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Smackdown
Date: March 6, 2018
Location: Resch Center, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Commentators: Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Tom Phillips
It’s the go home Smackdown for Fastlane and that means we can finally move towards Wrestlemania. However, we still have quite a big of stuff to get through first and that means a lot of work tonight. There’s a good chance John Cena will be in town but the rest of the matches need some attention too. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
Charlotte and Ruby Riott are brought out for an opening chat. Ruby cuts Dasha Fuentes off and says this started on November 14, 2017 when Charlotte won the Smackdown Women’s Title. Charlotte is the perfect person to be the top star of the women’s division but then Ruby saw the myth fall apart. It was a week later that Ruby started the Riott Squad with the sole purpose of destroying Charlotte’s myth.
Charlotte talks about how just being good isn’t enough because she has to transcend everything…

The fast lane is getting congested. With less than a week to go before “Fastlane 2018”, there were only four matches set for the show as we came into this week’s “Smackdown Live”. That’s not much for a three hour show, but thankfully a few more of the spots were filled in throughout the night.
Here’s how the first one was set up:
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This week on “Smackdown Live”, two more matches were added to the “Fastlane 2018” card. First, Rusev challenged Shinsuke Nakamura to a match in order to avenge Aiden English’s injured throat. Later in the show, Natalya and Naomi agreed to a tag match with Carmella and Becky Lynch as the respective partners. Both matches were confirmed later in the night. Opinion: How nice of WWE to remember that Nakamura exists only four weeks before his biggest match in America. It’s like he’s been forgotten for the sake of setting up this Six Pack Challenge and that’s not a good thing for the Royal Rumble winner. The women’s m..

Don’t go messin with a Hall of Famer. It’s Hall of Fame season and that means we’ll be getting some big names being announced for the highest career honor in WWE. However, it also means that we’ll be getting some oddball names, which happens almost every single year. We now have this class’ odd choice.
He makes a good training partner.
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WWE.com has announced that Hillbilly Jim will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018. While Hillbilly Jim never won any titles in WWE, he was a beloved character for several years. After his in-ring career was over, he managed the Godwinns for a short time in the mid 1990s. Opinion: This makes no sense, this makes an even further mockery of the Hall of Fame and I couldn’t be happier. Hillbilly Jim has been a favorite of mine for years and I have a feeling he’ll get a great nostalgic reaction. He may not have been successful, but he was a great example of a fun character. Those are always nice ..

Monday Night Raw
Date: March 5, 2018
Location: BMO Harris Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Jonathan Coachman
With five episodes to go before Wrestlemania, this show needs to start getting ready for Wrestlemania. At the moment, there is one match confirmed for the biggest show of the year and we’re 34 days out. I know there’s Fastlane to get through first but Raw doesn’t have another pay per view between now and New Orleans. Get something set up this week. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
Here’s Kurt Angle to get things going. Kurt is serious this week because he got sucker punched last week. HHH hit him right in the jaw and while Kurt has swallowed his pride before, he’s calling HHH out right now. The jacket comes off and here’s a swaggering Stephanie instead. Stephanie asks about Angle’s five kids and ex-wife, meaning he likely has an alimony payment. She advises Kurt to stick with what he does for a..

And it’s official. As we head towards “Wrestlemania XXXIV”, one of the big matches that was all but set in stone was Ronda Rousey/Kurt Angle vs. Triple H/Stephanie McMahon. Rousey had been guaranteed a match at the show and the question was who she would be facing. That was answered at the start of this week’s “Monday Night Raw”.
It all started here.
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Angle opened this week’s show with a challenge to Triple H. This led to McMahon and Rousey coming out with Rousey selecting McMahon for her opponent. Angle wasn’t done and called out Triple H as well, setting up the match as a mixed tag. A brawl broke out with the villains being left laying. Opinion: This was the obvious match and there’s nothing wrong with that. Go with what makes sense and in this case it’s the mixed tag. Rousey isn’t ready for a singles match on such a big stage and there’s no reason to have McMahon get beaten up in thirty seconds for Rouey’s debut. They’re going with the..

And we have a match! Coming out of last week’s “Monday Night Raw”, it wasn’t clear who would be challenging the Miz for the Intercontinental Title at “Wrestlemania XXXIV”. Both Finn Balor and Seth Rollins pinned Miz last week but no match was officially made. That changed this week.
Here’s how Rollins beat Miz.
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As announced on this week’s episode of “Monday Night Raw”, both Balor and Rollins will be receiving a shot in a triple threat match. The announcement came after the two of them defeated Miz and the Miztourage in a handicap match. Rollins pinned Miz to win the match after a Curb Stomp. You can read this week’s full results here.
Opinion: This wasn’t the biggest surprise in the world but what I’m really hoping is that they don’t add anyone else. There’s no need to make the match even bigger, especially when you already have enough people. Just let it be the three people already involved in the storyline and go from there. I could s..

Give us two more. We’re coming up on “Wrestlemania XXXIV” and that means it’s time for some major changes to start taking place. Some of them might be new names debuting or some big matches being set up, but in this case it might mean some new titles being added to the current collection.
I wonder if it’s part of this vision.
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According to PWInsider.com, WWE will be introducing Cruiserweight Tag Team Titles at some point after “Wrestlemania”. There is no specific timetable on when the titles will be introduced or how the first champions will be crowned. There has not been a Cruiserweight Tag Team Title in a major promotion since WCW had the very short lived Cruiserweight Tag Team Titles which were introduced on March 18, 2001 and retired just eight days later. Not keeping up with “205 Live”? Here’s the latest episode.
Opinion: I’m a little skeptical about adding another title to “205 Live” and I’m hoping they don’t add something else to ..

A new report from the New York Post has revealed that things may be tough for Jonathan Coachman in the near future. Adrienne Lawrence, a former anchor at ESPN, has filed a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against the company. She is claiming that they did not address her complaints against being harassed by several employees.
One of them is Coachman, who worked at ESPN from 2008-2017.
He recently returned to WWE to work as a commentator for “Raw.” You can see an interview regarding his return below:
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From the report:
According to the suit, male executives and talent at ESPN “keep ‘scoreboards’ naming female colleagues they are targeting for sex.” It also alleges that men openly watch porn on their computers and have made comments in Lawrence’s presence like wondering what Rihanna must “taste like.”
Among many mentioned in the suit are Chris Berman, the longtime face of the network, former “SportsCenter” anchor Jonathan Coachma..

Hillbilly Jim was recently interviewed by Bleacher Report where he discussed his upcoming induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, class of 2018. Below are some highlights of the interview:
On receiving word that he would be inducted into the Hall of Fame:
“I didn’t have that on my mind whatsoever,” Jim told Bleacher Report. “For a moment or two, I was knocked back on my heels. Basically, I was speechless. It was a whole lot for me to digest quickly.”
On his character, Hillbilly Jim:
“It was always a very doable and easy character to step into,” Jim said. “I’m from this part of the country. I know a lot of country people. I know what that translates to. I did the best I could to bring that to the ring.
“It’s a lot like I really am in person. I’m a happy, excitable kind of character. And I just wanted to denote happiness.”
Here’s a clip of Jim with Hacksaw Jim Duggan:
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On how he wants to be remembered:
“I want the fans to enjoy this,” Jim s..

In celebration of the 2018 Oscars, WWE have revealed several amazing movie parody posters online via their official website, including interesting descriptions for each of the movies. As mentioned on the official website, here are the plotlines, posters and movie names designed by WWE. Let us know what you think of the designs and which ones you’d be most likely to watch.
The Greatest Strowman
This breathtaking musical chronicles the rise of a starry-eyed opportunist (Braun Strowman) who dreams of dazzling crowds from across the globe with awe-inspiring physical feats, spectacle beyond imagination and the ruthless destruction of anyone who dares oppose him. The soundtrack includes such unforgettable songs as “A Million Screams,” “Rewrite the Scars” and the empowering “Not Finished (With You).”
Credit to WWE I, Lana
Relive the scandal that rocked sports-entertainment as a ravishing Russian immigrant (Lana) finds herself embroiled in a plot involving the sudden, crushing injury of on..

WWE have listed the WWE Network Collections for March 2018 via their official website. Here are the details on the collections, including times and dates. ‘Smackdown Live‘ Superstar Becky Lynch kicks off the collections this month with “Becky Lynch: Straight Fire.” This collection contains 30 segments from the career of the ‘Lasskicker’ so far, including various messages from the Superstar herself.
Check out the listings:
Title Description Air Date Duration Becky Lynch: Straight Fire Intro 3/5/2018 Firing Off: Early NXT Days Becky Lynch remembers the early days of her career in NXT and shares a unique perspective on her gradual transformation. 3/5/2018 0:02:33 The Sky is the Limit NXT 228 – Becky Lynch embraces the spirit of her homeland when she makes her NXT debut against Summer Rae. 6/26/2014 0:05:18 An Extraordinary Group NXT TakeOver: Rival – Years before the Women’s Evolution, Becky Lynch battles Bayley, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks for the NXT Women’s Title. 2/11/2015 0:19:58 St..

The Young Bucks were interviewed on Sports Illustrated’s ‘Extra Mustard’ section on proving people wrong, losing ‘too sweet’ and the success of ‘Being The Elite.’ Matt Jackson explains how they’ve been proving people wrong.
“We’ve made a career out of working with a chip on our shoulder. Maybe that’s why we work so hard? To prove others wrong? The pool of doubters has thinned in recent years, but it’s definitely still around.”
He continues, commenting on people saying the Bullet Club has peaked and losing ‘too sweet’ was supposed to be the end for them.
“People said our careers were over when the ‘Too Sweet’ hand gesture was taken from us. Now, it doesn’t even feel strange not doing it. People said we only knew how to work one style. Then we switched it up completely. People said Bullet Club had peaked for years now. Yet, here we are, as we continue to help it stay interesting and popular.”
Nick Jackson comments on ‘Being The Elite.’
“I always knew it was going to be big for us, b..