We are already almost two months removes from WrestleMania 33, and WWE continues to go full speed ahead. Two Pay-Per-Views have already come and gone (three counting NXT TakeOver: Chicago), and Monday Night Raw’s next Pay-Per-View, Extreme Rules, is right around the corner. Meanwhile, SmackDown Live is starting its build towards their Money in the Bank event in a few weeks, and NXT continues to define their “new era.” With several shows to look into for the week, let’s see what is in store.
Monday Night Raw
There is one huge match going into Extreme Rules this Sunday: Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Finn Balor to determine who is Brock Lesnar’s next challenger for the Universal Championship. To give the fans a little preview of the Fatal Five-Way, two matches are taking place tonight. First, Roman Reigns takes on his former Shield brother Seth Rollins. Second, Finn Balor takes on Bray Wyatt and Samoa Joe in a triple threat match.
All of Raw’s championships (except the Universal) are being defended this Sunday, so we should get a good preview for each of those matches. We will take a slightly deeper look into those matches down below.
Along with all this action surrounding titles, there is one question that was unanswered from last week’s Raw: who attacked Enzo Amore?
SmackDown Live
There is only one match advertised so far for this week’s episode of SmackDown: a Fatal Five-Way Elimination Match between Charlotte, Tamina, Natalya, Carmella, and Becky Lynch (Man, WWE loves those Fatal Five-Way matches.) The winner of that match heads on to face Naomi for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at the Money in the Bank Pay-Per-View in a couple weeks. Carmella is a little cheated here since she already had scored two pinfall victories over the champion.
The New Day returned on Talking Smack last week, so with there being an open spot to challenge the Usos for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, now is the perfect time for them to come to SmackDown Live. This might also give us an idea of what is next for Breezango.
The WWE Championship scene is a heavy focus lately, with Randy Orton getting his championship rematch against Jinder Mahal in a couple weeks. The winner of that match will have to worry about who wins the Money in the Bank briefcase. That could be AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura, Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, or Dolph Ziggler.
205 Live
It seems like 205 Live is very close to hitting its stride. This is the “go-home” show for the Cruiserweight Championship match this Sunday, so perhaps the competitors in that match will get a little warm up. There is still the ongoing feud between Noam Dar and Rich Swann, Drew Gulak trying to remove high flying from the division, and the recently returned Cedric Alexander.
NXT
Now that we got the post-TakeOver show out of the way, NXT should be interesting again. We still don’t know the condition of Johnny Gargano after he got betrayed and attacked by Tommaso Ciampa. When it comes to championships, all the NXT titleholders seem unstoppable. Asuka broke Goldberg’s undefeated streak, Bobby Roode retained his title against Hideo Itami, and The Authors of Pain won their ladder match against #DIY.
Extreme Rules
In WWE’s new “season,” Extreme Rules is the first Pay-Per-View to have a theme. Most matches have some sort of stipulation to change the rules, spicing things up a bit. There’s a steel cage match, a Kendo Stick on a Pole match, a Fatal Five-Way, and even one that will lead to a title change if the champion gets disqualified. Below is a list of the match card as of this writing.
- Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Samoa Joe – #1 Contender’s Match (Universal Championship)
- Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Bayley – Raw Women’s Championship (Kendo Stick on a Pole Match)
- The Hardy Boyz (c) vs. Sheamus & Cesaro – Raw Tag Team Championships (Steel Cage Match)
- Dean Ambrose (c) vs. The Miz – Intercontinental Championship (If Ambrose Gets DQ’ed, He Loses the Title)
- Neville (c) vs. Austin Aries – Cruiserweight Championship (Submission Match)
