WWE Weekly Round-Up- Jey Has A Target On His Back; The Ladies Take Centre Stage

Welcome to this week’s WWE Round Up, my name’s Mick and we’re here to look at this week’s happenings on WWE’s flagship shows, Raw and Smackdown.

Let’s do this!

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The Belt Gets Heavy

Jey Uso is a busy man. Recently, he was targeted by Logan Paul, and the championship match has been made official for next week’s Saturday Night’s Main Event. But also hot on the World Heavyweight Champion’s heels is the former champion, Gunther, still seething over his loss to Jey at WrestleMania.

Fresh off destroying Pat McAfee at Backlash in St Louis, the Ring General confronted the YEET Man this past week on Raw. Gunther reminded Jey that he’s spent 80% of his WWE career as a champion, and re-affirmed his belief that Jey Uso is not World Heavyweight Championship material. He also dropped the news that the winner of Jey vs. Logan at SNME will defend the title against Gunther on June 9 (on Raw) in Phoenix, Arizona.

As if having two people gunning for Jey’s championship wasn’t enough, the champ was later found backstage laid out with Bron Breakker and Paul Heyman standing over him, presumably at the orders of the Visionary, Seth Rollins. Rollins and Breakker were also involved in the opening segment attacking CM Punk and Sami Zayn, with Jey Uso coming to the latter’s aid. Punk and Zayn will team to face Rollins and Breakker at Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Raw vs. NXT- Roxanne & Giulia Step Up

The main event of Raw saw the return to in-ring action for Australia’s own Rhea Ripley, as she teamed with Women’s World Champion (and WrestleMania opponent) Iyo Sky. Iyo has enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent times, particularly following her outstanding WrestleMania performance, and here they took on two of NXT’s brightest stars in a blockbuster, thrilling tag match.

Roxanne- who has been around since the Nickelodeon splatter NXT 2.0 days- and Giulia- relatively new to NXT but highly experienced in Japan- did not look fazed by the Raw main event spotlight. They took the two decorated main roster members to the limit, before Giulia fell to the Riptide. The frequency that these NXT wrestlers show up on the main roster would suggest an imminent call-up, and indeed we saw part of it made official later in the week, as Nick Aldis signed Giulia to the SmackDown brand.

Number One With a Bullet

In what was billed as a “dream match”, former Bullet Club members Finn Balor and AJ Styles went at it in singles competition on Raw. For the first time since the short-notice TLC 2017 encounter, Styles and Balor put on a blistering performance- older though they may be, both are seemingly timeless and as sharp as ever.

After almost 20 minutes of fiery warfare, the match ended in chaotic fashion as the Judgment Day predictably got involved, but Penta came out to help even the odds and take them out. This allowed Styles to gain a big win with the Phenomenal Forearm in a great match and bounce back after losing to Logan Paul at WrestleMania.

Alexa Bliss Is Money! (And Solo Is Spare Change)

This week’s Smackdown played host to two triple threat matches that were Money In The Bank qualifiers, and the show kicked off with the first one- Alexa Bliss vs. Chelsea Green vs. Michin. This was a spirited battle, and while many may have seen Michin’s role in this to take the pin- given the heralded recent return of Bliss and Chelsea being the former US Champion- they did a nice job subverting that expectation with Bliss re-entering the ring after Chelsea looked to steal the pin on Michin, then dropping Green with the Sister Abigail DDT.

In the other qualifying match, Solo Sikoa defeated Rey Fenix and Jimmy Uso. This was to the disappointment of many who wanted to see the daredevil Fenix qualify, but JC Mateo (the renamed newly-signed Jeff Cobb) was an X-Factor in this one, allowing Solo to pick up the tainted victory.

The Truth Will Set You Free

The WWE Championship match at Backlash between John Cena and Randy Orton took an odd turn, with R-Truth getting involved at the finish. Long considered a lovable comedy character, it is canon that Truth considers Cena to be his childhood hero… despite the fact that Truth is actually older than Cena. An irate Cena AAed Truth through a table at the post-show press conference, leading to a match between Cena and R-Truth being made official for Saturday Night’s Main Event.

On Smackdown, Wade Barrett conducted a sit-down interview with Truth. Truth remains a fan of Cena, saying that the man who put him through the table wasn’t the real Cena. Truth still lives by the mantra “Hustle, Loyalty and Respect, and he plans to beat Cena “back to his senses” at SNME.

Stratton and Jax Steal The Show

Smackdown was main evented by a major championship match, as Tiffany Stratton defended the Women’s Championship against the former champ, the one she cashed in MITB on- Nia Jax. The uber-athletic Stratton played the underdog to Jax’s irresistible force in a highly compelling match.

This was hard-hitting to a major degree, including a elevated Annia-lator that Stratton barely escaped, grabbing the bottom rope at the last possible moment. Ultimately, the end came when a frustrated Nia grabbed a steel chair, only to have it kicked into her face, busting her open (somewhere, Becky Lynch is smiling). The Prettiest Moonsault ended the match, which is sure to raise the stock of both wrestlers, who left it all in the ring.

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Those were the top moments of the week in WWE- what other moments did you love? Drop them in the comments- WWE have a loaded product currently with a plethora of matches and moments to choose from.

Until next time, take care.