The SmackDown After Mania should have felt like a reset. Instead, it felt like a company trying to convince itself it had momentum while terrible WWE release news hung over the entire night. As mentioned in my LNC Wrestling article on the WWE releases, that news broke right before SmackDown went on the air last … Read more
Tonight’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown After Mania has the job of turning WrestleMania 42 fallout into the next chapter for the blue brand. This is not a show built around a stacked match card. It is built around consequences. Rhea Ripley arrives as the new WWE Women’s Champion, Trick Williams celebrates becoming United States Champion … Read more
WWE needed last night’s RAW after WrestleMania to feel like a reset, a statement, and a shot of adrenaline after a WrestleMania weekend that a lot of fans came away from calling overproduced, ad-heavy, and a little too polished for its own good. Instead, WWE gave us a show that was useful more than electric. … Read more
WWE needed WrestleMania 42 Night 2 to deliver in the worst way after a Night 1 that felt flat, overproduced, and way too corporate for a show that is supposed to be the biggest spectacle in wrestling. Thankfully, Night 2 was a lot better. It still had some of the same problems that hung over … Read more
WrestleMania 42 Night 2 has a real chance to be the stronger half of WWE’s biggest weekend. Night 1 delivered title changes, two major returns, a headline-grabbing pregnancy announcement, and a chaotic Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton main event that kept the feud alive even after the bell. It also drew plenty of criticism for … Read more
WWE had three hours, the WrestleMania stage, a loaded roster, and one final chance to make the blue brand feel essential heading into the biggest weekend of the year. Instead, last night’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown felt like a show that kept teasing urgency without ever fully committing to it. Randy Orton finally delivered the … Read more
SmackDown last night was supposed to feel like the blue brand’s hard final push before WrestleMania 42, the penultimate stop before next Saturday and Sunday in Las Vegas. Instead, it was a show that constantly felt like it was fighting its own momentum. There was good wrestling on the episode. Bayley and Alexa Bliss put … Read more
Houston, Texas is a wrestling city. CM Punk said so himself last night, invoking the ghost of Harley Race in the middle of the Toyota Center, and the crowd knew exactly what that meant. With two weeks remaining on the road to WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas, the penultimate episode of Raw before the Showcase … Read more
With just two Raws remaining before WrestleMania 42 hits Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, WWE arrives at the Toyota Center in Houston tonight with real business still left on the table. Three matches are official, the final two WrestleMania slots are expected to be filled, and Seth Rollins opens the show responding to Gunther’s calculated … Read more
Two weeks before WrestleMania 42, last night’s SmackDown should have been about tightening the blue brand’s biggest stories, raising the stakes, and making the road to WrestleMania feel urgent. Instead, it often felt like a show working against itself. The headline angle gave Randy Orton’s mystery caller reveal to Pat McAfee, who low-blowed Cody Rhodes … Read more
