And on to part two of my phenomenal double header, this time with more fire behind it since we are three weeks away from WrestleMania. The possible rebirth of The Fiend, Daniel Bryan against Roman. The preshow had Retribution turn their backs on Mustafa Ali after falling short once again (thank God) and more tension between the SmackDown Women’s Championship picture between Bianca and Sasha against the Tag Team Champions, Shayna and Nia.

What will happen? What will unfold? Will Rosenburg say Daniel Bryan vs Roman is Spear vs Spear again? Well that last one, I hope not…

Results:

• Bianca Belair & Sasha Banks vs Shayna Bazler & Nia Jax (c) for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship:  Shayna wins via Roll-Up – ** ½ – TITLE DEFENSE!!
• Apollo Crews vs Big E (c) for the WWE Intercontinental Championship: Big E wins via Roll-Up(?) – * ½ TITLE DE…Defense…? I guess
• Braun Strowman vs Shane McMahon: Strowman wins via Running Powerslam – **
• Seth Rollins vs Shinsuke Nakamura:  Seth Rollins wins via Curb Stomp – *** ½
• No Holds Barred: Drew McIntyre vs Sheamus:  Drew wins via Claymore – *** ¾
• Alexa Bliss vs Randy Orton: Alexa wins by pinfall – N/A
• Daniel Bryan vs Roman Reigns (c) for the WWE Universal Championship (with Edge as Special Guest Ring Enforcer):  Roman wins via pinfall – *** ¼ – TITLE DEFENSE!!

Results:

Bianca Belair & Sasha Banks vs Shayna Bazler & Nia Jax

Sasha starts fast against Bazler and makes a quick tag the Belair, taking it to Shayna in the corner with even more fast tags. Belair goes for quick pins and roll ups until Shayna breaks it with hold and submissions then Nia tags in, getting impatient with her tag partner. Nia gets a bit of a start going but it goes back to an even playing field. Shayna starts getting a decent amount of offense on Belair and gets frequent tags to weaken Belair. After taking a bunch of offense against Nia, Belair tags in Sasha to get things done against both of the champions. As the challengers get a full head of steam going after Sasha’s… transition, Reggie gets involved after Bianca hit the best 450 in a while and Sasha gets distracted by him. After a good amount of outside shenanigans, Banks tags herself in, saying she’s got this and she will win the match before slipping and falling short, losing the match for them in the process.

Aftermath: Sasha keeps saying that Bianca costed them the match and calling her a rookie. Bianca tries to talk back, saying it was Reggie that distracted her and then slaps Bianca and walks out. Bianca in shock saying that she needs to focus on Mania.

Apollo Crews vs Big E

The match starts off fast as Big E takes Apollo to the apron, Suicide Dive Spears Apollo and keeps taking to Crews with Apron side Splashes and not stopping, even trash talking Crews because he demanded another title match from Big E. Apollo finally gets a chances after dirty shotting Big E with a kick to the leg and muscling E with German Suplexes. Apollo continues to beat down Big E, even getting a Frog Splash off on him but, only for a two. Big E tries to get momentum in his favor with double knees but misses the corner spear. They get to the center of the ring, do a tetter-totter of a small package and… Big E wins? I think? That’s what they say.

Aftermath: Apollo is livid and starts beating Big E down, doing three Angle Slams and walking out pissed off.

Braun Strowman vs Shane McMahon

Shane hurt himself before training and since Elias wanted an opportunity to prove himself to “the boss”, yeah you got this Elias.

Strowman swings wildly and dismantle his new opponent. Strowman does everything he can to destroy and break Elias with strikes. Ryker tries to help as best he can as he distracts Braun. Elias has a small amount of offense with a DDT and diving Elbow but not enough to keep Strowman down. Corner splash, high angled chokeslam and then the Running Powerslam. 1, 2, 3
(And for us that love the Braun Strowman game on DWI, it looks like he got all that slime off of him with some soap from Dawwwwwwwwwwwn)

Seth Rollins vs Shinsuke Nakamura

The two go very back and forth with their match from the start but Rollins takes control with dirty tricks, knee striking Shinsuke in the face from the outside, taking it to Nakamura a decent amount only for a one count with the pinfall. Seth keeps going for gutbusters and backbreakers repetitively to slow Shinsuke, going for pinfall attempts but always kicking out. Rollins gets cocky, going for Cesaro’s Swing but Nakamura gets the reverse and starts taking control, doing some knee strikes of his own, Good Vibrations and his theatric knee to the gut in the corner. Seth escapes the Inverted Exploder shortly after and starts to take offense again. Rollins lands a knee strike from the ropes and another move that Shinsuke is oh so very used to… (Thanks Tanahashi!) but gets another two count.

Both men now get to a slugfest, even ground. Obviously, Seth only watched Tanahashi and not Nakamura because you don’t get into a striking match with the King of Strong Style. After a sliding German through the bottom rope and a Kinshasa attempt, Rollins counters it into a Buckle Bomb and Falcon Arrow. Shinsuke breaking out a Fireman Michinoku Driver and Inverted Exploder and gets the Kinshasa reversed again into a kicking combination on the ground and finishing it with a Curb Stomp. I guess when you take from Tanahashi’s moveset, you get the Tanahashi wins lul treatment.

Drew McIntyre vs Sheamus

 The start of the match starts off like a hockey fight (or um… a Rugby Scrum? I don’t think they have a hockey team in their countries) and go to the outside afterward.  If you wanted to see the definition of “That escalated quickly”, this went from fighting from pillar to post to throwing them into barricades, tables and steps  with kendo sticks being tossed into the ring. Sheamus gets the first pinfall attempt as he Brogue Kicks the kendo Drew was about to swing back into Drew’s face and after the pin, smacks the kendo over and over again, back and then chest. Drew gets back up after a while and then delivers a Glasgow Kiss to disarm Sheamus, crack him with the stick now and delivers a Russian Leg Sweep, digging the stick in Sheamus’ eye before Sheamus powders out and traps Drew into the outside and drop toe holds drew into the steps.

They keep taking it to each other on the outside, Sheamus with the steps like Monday and then Drew putting Sheamus through a barricade. Sheamus gets the last word in this exchange to the outside with the ThunderDome and suplexing Drew on the outside, taking the breath out of him. Sheamus continues with a rolling senton where the LED Boards are at but, Drew goes one step further and throws Sheamus through the LED Screens causing actual sparks to fly. The fighting continues and both men are out of it, Sheamus gets his temper flaring up and shouts, “I should be in the Main Event of WrestleMania!” and does White Noise onto Drew through the announce table.

Sheamus brings a piece of the announce table into the ring and trash talks Drew more. Sheamus attempts the Alabama Slam (Dublin Slam? Cork? Idk what the Alabama equivalent of Ireland is) and Drew gets out of it, goes for the Futureshock DDT on the table piece and ends it with the Claymore.

Alexa Bliss vs Randy Orton

Randy goes for his signature pose in the ring as he enters and starts spitting up the black substance (play with me here, it’s probably tar, vegemite or soy sauce) and asks for a towel to clean it up. Alexa comes out next with the white contacts and Bliss takes some of the Fiend’s powers and makes the arena purple.

Orton goes to approach her but is stopped by a wall of fire. Alexa giggles psychotically as Randy gets pissed off and charges to the corner, hitting the post and falling to the outside. Alexa giggles again and eggs Orton to follow her on the outside as the walk methodically. Alexa looks up and stage lights fall from above to cut off Randy. Alexa keeps the “cutesy” crazy going and tells him to get in the ring as she uses the ropes as a swing or bench. Orton begrudgingly follows into the ring, Alexa blows a kiss as randy marches forward and actually played Mortal Kombat by dodging Alexa’s fireball attempt. As it seems there is no more tricks, a burnt and mutilated Fiend returns to cut Randy off and appears in front of him. Bliss kicks Orton in the back and feeds Orton to the Fiend, gets a Sister Abigail and Alexa… ahem… “Pins” Randy for the win.

Daniel Bryan vs Roman Reigns

Daniel plays some mind games, trying to get into Roman’s head with a single leg takedown but, Reigns isn’t having it and getting more and more annoyed. Roman showing his strength in a Greco Roman Knuckle Lock and while Roman trash talks, Bryan transitions to an armbar which Roman instantly breaks out of, getting under Roman’s skin more. After a little bit, Roman actually puts Roman in a headlock takedown but, Daniel slides out of it and picks apart Roman’s joints and muscles. Roman gest out as fast as possible and begins to beat down Daniel to cut him off. After a couple of attacks from Roman, Bryan starts to get a good amount of steam going, rushing to the ropes and does his corner backflip until Roman does a Tilt-A-Whirl Slam to stop that momentum. Roman keeps going to the beat down, going slow and methodical as he takes firm control of the match. Each time Daniel takes a little momentum, Roman stops him by beating him outside of the ring now, getting to an eight count and going for a pinfall attempt. Roman keeps the beatdown going, demanding respect and acknowledgement as the Tribal Chief from Daniel Bryan but, now Daniel Bryan gets some offense going now. Bryan tries to go for a Frankensteiner  but Roman caught him on the drop down and puts Daniel in a Boston Crab. Daniel gets out of the crab though and gets a nearfall pin.

Both competitors now taking it to each other, Roman to the outside now as Daniel gets caught in a dive attempt, countering Roman’s snake eye attempt and getting the comeback started, taking Roman to the pillar, back to the ring and hits a Missile Dropkick for a nearfall but after Roman kicks out, Bryan doesn’t stop the attack. As Daniel Bryan goes for his It Kic—Yes… Yes Kicks, Roman counters it, begins his beat down on Bryan but Daniel is now quicker than that and goes for another pinfall. Romans kicks out and Bryan now trash talks, saying that Roman likes to talk, time to stop and stomps on Roman’s face and neck, applying the Yes Lock after and Roman not tapping, breaking out of it into a full mount attack after. Roman delivers a powerbomb pin attempt but Daniel kicks out, both of them gasping as Roman talks to himself again, getting angry. Bryan loads the Running Knee and hits the ref as Edge now becomes the authority in the match as Roman hits the Spear against Daniel Bryan. Edge comes in as the ref now and the trash talking continues from Reigns. Daniel gets a Triangle attempt in, Roman picks him up for a Powerbomb but Daniel transitions it into the Yes Lock. Jey Uso rushes in and superkicks Edge and Daniel Bryan to save Reigns.

Jey brings a chair into the ring, takes Edge out in the corner and charges at Bryan. Bryan hits the Running Knee on Jey, Daniel picks the chair up to take Roman out but hits Edge by mistake. Roman then lands a Superman Punch but gets the Spear caught from the Labell Lock. Roman actually taps out to the lock but Edge gets up, pissed off on all belief and says… Fuck it. Hits both Daniel and Roman with the chair and storms off as both men are down.  A new ref comes in and Roman slowly drapes his arm along Daniel to get the win.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

And like that, I retire for the night. The matches weren’t the worst except the Intercontinental debacle and I don’t count the Alexa and Randy thing a match as we all expected. Tag match made sense, we don’t have Retribution anymore so that’s always a plus from the kickoff show. Drew can put Sheamus in the rear view as he gets to the main event against Bobby Lashley for one of the nights, tension rose for the SmackDown Women’s Championship match at Mania with Bianca and Sasha. We don’t know what Seth or Shinsuke are going to do, Big E will probably face Apollo again down the road and Shane provoked the Monster. Two things that we have learned most likely from this however… First, Daniel Bryan is probably going to get inserted into the Universal Match at Mania some way shape or form since Roman actually tapped out and the second thing that the editor can confirm that Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon need to learn… It’s probably a bad idea to piss off people named Adam that have anger issues.

That being said, I’m gonna need to relax after the Phenomenal Double Header of Pay-Per-Views I did today with some brews and if you have any thoughts that you have or feedback, let me know on Twitter @PhenomenalAJB (If they are negative though, really it was @PCTunney that said it, not me).