Back on the course of regularly scheduled programming, Andrew brings us the Ratings & Review of WWE Raw and SmackDown Live!

Well with these being ‘Go Home’ shows for Elimination Chamber or WWE in general, I come into these shows…let’s say…pensively.

Raw always tends to be the bigger unknown of these two. But the fact that SmackDown was a little flat last week, let’s just hope that was a hiccup and not a trend.

Let’s get to the shows!

Raw Ratings:

• Sasha Banks & Bayley vs Nia Jax & Tamina vs Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan: Nia Jax wins via Samoan Drop – **
• Finn Balor vs Drew McIntyre: Balor wins via DQ – *
• Finn Balor, Kurt Angle & Braun Strowman vs Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley & Baron Corbin: Balor wins via Coup de Grace after restart – ** 1/4
• Ruby Riott vs Nikki Cross: Riott wins via Riott Kick – * 1/2
• EC3 vs Dean Ambrose: Ambrose wins via Cradle – 1/2
• Raw Tag Team Title Match: Bobby Roode & Chad Gable (c) vs The Revival: Revival win via Shatter Machine – **** – TITLE CHANGE!!!

Review Notes:

Stephanie and Trips start off the show talking, yay. Becky comes out since she saw a doctor, they say she’s cleared, but if she wants her spot she needs to apologize for last week. So the whole show is based around an apology and if Steph and Trips will screw her somehow. Hooray, “The Decision WWE Style” – ugh.

Conceptually the match is dumb since it punishes getting tagged in, but the women all played within the confines of the rules well. Forced tags on opposing teams and heels purposefully dropping off the ring apron, were all good. Sasha manages to get hurt again, so Bayley is alone again. She tags out to the Riott Squad at some point and that gives her a break. When Bayley does come back in, she shows good fire, a little bit of aggression, and overall a much needed layer to the character. But the numbers are too much, Nia Samoan Drops her and Bayley & Sasha are now one of the first two teams to wrestle in the Chamber match.

Now we get the beginning of making Raw look kind of amateurish. Elias starts his Hello, they cut to Becky Lynch talking to Finn, then he starts it again and they cut to a video package for Seth Rollins. Back to Elias a third time, visibly frustrated, tries to start again and the Lucha House Party interrupts. The most directionless, pile of crap group in WWE is the payoff, of a bad joke, in which the crowd is dead. No one cares, even Elias can’t make them care. Kalisto eats a guitar and Elias bails. This was a waste of time, but I guess Elias will be in a meaningless midcard angle with the Lucha morons. Yippee.

Lashley and Lio are ringside for the Finn versus Drew match. Writing clearly on the wall, Lashley interferes to DQ Drew, but they beat on Finn. Angle shows up, Corbin lays out Angle, Braun comes out. 6 man match of mediocrity, punctuated by an idiotic use of the in-ring ref missing a foot on the ropes, but a backstage ref corrected him and they restarted the match. THE REVIVAL LITERALLY HAVE BEEN SCREWED BY THIS A FEW WEEKS AGO! ALONG WITH NUMEROUS TECHNICALITIES THAT CAN BE OVERTURNED WITH REPLAY! -breathes- The selective application of things is very WWE, yes we all know the saying ” nothing matters, unless it does”. But the Revival being on the show later just adds to the idiocy of this bit.

Kevin Owens is back next month, yay!

Cross and Ruby was so unimportant, they interrupted the match for a backstage segment with Ronda. Can’t even pretend like the women in the ring have a shot, gonna overshadow them completely for talking. Suuure.

Rollins gives some kind of typical speech, Heyman comes out, gives a typical Heyman promo. I don’t care. Rollins will probably beat Lesnar, just cause someone has to. But I’m not looking forward to that reign at all.

Ambrose comes out while Rollins is in the ring, tells Rollins to beat the beast, and immediately babyfaces himself and repairs the bridge a little in case he doesn’t leave after Mania, or returns at some point. As for the EC3 match, I gave it half a star, it did nothing, it wasn’t good, Ambrose won with an awkward cradle.

The Revival, Roode and Gable put on a hell of a match. Gable’s speed and athleticism to crank the gears, Revival’s ability to put on solid, masterful tag team matches is great, and Roode is also a decorated tag wrestler, playing his role very well. This was such a pleasure on a show that would’ve been kinda bad up to this point. So congratulations to the new champions!

Now the main event talking segment was done well. Becky apologized half heartedly, Trips and Steph didn’t screw her, said she’s getting her match. Ronda comes out happy that the match is going to happen because she wants it as well. HOWEVER – Vinny Mac shows up, says he’s THE MAN, and Becky is suspended for 60 days and Charlotte is his choice to take her spot and take the title from Ronda. Yes, many of us saw this coming one way or the other, but the framing of this is great. It frames Becky as the underdog, Ronda as the fighting champion who wanted her face off with Ronda and Charlotte as the corporate face of disdain. So after 2 weeks of Ronda getting booed to frustration, Ronda is now babyfaced since she is framed to be “pro Becky”. So if Ronda plays a part in getting Becky back into the match, I won’t be surprised.

Overall Score: 5.5/10

Honestly, the last two bits, the tag match and the Becky, Vince, Charlotte segment made this show a little better than average. It dragged and was downright awful or dumb looking at times. But they had a great wrestling match, where the deserving team finally won. As well as giving more depth and breathing time to their main storyline. At least they’re doing the big ticket stuff well.

SmackDown Live Ratings:

• Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose vs Carmella & Naomi vs The IIconics – Naomi wins via Thicc-Legged Moonsault – **
• Chamber Gauntlet Match:
• Daniel Bryan vs Kofi Kingston: Kofi wins via Trouble in Paradise
• Kofi Kingston vs Jeff Hardy: Kofi wins via S.O.S.
• Kofi Kingston vs Samoa Joe: Kofi wins via Sleeper Hold Counter Pin
• Kofi Kingston vs AJ Styles: Styles wins via Calf Crusher
• AJ Styles vs Randy Orton: Orton wins via RKO – **** 1/4

Review Notes:

Video package review of how Raw signed off Monday, followed by Charlotte in the ring. Gives a solid nasty bitch heel promo, plays well to the crowd for the heat. I’ve never really been a fan of how Charlotte gives promos, but this was actually pretty solid. The “point to the sign and chant Becky” line came off awkward, but still not terrible.

The same as Raw, Triple Threat, loser is first to fight in the chamber match! Peyton starts off with Carmella and immediately tags Mandy. The IIconics did the perfect thing in this match for heels, they never got in the match. They literally dropped off the apron and ran away from confrontation at times. Naomi pins Mandy with the Thicc-Legged Moonsault and the former Absolution duo will start off against Sasha and Bayley. IIconics ambush the other teams after the bell to stand and look strong, after not being involved in the match. Clever girls…

Mustafa Ali video saying his injured but he’ll get even.

McMiz TV, Shane will be on NCIS:LA, Miz is acting super happy and babyface. The fact that Miz is just happy and loses the snarky douche persona is refreshing and nearly cute. He literally seems ecstatic in this angle with Shane, so if they lose at Chamber and break apart, I kinda hope Shane turns on Miz, keeping Miz more of the babyface/fan support side of the feud. Usos dominate the promo aspect, though Miz and Shane have a great moment when they were trying to prove they knew each other as well as Jimmy and Jey. Usos just weren’t having their shit and Superkick them and leave them laying.

Now comes the gauntlet and the New Day reveal of who they’re picking as the fill in for Mustafa. Kofi and Daniel Bryan start things off, and this alone was a solid match. Now it did great things by showing Daniel is vulnerable without help. New Day got banished, Rowan did as well, and in his scrambling to try and win quickly, Bryan gets caught by a Trouble in Paradise, Kofi gets the pinfall. Jeff Hardy comes out and immediately tries to throw some of his bigger signature moves on an already weakened opponent. Hardy misses a lot, and then gets caught in the S.O.S. Now with Joe coming out at 3, most of us probably saw this going the same way as Rollins from last year, and here’s where the plucky workhorse loses, but nay! Kofi manages to reverse the Sleeper Hold into a pin. Joe being the angry man he is, sinks in the Coquina Clutch after the loss, so AJ has to break it up. Now AJ does what Cena didn’t do well last year. Trying to play the whole ” You don’t need to continue, you’re hurt, just stop” angle. AJ showed real concern cause he helped him back into the ring and seemed sincere. Kofi got fired up and what we saw wasn’t bad at all. Kofi versus AJ could definitely be a good number 1 contender match, maybe at Fastlane or Mania. AJ catches Kofi with the Calf Crusher, and awaits Randy Orton. As the crowd gives Kofi the standing ovation, Randy flies in from off camera and hits and RKO out of nowhere for the 1-2-3, right at 10 eastern. Perfect punctuation. Yes a couple spots here or there were a little sloppy, but generally speaking this was a great match. Maybe even better than last year’s Raw gauntlet.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

When a gauntlet takes up an entire hour, it doesn’t allow for many talking points, but yeah, that was great. Fantastic story telling, legitimizing Kofi, Kofi showing the hunger to be champion after 11 years during his stand off with Styles. It’s all great. And of course, Orton out of nowhere is always magic. Damn good show, not a ton of storyline beats, but everything it did do, moved things along nicely.