than a few things. First of all, the fact that the best challengers the ti..

That’s a fast turnaround. We are less than five weeks away from WrestleMania 38 and that means the show should be starting to come together. While we only know a few of the bigger matches on the card, we do know the show’s main event. WrestleMania 38 will be headlined by a winner take all unification match between Universal Champion Roman Reigns and WWE Champion Brock Lesnar. However, things might not be as simple as they seem.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE will continue to have two World Champions after WrestleMania 38. At some time after WrestleMania, a new WWE World Title will be introduced to bring the number of titles back to two. This is seen as similar to Triple H being named the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion in 2002 after the WWF and WCW World Titles were unified at Vengeance 2001. There is no word on what the new title will be or when it will be introduced.
Opinion: I can’t even pretend to be surprised at this, as WWE has a tendency to make up stipulation..

Ring of Honor
Date: February 23, 2022
It’s another Hall of Fame show and this time around we are looking at Samoa Joe. That is another case where there are all kinds of matches to pick from, many of which are among the ones that helped put Ring of Honor on the map. These shows have been excellent so far and there is a chance that this one will be too. Let’s get to it.
We open with Samoa Joe’s Hall of Fame video, talking about how he helped put the company on the map and his still record World Title reign. We also hear about his time in Impact Wrestling and WWE, though not much is said about the latter.
From Night of Champions, March 22, 2003.
Ring of Honor Title: Samoa Joe vs. Xavier Xavier is defending and the rest of the Prophecy, Xavier’s friends, are at ringside but CW Anderson and Michael Shane come in to take them out. That leaves Joe to chop Xavier into the corner, where Xavier’s chops have no effect. Joe knocks him outside and puts Xavier in a chair for a running boot to se..

He’s a new one. The rise of AEW has allowed for a lot of new things, but one of the most important is a new high level platform for wrestlers to work on. After about twenty years of WWE being the only place to go, AEW has allowed for things to be shaken up. Several wrestlers get a new place to go and that was the case again last week. Now we know a little more about him.
Last week’s edition of AEW Dynamite saw the debut of Buddy Matthews, formerly known as Buddy Murphy in WWE, who joined the House of Black. According to Fightful Select, AEW began talks with Matthews back in the fall, though it is not clear when the two sides came to an agreement. Impact Wrestling also made a play for Matthews but were unable to land him. Matthews is said to have made a good first impression, which was made even better when he declined to use a spot because it involved using another wrestler’s finishing move.
Opinion: It’s cool to see Matthews showing up again because he really was one of the more int..

It could have worked. With so many wrestlers on the WWE roster, it can be a little bit tricky to find something for everyone to do. That can create quite a few problems and some of them seem to involve WWE just not having any kind of an idea to give to a wrestler. Unfortunately that seems to be the case again and has been the case for the last several months now.
According to Ringsidenews.com, Elias is currently in “creative purgatory” as WWE has nothing for him to do. Elias has reportedly not been mentioned by WWE Creative in several months as he has not been seen since August. His last appearance saw Elias burying his guitar and ring gear, though he has yet to return to WWE television since. There is no word on if or when Elias will return to WWE TV.
Opinion: This isn’t exactly surprising and that is not the best thing to see. At the end of the day, Elias was not someone who had the most detailed character, as his whole thing was just about playing his guitar and writing songs abou..

It took some time. One of the most exciting things you can see in wrestling is the debut of a new wrestler. It means that you are going to be getting to see some fresh matches with the new star meeting the established veterans, along with some kind of a new story. However, sometimes it does not exactly go as well as it should have, and that seems to be the case again for a WWE star.
This week’s SmackDown featured the in-ring debut with Xia Li, who defeated Natalya with a kick to the face. Li had appeared on SmackDown multiple times while being billed as The Protector, but had not actually wrestled despite being drafted to SmackDown from NXT in the 2021 WWE Draft back in October. According to Fightful Select, Li did not have any creative plans for her debut, despite several animated vignettes airing hyping her move to SmackDown. Li was never injured and was simply waiting on something from WWE.
Opinion: That really is one of the most WWE things I have heard in a long time, as the comp..

They have a plan for that. WWE does a lot of things throughout their television shows and some of them are more than a bit strange to see. It seems that occasionally you will see something come out of nowhere, even if it does not make the most sense. Most of the time there is at least some kind of an explanation though, and that is the case again with a new WWE arrival.
This week on SmackDown, Kofi Kingston and Big E. came to the ring on an ATV, which Kingston had given to Big E. as an early birthday present. According to Fightful Select, the two rode the ATV as a way to promote an upcoming Mattel toy which will feature the ATV and at least one of them in some way. There is no word on how long the two will use the ATV as part of their entrance.
Opinion: That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, even if it might not be the most interesting idea. Big E. riding an ATV is hardly some terrible idea, but at least there is something to tie it into later on. I can’t imagine this turns into ..