WRESTLING REPORT

WWE rides the momentum from WrestleMania

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Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio shows www.nerdthugradio.com!

The aftermath of the craziest WrestleMania in recent history.

Coming out of a crazy WrestleMania where seven titles changed hands, the bar was set rather high to carry the momentum but Raw did its best. Kurt Angle came back and got revenge on Baron Corben for how his WrestleMania moment was ruined with a loss in his farewell match. This led into Lars Sullivan making his WWE main roster debut with a run in to further destroy and humiliate Kurt Angle some more. Lacey Evans actually did something other than walk back and forth by punching Becky Lynch in the face probably setting up Becky's first post WrestleMania rivalry. Speaking of great female wrestlers, Alexa Bliss returned to the ring for the first time since the women's royal rumble a few months back against Bayley. The Revival had a title rematch against Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder for the Raw Tag Titles and yet again they lost, leaving them in an odd spot honestly, having lost way more than they've won here lately. The Undertaker made a bizarre surprise return to the ring and delivered a choke slam and a tombstone piledriver on Elias, as exciting as it always is to see The Deadman the question of why looms over the appearance. The biggest and most annoying moment in all of Raw though was the winner take all match between Kofi Kingston and Seth Rollins each putting their newly won titles on the line, being interrupted by The Bar. It was an odd moment, why even tease unifying the titles to simply call it off and have them fight together against a common foe?

Smackdown played fast and light with the "rules" of the WWE universe, with Drew Mcintyre and Braun Strowman showing up even though they are both technically members of the Raw roster. Although both The Bar and The New Day and Becky Lynch were all on Raw the day before so maybe turnabout is fair play. After the Usos retained their titles in a fatal four way on WrestleMania they then had them come in and lose their titles on Smackdown to the Hardy Brothers, and then Lars Sullivan came in and threw them both around like rag dolls. Lacey Evans showed back up and punched Becky Lynch again so that's looking like a pretty good lock for the first rivalry for the now combined women's title. Perhaps the only real bad moment on Smackdown was Shane McMahon's obnoxious cut where he harassed the ring announcer and talked about being the best in the world, I'm just not interested in a bunch of Shane McMahon storylines.

With the Superstar Shake Up coming next week and lots of wrestlers floating around without storylines, it's going to be an interesting week next week and WWE took advantage of all that uncertainty to make two good shows where they just shrugged and said anything can happen.

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The Coogs play Miami on Friday night. Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images.

Number one seed University of Houston is favored by 7.5 points over No. 5 Miami, and No. 2 University of Texas is favored by 4 over No. 3 Xavier Friday night in the Midwest Regional semifinals in Kansas City.

Talk about opening acts. If both UH and UT win, they’ll meet Sunday in a good ol’ WWE-style Texas death match for a berth in the Final Four at NRG Stadium in Houston. Thank you, Mr. Schedule Maker.

How much do you think Cougar fans would love for UH to get their hands on the Longhorns with so much at stake?

For one example, let’s go back to the future, Oct. 21, 2023, when Big 12 rivals UH and UT meet in football at TDECU Stadium on the Houston campus. The game already is a lock sellout with tickets in the upper deck commanding $141 per ticket on the secondary market. It will be UH’s first year in the big boy Big 12 and UT’s last go-around before heading to the SEC.

One last opportunity for lasting bragging rights.

That’s for a UH football game. At home. Where the Cougars typically have trouble packing half the house. For example, the Cougars will be hosting the Sam Houston Bearkats at TDECU Stadium a month earlier. Tickets for that game, the same exact seat going for $141 against UT, can be had right now … $17.

Yeah, there’s something special about UH getting the opportunity to face UT. In anything. Anywhere. And it’s been a long time since the two teams, once co-members of the Southwest Conference together, have met on the basketball court. A full decade, in fact. The last time they played was March 20, 2013 with the Cougars prevailing 73-72 in something called the College Basketball Invitational. The UH coach was James Dickey. UT was coached by Rick Barnes. Joe Young led the Cougars with 18 points. The Horns’ leading scorer was Julien Lewis with 28. UH finished that season with a 20-13 record. UT limped home at 16-18.

That was then, this is now. The UH-Miami game will air at 6:10 p.m. Friday on CBS with UH grad Jim Nantz calling the play-by-play. The game will alsO stream on Hulu +++. ESPN’s BPI (basketball power index) gives the Cougars a 90 percent chance of winning. We’ll take it.

The UT-Xavier game will follow at 8:45 p.m. on CBS. The Horns have a 70 percent chance of beating the Musketeers. If both chalks come through, they’ll meet Sunday afternoon with the game on CBS.

The Cougars have made six Final Four appearances: 1967, 1968, 1982, 1983, 1984, 2021. The Horns have made three Final Fours, the last time two decades ago.

Here’s the only sure bet if UH and UT meet Sunday - get to your sports bar early if you want a seat. This could be memorable.

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