Your Weekly Wrestling Viewing Guide: Feb. 25 - March 4, 2017

There’s a ton of wrestling content nowadays and unless you’re a hardcore pro-graps fan, you have to decide what to watch when and what to consider leaving out. That’s where we come in to help.

Every week, we are going to run down the big in-ring happenings for the easily accessible US wrestling. (“In-ring” meaning no Talking Smack nor Total Divas). This won’t cover your indie needs, but ReverendKain always has you covered in his weekly Sermon on the Mat for that. Ring of Honor won’t be making the weekly recap, but you can always find them on their website. Lucha Underground is on midseason break until the summer.

Bear in mind, matches could be added after this posts that would definitely change how worth a show is to watch.

Monday

Monday Night Raw (USA Network)

It’s the go home show for the Fastlane pay-per-view (PPV) and Goldberg is back. Last week, Kevin Owens delivered a sweet promo setting up this match last week and hopefully he’ll get to run down Bill again. Also, Jericho has been touring with the Raw brand so it’s also possible he returns to TV sooner than later (though that may wait until the PPV).

Seth Rollins is advertised to address his condition, though who knows if that will be live or via satellite. Also we’ll likely get Samoa Joe and Sami Zayn set up for the PPV and the cap off of the Women’s title stuff (if last week didn’t completely put you off).

Raw has been a tighter show lately as they build to Fastlane and WrestleMania. While there probably won’t be anything Earth shattering to miss if you just opted to tune into the PPV, it’s worth keeping an eye on it.

Verdict: Raw has been more solid as of late so the go-home to Fastlane could be fun, but if you just tuned into the PPV, you probably won’t miss much.

Tuesday

SmackDown Live (USA Network)

Last week, they had a #1 contenders battle royal to decide who would face Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania. However, AJ Styles and Luke Harper hit the floor at the same time. (They totally didn’t.) Because there was no clear winner, this leads us to a Harper vs. Styles match this week.

Harper vs. Styles. You should watch that.

These are two guys who are very talented in the ring with great charisma as well. The rise of Luke Harper on SmackDown has been one of the best parts of the show. Any styles match is worth watching. Styles wrestling against a bigger man who can perform in the ring is definitely worth watching.

Verdict: At least tune in for the main event, but may as well catch the whole thing.

205 Live (WWE Network)

Last week, the contract signing and face to face showdown between Jack Gallagher and Neville was on Raw, proving once again the 205 Live is not must watch to follow the Cruisers. The two Brits will likely have some interaction prior to their title match at Fastlane, but it may very well be on Raw.

Verdict: This is still a skippable show if you don’t care about the cruisers.

Wednesday

NXT (WWE Network)

This could be a good one.

We’ve got two title matches scheduled for this Wednesday. #DIY will get their rematch for the tag team championships against the Authors of Pain while Peyton Royce will challenge Asuka for the Women’s championship.

I know that the chances of either title changing hands here are slim, especially because both champions are currently undefeated. Likely the Revival will somehow insert themselves into the tag match, but DIY matches are must see. And Asuka isn’t dropping the title to Peyton Royce, but this could start the path to next big challenger revealing herself.

On top of all that, Kassius Ohno returned last week and set his sights on Bobby Roode so there could be some fallout from that.

Verdict: This feels like a bigger episode of NXT, which makes it worth tuning in for.

Thursday

TNA Impact (Pop TV)

This is the last episode of the January set of tapings prior to the new creative taking over. Since we don’t know what the future holds under the new direction, this could very well be a lame duck show. It’s possible that they keep the storylines that are being told and slowly change things, but it’s also possible things get a hard reset. Because of that, it’s possible certain things happening on this show won’t matter.

On this episode, Josh Barnett will face Bobby Lashley for the TNA title. This hasn’t had a long build but it should be interesting to see the style of match the two MMA athletes put on.

Also, Jade and Rosemary will have a Last Knockouts Standing match for Rosemary’s Knockouts title. There two women have good chemistry in the ring.

This is certainly not Must Watch given the fact that things can have a soft reset in just a week. But Lashley/Barnett is worth checking out in some capacity.

Verdict: With changes around the corner, you can probably skip it. However, the advertised matches should be entertaining even if they don’t have bearing on the future state of TNA.

---

There’s a ton of other wrestling out there and we can’t cover it all on here. So if there’s something you’re particularly excited for this week, let your fellow wrestling fans know in the comments.

See ya next week!