SirEdger

In fact, since Elimination Chamber, she's the only woman on the active WWE roster that hasn't appeared on-screen in any way, shape or form (match or backstage segment or cameo). If I didn't know any better, I would think that Vince is upset at Alexa out-popping Bianca in Saudi during Elimination Chamber (Bianca did get booed when she pinned Alexa) and is basically "cooling her down" until he gets what he wants.

I guess they'll have to call an audible with the RAW Tag title match next week if Orton's injured. That landing by Montez looked nasty

Does Scott's sudden openness to work with WWE now has anything to do with Triple H's demise in the WWE totem pole?

Apparently, WWE wanted him to re-sign, he said no. End of story. So, where does Claudio end up next?

I'm still blown away this morning by MJF's promo last night. Completely different from his usual working style as a formerly (not Jewish) bullied kid in high school, this hit so many chords with me. Either way they're going with this, it's fantastic; that true story adds a bit of sympathy to MJF and you understand his motivation better behind his vitriol towards CM Punk. On the other end, if he did fake that story, not only you hate him more but he's now inside Punk's head. MJF's finest hour last night.

Part of the problem is also that when WWE tries to build new stars, the complaints of "superpush" happen immediately. I'm already seeing the complaints about Bianca winning the Women's Chamber. In that situation, how can they create new stars if the fanbase never is happy about any they're trying to build?

I don't know why but I got a feeling it's gonna end up being Cody.

The blurry silhouette at the end of the House of Black vignette. That was 100% Matthews.

Dude, that was clearly Buddy Matthews they were teasing. All the way to the very last shot at the end of that vignette.

I could easily see Buddy challenging Sammy Guevara for the TNT title sooner rather than later

Yeah, but would you have told that to WALTER though?

That's true but I always felt like Ronda was eager to have fans love her, compared to her UFC stint. It struck to me as the premiere reason why she jumped into that WWE career.

I might be overthinking this but with Ronda, it still feels to me like there was so much insecurity for her in that first stint. Everything was going great for her until Survivor Series when Charlotte went all out on her and the crowd cheered Charlotte, which triggered some trauma in Ronda's head. I think she really believed that fans would be fully behind her the whole way in that first WWE run, compared to UFC where MMA fans really despised her.

True but when you've seen how "well" it went for Harper/Brodie Lee when he did it and seeing that both Toni Storm & Brian Kendrick got their releases because they handled things privately, Ali should know better than doing this.

Yeah, he's not helping himself right now.

Having not been familiar with their work outside of AEW, I stumbled upon this match and I definitely enjoyed it more than I originally expected. Some solid hard-hitting spots, including Hayter being squashed between the ring and the wall (you'll see what I mean by watching the match) or a stiff chop exchange about the middle of the match. Of course, this wouldn't be a Sakura match without a few comedy spots and the crowd was really into it, so this definitely help my enjoyment of it. The play-by-play guy seemed to imply the issue of the match could have an implication for Wrestle Queendom at that point but I'm not particularly aware of the timeline, other than Hayter had a pending title match vs Kay Lee Ray. Either way, fun match to watch to introduce yourself to both of those workers.

That makeshift Buckshot Lariat from Hangman to finish the Texas Death Match was awesome. Pretty creative way to get things done. That was karma to Lance Archer from robbing us of a Jake the Snake DDT in the middle of the match. That crowd was eating that moment up.

Apparently, there are TWO surprise debuts tonight.

Last I checked, I think he's nursing a calf injury but I'm not entirely sure.

Same way that MJF is a God in Long Island.

If they continue doubling up the vignettes to speed up her return on TV, that's possible. Apparently, 9 vignettes were shot and I think 7 of them aired, so there are two left. Although I'm still thinking the sixth entrant is Asuka. But even if she returns but doesn't win EC, they can still set up Alexa's Wrestlemania program based on that match. Having her face Nikki would make sense, based on how her whole downward spiral started. But that also depends if she'd be face or heel at that point.

Obviously, the pacing felt a bit weird for the first hour without the commercials (kinda feel that NXT has done it a bit better with time, maybe because they did it a couple of times already) but a fun RAW nevertheless. KO & Austin Theory deliver another banger, the Quiz Bowl was hilarious and it looks we might be headed for Rollins vs KO at Mania?

Yeah, Keith Lee is the one that makes most sense under those circumstances. AEW has several guys that gonna bump like crazy to make Keith look like a million bucks.

I believe Joe and Regal were under NXT deals, so they had a 30-day no-compete.