WWE Wrap-Up
This week in WWE: Owens and Zayn “welcome” Bryan back to the ring
Mar 21, 2018, 1:29 pm
The two thorns in the lives of McMahon and Bryan did not take getting fired very well. Photo by WWE.com
This is a weekly look at the action in the WWE:
Raw
Kurt Angle gave fans an update on the Universal Championship Match. Roman Reigns, then appeared from the crowd, despite being suspended, demanding to face off against Brock Lesnar. Reigns was then handcuffed by “US Marshals” in attempts to be removed from the arena. Of Course, Lesnar finally made his arrival on Raw and attacked a defenseless Reigns. The first match of the night, Asuka vs Alexa Bliss, ended in a count-out when Bliss “hurt her ankle.” She seemed fine, though, when she ran away from Nia Jax after she rushed to the ring to surprise the champion. Backstage, Angle ran into Bliss and informed her that she will, in fact, be defending her championship against Jax at ‘Mania.
Braun Strowman explained how management informed him that he needs a partner in order to challenge The Bar in New Orleans. The Bar antagonized Strowman and his mystery partner. Strowman, then, defeated Cesaro with a Power Slam as his ‘Mania partner continues to be a mystery. The Revival defeated Titus Worldwide. After the match, they announced they will be the first Tag Team to win the Andre The Giant Battle Royal. Mark Henry was announced as the final inductee into the WWE HOF class of 2018. Sasha and Bayley aired out their dirty laundry before their match against Absolution. The misunderstandings between the two friends ended up costing them the match after Deville pinned Bayley, who was busy arguing with Sasha.
John Cena explained how insulted he felt to not get a response from Undertaker. “You are not a God, you’re a Coward,” vented Cena. This prompted Kane, Undertaker’s Brother, to come to the ring and hit Cena with a Chokeslam. The Miz went on a long rant about being left off of the cover of the official WrestleMania Magazine. Balor Club defeated Miz and the Mizterouge in a Six Man Tag match. They did not take kindly to their loss and began a three on one attack on Balor causing Seth Rollins to save one of his ‘Mania opponents. Raw closed with its theatrical “The Ultimate Deletion” match between Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt. Hardy won the match thanks to some assistance from his brother and his father-in-law.
SmackDown Live
Daniel Bryan opened the show discussing the story that broke earlier that day, he has been cleared to wrestle again. “Fight for your dreams, and your dreams will fight for you,” explained Bryan. Nakamura defeated Rusev in the first match of the night. Aiden English ambushed Nakamura and the two began to attack him. Styles, who was ring-side to watch the match, got up to help Nakamura, but the Artist was able to handle his attackers himself. Baron Corbin defeated Tye Dillinger with an End of Days. Natalya instigated a fight with Charlotte, and she got it. Their match was a rough one, which motivated Carmella to try to cash in her briefcase. Charlotte took care of her, but Natalya used the distraction to roll her up and win the match.
Jimmy Uso took on Luke Harper after explaining that no matter how many times they try to bring down The Usos they will not stop. Luke Harper defeated Jimmy despite Jai’s best efforts to help his brother. A Triple Threat match for the United States Championship was announced for WrestleMania, Randy Orton, Bobby Roode and Jinder Mahal will clash in New Orleans. Becky Lynch and Naomi defeated Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan. Daniel Bryan finally got a chance to grill Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn after their attack on Shane McMahon. Bryan, eventually, fired the pair, and opened the door to a vicious attack from them. As much as Bryan tried to fight back, it was simply not enough to contain Owens and Zayn from destroying him.
We took a big step towards WrestleMania this week
As far as Raw is concerned, we finally got to see the maineventers clash. Lesnar’s assault on Reigns was a brutal one, and it should hopefully do some favors for Reigns. In a huge announcement, it was revealed that Jax will be the one to challenge Bliss for her championship. Without a doubt, this will be the biggest match of Jax’s career.
SmackDown was where it was at this week, though. As something that everyone thought would never happen, happened. Daniel Bryan took some brutal bumps after announcing his return to the WWE ring. I am not going to lie, seeing him dish out those kicks to Owens was so gratifying. Bryan will definitely be stuck in a tag match with McMahon against Owens and Zayn, but just having him back is what we need right now. After all, the WrestleMania card looks that much more impressive with him on the card as a competitor.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or eight games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after the 6-10 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez. A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.