WWE Wrap-Up
This week in WWE: The Superstar Shake made some much needed changes
Apr 18, 2018, 4:57 am
Jeff Hardy won the US Title on Raw on Monday and debuted with it on SmackDown on Tuesday. Photo by WWE.com
This is a weekly look at the action in the WWE:
Raw
Kurt Angle welcomed the fans to the Superstar Shakeup, a week full of surprises. Jinder Mahal was the first to be moved from SmackDown Live to Raw, and he was welcomed to Raw having to defend his US Title. Mahal’s arrival would be spoiled by Jeff Hardy who defeated him to become United States Champion. Bayley and Sasha Banks tried to settle their differences in the ring, but were interrupted by an attack from former SmackDown faction, The Riott Squad.
The Miz welcomed Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to Raw, and explained to the audience how they would be joining him in creating the best faction. Kurt Angle crashed the party, though, revealing to Miz that he will now be part of SmackDown Live. He offered Miz a going away present, a ten man tag in the main event. Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt defeated The Revival to win a chance to challenge The Bar for the Raw Tag Titles. Dolph Ziggler made his arrival, and Titus World Wide raced to the ring in attempts to recruit him. Ziggler explained he did not need to be recruited, as he did not come to Raw alone. Drew McIntyre surprised Titus and Apollo with a brutal attack.
The newest Raw member, Natalya, defeated Mandy Rose with a Sharpshooter. Sonya Deville spoiled Natalya’s victory by attacking her. This prompted Ronda Rousey to come down for the save. Breezango had a nice debut as they upset The Bar after Tyler Breeze rolled up Cesaro. The Miz, Mizterouge, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn challenged Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, and the new member of Raw, Bobby Roode in the main event. Strowman sent Miz to SmackDown with a loss after hitting him with a Running Power Slam and pinning him for the win.
SmackDown Live
AJ Styles opened the show expressing his frustrations with Nakamura’s recent behavior. He demanded Nakamura come and face him. Instead, he was confronted by Rusev and Aiden English. AJ Styles accepted Rusev’s challenge, though their match did not go for long as Aiden English got involved. Daniel Bryan raced to the ring for the save. Paige, the new SmackDown GM, announced a tag main event featuring all four men. Shelton Benjamin demanded an opponent worthy of his level. Randy Orton appeared to answer his call, instead, the new United States Champion, Jeff Hardy did. Hardy defeated Benjamin after a Swanton Bomb. Samoa Joe made an impactful debut on SmackDown defeating Sin Cara. He, then, took to the mic to explain things are about to change in “the land of hand outs.”
Carmella celebrated winning the SmackDown Women’s Title. Her party was spoiled by Charlotte, and the Iconics. This led to a match between Charlotte and Billie Kay which Charlotte won. The Iconics tried ambushing Flair, but Becky Lynch and a debuting Asuka saved the former champion. Nakamura once again spoiled a main event as he lowbrowed Styles. His attack distracted Styles’ partner, Daniel Bryan, who was, then in turn, surprised by a monster kick from a returning Big Cass.
Boy, did the Superstar Shake Up do a lot of good for both shows.
Raw’s tag division finally looks in good shape, and Bobby Roode desperately needed a change in the cards. Ziggler getting paired with McIntyre makes him the most interesting he has been in years. Also, the seeds have been planted for Ronda Rousey’s first solo feud with Natalya. All in all, Raw got a plethora of talent to rebuild their mid card. Getting guys like Corbin and Roode allows two guys the opportunity to be freshened up.
SmackDown Live, though, absolutely left the week with a better roster. It’s clear there was no space for people like Samoa Joe and Asuka at the top of the cards, where they belonged, on Raw. Moving them to the blue show was absolutely brilliant. Moving Absolution to SmackDown can lead to a future story where Paige starts to favor her girls. Not to mention, it freshens up the Women’s Division. Where I think SmackDown really got elevated, though, was with the wrestlers they added via NXT. Former Champion Andrade “Cien” Almas and Zelina Vega will add so much to the blue show, especially considering what Zelina can do on the mic to elevate Almas’ feuds. The call up of Sanity, too, adds another dimension as there is absolutely no telling what the faction will get themselves into when they arrive on SmackDown.
All in all, the Superstar Shake Up did exactly what it should have for both shows. For the better part of last year, SmackDown was clearly behind Raw. These moves, at least on paper, give us the impression that SmackDown will once again be the dominant force it was when the brand split first happened almost two years ago.
Also, worth mentioning is the fact that WWE will go back to sharing their Pay-per-views. This was something that was definitely needed. The excess of shows was definitely taking its toll last year with the story lines. Combining them again allows the PPVs to be focused. There is no need to fill a card with filler matches. So long as they do not fall into a trap where every title has to be defended at every show, this effort should pay off.
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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.