WWE Wrap-Up
This week in WWE: Seth Rollins shines bright in Raw’s Gauntlet Match
Feb 21, 2018, 3:16 pm
The Architect lasted over an hour on Raw’s big Gauntlet Match. Photo by WWE.com
This is a weekly look at the action in the WWE:
Raw
Raw opened with a Gauntlet match featuring all seven competitors from the Men’s Elimination Chamber Match. Shield members, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, started the match. The two went for over 20 minutes until Rollins rolled up Reigns to eliminate Reigns. Rollins, then, faced John Cena for almost 40 minutes. Cena did all he could to put away an exhausted Rollins, but nothing worked. Rollins finally put Cena away with a Stomp. Elias rushed to the ring to attack an exhausted Rollins, and he was successful eliminating the man who was in the Gauntlet match for over an hour.
Finn Balor was the next competitor to enter the match. Elias looked to dominate the match, but a Coup De Grace to his injured ribs allowed Balor to pick up the win. The Mizterouge distracted Balor as Miz, Balor’s next opponent in the match, attacked him from behind. Balor looked to put Miz away with a Coup De Grace, but a pair of distractions from The Mizterouge helped the Miz pull Balor off the ropes and hit him with a Skull Crushing Finale to put him away. Unfortunately for Miz, the final entrant in the match was none other than Braun Strowman. Miz tried to run away, but Strowman was not having it as he chased him back to the ring. Miz did all he could, even hitting Strowman with a Skull Crushing Finale, but the Monster Among Men picked up the win after a Running Power Slam. The entire Gauntlet match took two hours, making it, according to Michael Cole, “The longest match in WWE history."
The one, the only, Jeff Jarret was revealed as the latest member of this year’s WWE Hall of Fame class. Before her match on Raw, Asuka spoke about her match with Nia Jax at Elimination Chamber. Nia Jax tried to surprise her from behind, but Asuka was ready. Jax got the last laugh, though, hitting her with a Samoan Drop and a barrage of Leg Drops. Needless to say, Asuka’s match on Raw never happened. Titus Worldwide did it again, surprising The Bar with a win after Apollo rolled up Cesaro. A Six Women’s Tag Match saw Sasha Banks, Mickie James and Bayley defeat Alexa Bliss, Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose after Banks submitted Bliss with a Banks Statement. Absolution did not take too kindly to their loss and began attacking the winning team. When it looked like they were going to turn on Bliss, Mickie James came in from the outside to help out her former partner.
Smackdown Live
AJ Styles opened the show explaining how he’s beaten all four of his opponents at Fastlane individually, but a Fatal Fiveway will be a difficult challenge. Baron Corbin reminded him that it was him who defeated Styles for his United States Championship. Kevin Owens made his presence felt, too, when he came out to insult Corbin. Shane McMahon had enough of their childish banter and issued a pair of matches—Kevin Owens vs Dolph Ziggler and the main event, AJ Styles vs Baron Corbin. Dolph Ziggler was impressive the whole match, but a distraction from Sami Zayn allowed Owens to hit Ziggler with a monster Super Kick and win the match. Jinder Mahal and Bobby Roode exchanged words in the ring. Per usual, Mahal tried to instigate a fight between Roode and Randy Orton. It worked, as Orton came out and a brawl between the three ensued where Mahal got the last laugh.
Charlotte, Naomi and Becky Lynch tagged against The Riott Squad. Ruby Riott pinned Lynch after hitting her with a big kick. Sami Zayn “thanked” Kevin Owens backstage for getting him out of the rut he was in. He vowed to “lay down” for Kevin Owens at Fastlane so that he can become the WWE Champion. In a rematch from last week, The New Day defeated Benjamin and Gable. The Bludgeon Brothers did what they do every week—destroy whatever enhancement team gets in their way. The Champ that Runs the Camp, AJ Styles, defeated Baron Corbin in the main event after a Phenomenal Forearm. Owens and Zayn congratulated Styles by attacking him from behind. Corbin got the last laugh, though, as he hit both men with a pair of End of Days.
Just as I suspected, Raw blew this week out of the water with their go home show. The two hour Gauntlet Match totally paid off. Of course, the star of the match was Seth Rollins, the guy who is coming off of a bland tag team run. Rollins needed a boost, and boy, did he get it. I do not think he will win on Sunday, but this match did so much for him it should propel him to a great match come ‘Mania. Mickie James helping Bliss on Raw was interesting, but I totally expect her to turn on her on Sunday.
The Blue brand seems to be building to another multi man match at Fastlane, a Triple Threat for the US Championship. Frankly, I think that match sounds great. I cannot say I’m crazy about Orton or Mahal, but Roode defeating both men would be huge for him. Fastlane is still a few weeks away, but we already have some interesting matches on the card. I expect something big to happen within the next few weeks in the women’s division. Hopefully it is some sort of heel turn, the women deserve an awesome match for theSmackDown Live Women’s Championship.
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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 nine 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 a 4-8 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 (though not Breggy Bad). 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.