The Good
For Raw, the main event between Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre was a great match and ended the show on a good note. McIntyre won after a Brock Lesnar distraction, which helps give McIntyre more momentum into Wrestlemania for his match against Roman Reigns as he looks to beat everybody from the Shield. This segment also keeps building up the Universal Championship match as Lesnar gained the upper hand this week.
For Smackdown, the Kofi Kingston gauntlet match took up half of the show, and it was a overall solid series of events to help keep Kingston’s story moving forward. After Kingston thought he finally overcame everything that was put in front of him, Vince McMahon announced that he had one more match left, and it was against Daniel Bryan. Bryan ended up winning, which now leaves questions going into next week’s show and really is great considering this is all for the WWE Championship, which now has a more important feel to it.
The Bad
For Raw, they tried to make it a mystery as to who would be Finn Balor’s tag team partner against Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush, but the pick ended up being Braun Strowman, which could’ve been predicted. Along with that, this is a match we have seen more than once in the past few months, so it just felt like filler at this point. There is still questions as to what is in store for the Intercontinental Championship at Wrestlemania, which is not a good sign.
For Smackdown, the segment between Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair on the Kevin Owens show might have taken out some of the strength of the build up for the Women’s Championship match between Rousey, Lynch, and Flair. We already know what we has happened between Lynch and Flair because they have been battling each other for the past seven months. This segment is just something we have already seen between these two, so it would’ve been better if more of the attention on this segment was focused on Ronda Rousey.
The Final Verdict
Both brands are putting a majority of their show into Wrestlemania, which is how they should be. But, the overall delivery of the build up for these matches this week seem to be better on Raw this week. Batista’s interview, Brock Lesnar’s appearance, and a solid main event give Raw the better show this week. Both brands have been putting on entertaining shows for a majority of 2019, so lets hope that this continues for not just Wrestlemania, but all the PPV’s after.
