WWE Wrap-Up
This week in WWE: Cena tries to get a response from Undertaker as Nakamura plays mind games with Styles
Mar 28, 2018, 3:11 pm
Cena used the Undertaker’s patented Chokeslam on Kane, but it was not enough to force a response from the Deadman. Photo by WWE.com
This is a weekly look at the action in the WWE:
Raw
Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman opened the show discussing Lesnar’s attack on Roman Reigns. Suddenly, Reigns appeared from the crowd in hopes of getting some payback, but ended up a victim of another vicious attack from Lesnar. Nia Jax soundly handled Alexa Bliss’ friend, Mickie James, in the first match of the night. Bliss tried attacking Jax but ended up running away from her ‘Mania opponent.
The Miz aired out his dirty laundry with the Mizterauge and their inabilities to “get the job done.” Rollins and Balor did a great job instigating and causing Axel and Dallas to turn on Miz, or so they thought. The two, suddenly, began attacking Balor and Rollins. An assist from Gallows and Anderson helped Balor get the last laugh. The tensions between Bayley and Sasha Banks finally erupted when the two fought backstage after Bayley hit Sasha where it hurts reminding her that she never held the Women’s Title in a lengthy title reign.
Kurt Angle took to the ring to explain to Ronda that ‘Mania will be fun, but it will not be easy. Absolution tried to attack Rousey after she refused to join the group, but Rousey handled them swiftly. John Cena took on Kane in a No DQ match to close the show. Cena mocked Undertaker with his patented death throat slash and even smashed Kane with a Chokeslam. Cena defeated Kane after hitting him with an AA through a table. “ No lightning, no bells of terror, no Undertaker?” asked Cena after the match. “ I know you’re not deaf, you’re just a coward! I hope, for the sake of all that is good in this ring, I see you next week,” exclaimed Cena.
SmackDown Live
SmackDown opened with Randy Orton and Bobby Roode tagging against Jinder Mahal and Rusev. Orton and Roode, of course, could not work well together and Rusev was able to pin the champion to win for his team. This lead to Rusev being added to the match for the US Title at ‘Mania. Becky Lynch defeated Ruby Riott via a roll up pin. The Riott Squad tried spoiling her win, but Lynch handled them easily enough and threw them out of the ring, much like she hopes to at ‘Mania in the Women’s Battle Royal.
Daniel Bryan shared his proposal with the WWE crowd in Pittsburgh. Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan will tag against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn at WrestleMania. If Owens and Zayn win, they will be reinstated. Otherwise, if they lose, they will remain fired. The Bludgeon Brothers tried to use their mallets on the New Day during their tag match, but The Usos raced down to the ring to prevent the attack from happening. Shinsuke Nakamura, with AJ Styles in his corner, defeated Shelton Benjamin. Nakamura called Styles into the ring to tell him he did not need him in his corner. He just wanted him to see how he plans beat him at ‘Mania. Benjamin and Gable tried attacking Styles, leading Nakamura to race back down to the ring to save him. He teased Styles, acting as he was going to hit him with a knee. Instead, he degraded him by patting him on the head.
Boy, oh boy, was this week full of promo packages.
Granted, this is a given, it is WrestleMania season, after all. It felt extremely excessive, especially on Raw. This can quickly be explained by the fact that Raw has an additional hour to fill, but having meaningless matches like Balor Club vs Mizterouge and Elias vs Rhyno feels completely meaningless a week out from ‘Mania.
SmackDown, too, had filler matches, but Ziggler and Breeze did not really go on for long, and the show, simply flowed a lot better. Perhaps it was the lengthy matches, or the excellent placement of Bryan’s promo at the top of the second hour, but, for once, the show flew by.
Last year, ‘Mania had a problem. The matches on the blue show, simply, did not feel like they mattered as much as the matches from the red show. This is absolutely not the case this year, though. Bryan tagging with Shane will be memorable for years to come, Styles and Nakamura should absolutely tear the house down, and Charlotte and Asuka, the clash of the titans, will bring a much-needed important match to the SmackDown Women’s Division. All in all, I can genuinely say I am more excited for this year’s WrestleMania than I was for last year’s, and the event last year ended up being a good one.
If you’ve been casually watching the last few months, next week is an absolutely “can’t miss” week. Go home shows always tend to deliver some excitement, this will especially be the case for the ‘Mania go homes. Roman will probably get his hands on Lesnar, we could possibly find out who Braun’s partner will be, and we will get some sort of sign from Undertaker. On SmackDown, we are sure to see a pair of uninvited superstars from Owens and Zayn, a face off from Asuka and Charlotte, and things between Styles and Nakamura may finally get physical. As intriguing as the build to the biggest event has been, it all needs to be validated next week during the go home shows. If recent times are any indication, we are in for a treat in the final stops before WrestleMania.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
Cam Smith’s reaction to making the Astros Opening Day roster is priceless
Mar 25, 2025, 4:16 pm
It’s go time! While the Astros are not the juggernaut they were over the more than half-decade stretch from 2017 through 2022 that yielded regular seasons with 101, 103, 106, and 107 wins, four American League pennants, and two World Series Champions, as the saying goes, they ain’t dead yet. There is no superpower in the American League West the Astros need to overcome. In fact, the American League as a whole is grossly inferior to the National League. As a result, a fifth Astros’ AL title in this era is not some absurd fantasy, though it is certainly unlikely. But winning the pennant is unlikely for every AL team, so if you’re a fan of the Astros there is nothing wrong with a “Why not us?” mentality. On the other hand, the floor for the 2025 Astros is lower going into a season than it has been in almost a decade. The lineup has numerous question marks, and if the terrific trio atop the Astros’ starting rotation (Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, and Ronel Bronco) runs into injury or performance issues the Astros would have serious problems. That the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners both finish ahead of the Astros is clearly plausible. Play ball!
Astros history lives in these moments
It is simple fact that time marches on, but it is still amazing that the Astros are beginning their second quarter-century of play at what for its first two seasons was called Enron Field, then for the past 23 seasons Minute Maid Park, and now Daikin Park. That’s 25 seasons in the books, at least 26 more to come, with the Astros a few years ago having extended their lease through 2050. In non-specific order, I have twenty easily come-to-mind most spine-tingling moments at the ballpark. If you want 25 for 25 years, I leave five more to you.
Not all spine-tinglers on the home field are generated by the home team. Here are three produced by visiting players. In 2001, Barry Bonds smashed his 70th home run of the season to tie Mark McGwire’s single season Major League record. We know what went into the home run numbers of that era, but it was still jaw-dropping stuff. Bonds would finish the season with 73 homers. Game five of the 2005 National League Championship Series, with the Astros one out from winning their first ever pennant, Albert Pujols launched a Brad Lidge hanging slider that might still be airborne if not for the glass wall above the train tracks. It may be the most instantaneous crowd delirium to utter silence moment ever. It turned a 4-2 Astros’ lead into a crushing 5-4 loss. But, the next game Roy Oswalt pitched the Astros to that pennant in St. Louis. Lastly, the second game of the 2013 season, Rangers’ pitcher Yu Darvish retired the first 26 Astro batters before Marwin Gonzalez smacked a ball through Darvish’s legs up the middle for a base hit. Soooooo close to a perfect game. Only 22 perfect games have been thrown in MLB’s modern era (1900-today).
Now to Astro achievements. Fudging a bit by including Roger Clemens since it’s not for one specific moment. But the Rocket’s starts with the Astros were events. Speaking of Hall of Famers, Craig Biggio’s 3000th hit is an obvious list-maker. Jeff Kent is not a Hall of Famer but he was better in the batter’s box than any second baseman elected after Joe Morgan. Kent won game five of the 2004 NLCS with a bottom of the ninth three-run bomb to end what had been a scoreless game. Alas, the Astros would lose the next two games and the series in St. Louis. The crowd went much wilder over Kent’s homer than over Chris Burke’s series-winning homer over the Atlanta Braves in a 2005 NL Division Series. Burke’s homer came in the 18th inning, so sheer exhaustion held down the decibel level a little. A sleeper for the list occurred earlier in that same game, when Brad Ausmus of all people hit a two-out game-tying homer to get the game into extra innings.
Four no-hitters have been thrown by Union Station. Working backwards: Ronel Blanco last season, Framber Valdez in 2023, a combined job started by Aaron Sanchez in 2019, and the first in 2015 by Mike....yes, Fiers.
And now to the grandest home park moments of this Platinum Era in Astros’ history. Carlos Correa authored two of them, each in a game two of the American League Championship Series. In 2017 he doubled home Jose Altuve with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. That came off of Aroldis Chapman who shall appear once more in this column. In 2019 Correa tied the series at one win apiece with a walk-off homer. Yordan Alvarez also gets a pair of entries. You know, Yordan hit just .192 in the 2022 postseason. But talk about making your hits count. In game one of those playoffs, ALDS vs. Seattle, it was a two-out three-run walk-off blast off of Robbie Ray to give the Astros an 8-7 win. Then in the final game of those playoffs, it was a sixth inning gargantuan three-run launch to dead center turning a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead.
That leaves four moments that are 100 percent non-negotiable entries. While not dramatic (4-0 final score), the payoff warrants inclusion of the Astros winning Game seven of the 2017 ALCS over the Yankees. Similarly, while the moment of victory lacked drama (4-1 final), how could one exclude the Astros winning the World Series on home turf in 2022. Finally, for my money the two most pulsating, goosebump-inducing, viscerally exciting moments at 501 Crawford Street. In one of the most scintillating games ever played in any sport, Alex Bregman’s bottom of the 10th inning single gave the Astros’ their epic 13-12 win over the Dodgers in game five of the 2017 World Series. Then in 2019, Jose Altuve’s game six homer ended the ALCS (I warned you Aroldis).
Here’s to the new season! Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
*Looking to get the word out about your business, products, or services? Consider advertising on SportsMap! It's a great way to get in front of Houston sports fans. Click the link below for more information!