Welcome everyone to the 73rd edition of Spandex and Suplexes: A Wrestling Review. I cover a week that saw the WWE Championship on the line, the final build to AEW Revolution, and the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships defended on NXT. Let’s get started.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Drew McIntyre defeated Sheamus
2. Nia Jax defeated Naomi
3. The Hurt Business (Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin) (c) defeated Braun Strowman and Adam Pearce to retain the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships
4. Damian Priest defeated Elias
5. Bobby Lashley defeated The Miz (c) by countout in a WWE Championship match (Miz retains)
6. Charlotte Flair defeated Shayna Baszler
7. Matt Riddle and Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado) defeated Retribution (T-Bar, Slapjack, and Mace)
8. Mustafa Ali defeated Matt Riddle after interference by Retribution (T-Bar, Slapjack, and Mace)
9. Bobby Lashley defeated The Miz (c) by submission in a Lumberjack match to become the new WWE Champion
Thoughts: I figured The Miz would not have a long reign as WWE Champion, but eight days? Whoof. Anyway, I was happy to see Bobby Lashley finally win his first WWE Championship on this past week’s Raw. Lashley is a beast and an amazing athlete that has proven himself in the past to be a worthy main eventer, especially during his time in Impact Wrestling where he was a four-time Impact World Champion.
The WWE title scene on the Road to WrestleMania has certainly been full of twists and turns. Even though we still have WWE Fastlane to get through before getting to the show of shows, I am certain that it will be The All Mighty walking into Mania as the WWE Champion, which I am sure nobody expected just two weeks ago.
The question now is who will Lashley be defending the championship against? While I am firmly convinced that Drew McIntyre will be involved, as I believe WWE wants to have him capture the title in front of an actual crowd like he was supposed to do last year, I have a feeling that the Mania match may involve another competitor (possibly Sheamus). The reason I think this is that WWE already did McIntyre vs. Lashley just this past Summer so they will have to do something a bit bigger to make the match worthy of WrestleMania. Whatever happens, I am happy for Bobby that he finally achieved his goal of becoming WWE Champion after debuting in WWE sixteen years ago.
Overall, this was a great episode of Monday Night Raw with the highlights being McIntyre vs. Sheamus and Lashley winning the WWE Championship.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan defeated Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher
2. Ember Moon defeated Aliyah
3. Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax (c) defeated Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez by submission to retain the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships
4. Cameron Grimes defeated Bronson Reed after interference by LA Knight
5. Finn Bálor defeated Roderick Strong
Thoughts: The ending to the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship was certainly interesting with Adam Pearce (who only runs Raw and SmackDown) coming out and sending a Raw referee to call the match in favor of Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax (who are Raw Superstars) after Baszler chocked out Dakota Kai. The controversy stems from the fact that this was an NXT sanctioned match and William Regal is the only one with actual authority on the show, so Pearce and the Raw ref’s involvement in the end draws questions to the legitimacy of the match’s decision.
Due to all this, it may be safe to say that this will not be the last time Baszler and Jax defend their titles against competitors from the black and gold brand. Hopefully, this leads to titles ending up in the hands of an NXT team (most likely Kai and Gonzalez) and showcased a lot more on the brand that seems to be the only one of the three who really cares about the women’s tag team division.
Overall, this was a great episode of NXT with the highlights being Burch/Lorcan vs. Ciampa/Thatcher, the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match, LA Knight’s (FKA Eli Drake in Impact Wrestling) NXT live television debut, and the main event.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Results:
1. Shaq and Jade Cargill defeated Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet
2. Death Triangle (Pac and Rey Fenix) defeated John Skyler and D3
3. FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) and Tully Blanchard defeated Jurassic Express (Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy, and Marko Stunt) after interference by Shawn Spears
4. Ryo Mizunami defeated Nyla Rose in the AEW Women’s World Championship Eliminator Tournament Finals to earn a shot at the AEW Women’s World Championship at AEW Revolution
5. Max Caster defeated Preston Vance in a Face of the Revolution Ladder Match Qualifier after interference by Jack Evans
6. “Hangman” Adam Page and John Silver defeated Matt Hardy and Marq Quen
Thoughts: This was the go home show edition of Dynamite ahead of tonight AEW Revolution PPV. First things first, the Shaq/Cody tag match was thankfully a watchable match with a couple of good spots as celebrity matches can be very hit or miss. Hopefully, this is the end of this feud, though I do not know why they would have Cody Rhodes lose such a high-profile match ahead of him competing in a big ladder match tonight at Revolution.
Speaking of Revolution, we have nine matches currently scheduled for tonight’s PPV. For the matches that I have a good feeling on who is going to win, I predict that Riho and Thunder Rose will defeat Britt Baker and Rebel, Darby Allin and Sting will defeat Team Taz, Adam Page will defeat Matt Hardy, Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor will defeat Miro and Kip Sabian, and Hikaru Shida will defeat Ryo Mizunami. While I think The Young Bucks have a good chance of retaining their AEW World Tag Team Championships, I can absolutely see Chris Jericho and MJF stealing the titles, possibly with some help from The Good Brothers.
The Face the Revolution Ladder match and the Casino Tag Team Battle Royal each have so many competitors that is incredibly difficult to predict a winner, especially with the ladder match still having an open spot as on this writing. As I have mentioned before in previous issues, the main event match between Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley could go either way due to the nature of the Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch. While I would love to see Moxley regain his title, I can also see Omega finding a way to sneak away with his championship.
Also announced for the show is the signing of a “Hall of Fame worthy talent” as teased by new AEW signee Paul Wight (FKA Big Show in WWE) this past Wednesday on Dynamite. I have a feeling that it is going to be Mark Henry who has been hinting at a return to the ring in the past couple of weeks.
Overall, this was a good episode of Dynamite with the highlights being Cody putting Shaq through two tables, the six-man tag team match, and the main event.
Between NXT and AEW this week, I am going to have to give the slight win to NXT as it had the overall better match quality. This brings my personal 2021 WNW rankings to: NXT – 3 and AEW – 6.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. King Corbin defeated Montez Ford after interference by Sami Zayn
2. Angelo Dawkins defeated Sami Zayn
3. Dominik Mysterio defeated Chad Gable
4. Bianca Belair defeated Shayna Baszler
5. Cesaro defeated Buddy Murphy
6. Daniel Bryan defeated Jey Uso in a Steel Cage match by submission to earn a shot at the WWE Universal Championship at WWE Fastlane
Thoughts: Daniel Bryan continued his journey to overcome the odds and change his WrestleMania fortunes this week as he faced Jey Uso in a Steel Cage match. After being put down by Roman Reigns and Jey Uso at the top of the show, Bryan managed to defeat Uso in the main event by tapping him out to the Yes Lock in what is My Match of the Week. With this win, The Leader of the Yes Movement secured himself a shot at Roman’s WWE Universal Championship at WWE Fastlane.
I swear if WWE does all this teasing of Bryan being in the main event of WrestleMania only to pull everything out from under us by having The Tribal Chief defeat him and go on to face Edge at The Grandest Stage of Them All anyway, it is going to be massively disappointing. Assuming Mania will have a live crowd this year and the Reigns vs. Edge match does not change, WWE is risking having the main event of Mania be negatively received by the fans. At this point, it would be smart of WWE to find a way for The Yes Man to be involved in the match as they are going out of their way trying to get fans heavily invested in something that may not even happen.
Overall, this was a great episode of Friday Night SmackDown with the highlights being Bryan’s opening promo, Dominik vs. Gable, Apollo Crews’ promo, and the main event.
That’s it for this week’s Spandex and Suplexes. I am looking forward to tonight’s AEW Revolution. While you are here on Florida Geek Scene, be sure to check out the second episode of my spin off series, Spandex and Suplexes: The Interview Series, where I interviewed veteran pro wrestler, Randy Hogan. Until next time, I’ll see you at ringside!
Nicholas Slade
Nicholas grew up reading J.R.R. Tolkien's books, watching Disney and Studio Ghibli films, and reading Marvel comics and Japanese manga. The superb storylines and characters ignited his passion for writing. He graduated from Full Sail University in 2015 with a BFA in Creative Writing for Entertainment. During his writing career thus far, Nicholas has had numerous short stories and articles published in an array of literary magazines and websites.
