I was a little surprise when The Rock’s usual terrorizing of the cities he goes to wasn’t going to happen because Memphis is where he started wrestling as Flex Kavana.
He choses to sing what’s going to take place at WrestleMania. Eeechh… He even goes as far as to “accurately” narrate Rhodes’ birth, which was something else. Cody was deemed a weird kid. And let’s not forget his little jab towards Rollins as well. Becky Lynch, his wife, is a lot more popular than he is because he craves attention like those people on Dr. Phil.
Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, The Rock reviews what occurred last week when Cody slapped him silly. Ha! It did something to him… He wants to make Cody pay, his mom and family pay. Things got real disturbing when he described to Mama Rhodes how severally he’ll beat Cody senseless with his belt. There’ll be blood, pus and torn ligaments.
“Michelle, what can I say except you’re welcome?” He used Maui’s song… Traitorous.
Angel & Humberto vs. Cruz Del Toro & Joaquin Wilde – WrestleMania 40 Tag Team Championship Qualifying match
This will be one of the two qualifying matches tonight to showcase the six Tag Teams who will take part in a 6-Pack Ladder match for the Undisputed Tag Team Championships. The current Champions, Finn Balor and Damian Priest, have already taken their spot.
I love this idea. Thank you, Nick Aldis.
Angel and Humberto play a double team against Cruz Del Toro, who finds himself in a tight situation. However, Del Toro manages to turn things around with a beautiful Huricarana. The LWO are momentarily rolling.
The tides aren’t flowing in Del Toro’s favor as he finds himself corned by Humberto. He delivers clubbing blows to his head and back of the neck. Angel and Humberto play a reversal and knock Wilde off the apron.
Legado del Fantasma and Cruz were perched near the top of the ring. Humberto and Angel lift Del Toro up then simply and effectively throw their opponent onto the mat. Cruz lands harshly that Joaquin had to save him.
Del Toro performs an amazing standing Spanish Fly, but he was unable to capitalize. Both men are asking for a tag. Wilde double drop kicks his challengers. He was truly impressive to witness, unfortunately, Humberto kept things alive for his team.
My goodness. My eyes snapped shut in a glitch when Joaquin collided with Angel’s kick in mid-air in order to advance. Yikes… Damn.
Winners: Legado del Fantasma
LA Knight has been hunting AJ Styles for some weeks now ever since Styles cost him at Elimination Chamber last month. The problem is, they’ve been missing each other. Honestly, this is the sort of back and forth that takes too much time to accomplish. Ha!
Given that Styles seemingly hasn’t shown up at LA Knight’s request, the Megastar issues a WrestleMania match versus the Phenomenal One. After he’s done boasting, Styles attacks Knight from behind with a steel chair. AJ accepts the challenge.
This might shock the lot of you, but I missed RAW this week. I wasn’t aware that Jey challenged Jimmy at Mania 40… I didn’t want this to happen. Ha! I didn’t… I saw the explosion of this topic online several months ago, but I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. As Jimmy so proudly mentions, they main evented last year only to face each other in the ring this year.
sniff… What happened?? Oh, right, Roman’s ass. Jimmy Jim makes the biggest mistake by accepting it.
Well, we have special guests in the crowd tonight, 2-Time Grammy Award Nominees, The War and Treaty are in the house.
Randy Orton vs. Grayson Waller
I… want Logan Paul out right now. His undesirable ass wanders to ringside snickering in Randy’s face. Paul foolishly expects an apology from Orton after the Viper delivered an RKO to his sorry excuse of a friend.
Due to the distraction, Grayson was able to lunge after Randy almost with ease… until he isn’t on top anymore. However, I’m not even sure what happened, but Waller plants Orton face first on the commentary desk.
The Viper climbs back up with a couple of clotheslines followed by his famous power slam to the Aussie so-called Icon. Waller misses with a punch as he’s slammed on the announcement table. Grayson’s ass looks like he’s been crucified. Ha! Ha!
The funniest thing took place. After Austin Theory failed to distract Orton long enough and gets bulldozed by his own friend, Randy delivers his vintage DDT with one of the most unapologetic laughs I’ve ever heard. No mercy. Ha!
There are times in my moments of quiet thinking, I wonder if Randy looks back on his weirdness like this one… Theory once again interferes, only this time he manages to save Grayson from his eminent doom. Unfortunately for Austin, he receives a vintage DDT for his unwanted kafuffle.
Waller leaps in and gets planted by a sudden RKO that awards Randy the victory. The Viper made sure that Logan was watching. Although he won, Theory wasn’t having it as he pounce on Orton, setting him up for Logan.
Luckily, Kevin Owens evens the odds by flattening Waller and Theory before attempting to get Logan, who scurries away like the worm that he is.
Orton very nearly delivered an RKO to Owens thinking it was either Theory or Waller, but he quickly re-adjusts. They do Stunner and RKO Austin later on, though. Ha! And as karma would have it, Logan has to defend his title against Kevin Owens AND Randy Orton in a Triple Treat match in April. Yay! Thank you, Nick.
Winner: Randy Orton
Backstage, Dakota Kai makes the point that she will break Bayley in their match later tonight. She came to the conclusion that Bayley was jealous of Iyo Sky and threatened by the Kabuki Warriors, notably Kairi Sane for what she did a couple of years ago.
In order for Damage Control to grow stronger, they had to cut Bayley out permanently. This is a warning for everyone in the locker room, not just for Bayley. “We run this show!”
Dragon Lee vs. Santos Escobar
Dragon Lee is on fire in the early goings of this match, leaving Santos teetering the majority of the time.
Commentary points out something that occurred last week. After Lee won his match against Angel, he found himself defenseless at the hands of Legado del Fantasma without the LWO’s help.
Now, he could potentially be in the same position if something unsanctioned happens following this fight. Lee covers Escobar with an impressive sit-out powerbomb, but it wasn’t enough. Angel tries to intervene, yet Dragon saw him coming and whacked him hard. Ha!
I’m so confused… Santos won?? When Dragon returned inside after disposing of Humberto, Escobar performs a Phantom Driver out of nowhere to secure a victory. Hmm??
Naturally, Dragon was going to get beat up, so Carlito shows up to assist. Lito discards of Humberto and Angel, but he didn’t see Santos coming. Rey Mysterio enters the brawl to send Legado del Fantasma twitching.
Mysterio gives Santos what he wants by issuing a match for next week.
Winner: Santos Escobar
New Catch Republic vs. Pretty Deadly – WrestleMania 40 Tag Team Championship Qualifying match
Geez… Pete Dunne is sadistic in his joint manipulation approach towards Kit Wilson, who’s wailing in pure agony. My God. Later on, Wilson is able to get out of harm’s way as Elton Prince trips Dunne on the apron.
Pete is trouble as Pretty Deadly have him at their mercy. He was in need of a tag after he twisted Wilson’s leg inside out. Once Tyler Bate comes into the ring, he’s throwing bodies all over the mat like toys.
A step-up enziguri by Dunne rocks Prince and Wilson. The Bruiser-weight continues his onslaught with a snap German suplex to Elton after disposing of Kit on the apron.
Wilson bounces back with a quick clothesline to Dunne. Pretty Deadly are on top as Prince delivers a big boot to Bate’s jaw. The highs didn’t last though as the New Catch Republic play a double with a winning Birminghammer. Whoo!!
Winners: New Catch Republic
Next Monday, CM Punk will be live in Chicago. Also, it was made official earlier that Santos and Rey will be battling it out next Friday. Brackett number two in our WrestleMania Qualifying match, we have the Street Profits vs. AoP, and The O.C. vs Grayson Waller and Austin Theory?? How did they get there?
Anyway, Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns will be in the same building face-to-face next week as well.
Bayley vs. Dakota Kai
I’m not surprised by how swiftly Bayley took Dakota down right at the start of the bell. She’s pissed. Kai rolls out of there as fast as she can, but Bayley isn’t too far behind. Kairi tries to help, but that did nothing of any significance. Bayley is in control as she suplexes Dakota onto the main floor.
Somehow, Kai turned the tied to her liking as she choke holds Bayley in the middle of the ring. Bayley counters with a running knee to the face of her opponent.
Off that distraction from Asuka, Dakota was able to stomp Bayley pretty badly against the mat. I think she nearly knocked her ass out. While the official wasn’t looking, Asuka took advantage of that.
Bayley reverses by face planting Dakota with the mat as she ricochets off the ropes. It looked nasty, but successful. Bayley almost ended the match with a flying elbow to the heart of Kai.
Dakota counters with an ingenious overhead pele kick. Kairi was very close to getting caught intervening, but Iyo removed her in time.
Bayley catches Dakota in the air and powerbombs her. She was doing great, which was exactly the problem. Kai gets tossed outside as Damage Control crawl their way in. Bayley knocks Kairi and Asuka then advances on Iyo, who was only distracting her, so Dakota could grab her ankle. Iyo hits Bayley, which ends the match prematurely.
Given the sympathetic look on Naomi’s face last week, I’m not shocked to see her being Bayley’s savior. The numbers game was too great for her, too. The crowd were chanting “EST! EST!” for Bianca Belair to show up. Honestly, why would she?
Iyo’s Moonsault to Bayley rendered her immobile.
Winner: No one
TOP PHOTO: The Rock. Courtesy of WWE
