Welcome everyone to the 81st edition of Spandex and Suplexes: A Wrestling Review. I cover a week that saw the continued build to WWE WrestleMania Backlash, the final build to AEW Blood and Guts, and the WWE Universal Championship on the line. Let’s get started.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Braun Strowman defeated T-Bar and Mace in a 2-on-1 Handicap match by DQ
2. T-Bar and Mace defeated Drew McIntyre and Braun Strowman by count-out
3. The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) and Damian Priest defeated The Miz, Elias, and Jaxson Ryker
4. RKBro (Randy Orton and Matt Riddle) defeated Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin
5. Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, and Rhea Ripley defeated Asuka, Lana, and Naomi
6. Charlotte Flair defeated Mandy Rose
7. Braun Strowman defeated Drew McIntyre after interference by T-Bar and Mace to earn a spot in the WWE Championship match at WWE WrestleMania Backlash
Thoughts: Last week, I wondered what direction WWE was going to go with Matt Riddle. This week I got my answer and I love it. The new team of RKBro has been awesome so far with Orton and Riddle having great in ring and comedic chemistry with each other with The Viper’s serious bluntness matches well with The Original Bro’s stoner nonsense. I am absolutely all for this team going after and eventually winning the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships.
Overall, this was a good episode of Monday Night Raw with the highlights being everything involving RKBro and the main event.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Mercedes Martinez defeated Dakota Kai by DQ after interference by Raquel Gonzalez
2. Zayda Ramier defeated Toni Storm after interference by Zoey Stark
3. Bronson Reed defeated Austin Theory to earn a shot at the NXT North American Championship
4. Imperium (Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner) defeated Killian Dain and Drake Maverick
5. Legado del Fantasma (Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde, and Raul Mendoza) defeated Kushida and MSK (Wes Lee and Nash Carter)
Thoughts: Bronson Reed earned another shot at Johnny Gargano’s NXT North American Championship this week with his victory over Austin Theory. With Dexter Lumis’ involvement with The Way through his romance with Indi Harwell also continuing its development this week, its hard to say whether it will be Reed or Lumis (if either) who ends up taking the NXT North American Championship away from Johnny Wrestling.
Overall, this was a great episode of NXT with the highlights being Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher’s confrontation with The Grizzled Young Veterans and the main event.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Results:
1. Brian Cage defeated Hangman Page
2. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated The Sydal Brothers (Matt Sydal and Mike Sydal)
3. Orange Cassidy defeated Penta El Zero Miedo
4. Kris Statlander defeated Penelope Ford
5. The Factory (QT Marshall, Nick Comoroto, and Aaron Solow) defeated The Nightmare Family (Dustin Rhodes, Billy Gunn, and Lee Johnson) after interference by Anthony Ogogo
6. Darby Allin (c) defeated Preston Vance to retain the AEW TNT Championship
Thoughts: This the go home episode of AEW Dynamite before next week’s AEW Blood and Guts special. The Parley between The Inner Circle and The Pinnacle was great with both sides doing an excellent job hyping up the big Blood and Guts match (which seems to be basically WarGames) between the two factions, especially Chris Jericho who, as always, showcased why he is one of the best promo men of all time. It is honestly a little difficult to predict which team will walk out of Blood and Guts the winner. The Inner Circle getting their big revenge against MJF and his team would create a feel-good moment for the fans, but I can easily see them going with The Pinnacle to put over MJF and his new team. I will personally be going with The Inner Circle for the win.
Overall, this was a great episode of Dynamite with the highlights being Cassidy vs. Penta, The Parley, Moxley and Kingston outsmarting Omega and Callis, and the main event.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. The Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins) and Bianca Belair defeated Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode, and Bayley
2. Natalya and Tamina defeated Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler
3. Big E defeated Apollo Crews (c) by DQ in a WWE intercontinental Championship match after interference by Commander Azeez (Crews retains)
4. Roman Reigns (c) defeated Daniel Bryan by technical submission to retain the WWE Universal Championship
Thoughts: Even though I knew it was highly unlikely that Daniel Bryan would defeat Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship, it was still disappointing to see Bryan lose yet another high-profile match, especially because the result means The Yes Man is gone from SmackDown for the foreseeable future. However, the result of the match does not take away from the fact that this was an awesome match that is easily My Match of the Week. The aftermath of the match cemented that Reigns’ next challenger is Cesaro who was forced to watch helplessly as The Trible Chief took out Daniel with a Con-Chair-To. The question is where does this leave Seth Rollins? Does Cesaro take him out before WWE WrestleMania Backlash, or will the WWE Universal Championship match end up being a Triple Threat match?
Overall, this was a good episode of Friday Night SmackDown with the highlight being the main event.
That’s it for this week’s Spandex and Suplexes. I am looking forward to AEW Blood and Guts this Wednesday. 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.
