Weekly Wrestling Viewing Guide: Feb 25 - March 3, 2018

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. This won’t cover your indie needs, but ReverendKain always has you covered in his weekly Sermon on the Mat for that.

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

Sunday

Elimination Chamber (WWE Network)

This will be Raw’s last PPV stop on the road to WrestleMania. Afterwards, we’ll know the Universal title match at WrestleMania and who’s going to be holding the Raw Women’s title at the Show of Shows.

The card:

• Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins vs. Elias vs. the Miz vs. Finn Balor vs. John Cena (7-man Elimination Chamber match to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania)
• Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Mickie James vs. Sonya Deville vs. Mandy Rose vs. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks (Elimination Chamber match for the Women’s championship)
• Ronda Rousey contract signing
• Broken Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt
• Nia Jax vs. Asuka (if Nia wins, she gets added to the Mania Raw Women’s title match)
• The Bar (c) vs. Titus Worldwide for the Raw tag team championships
• Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. the Miztourage (Kickoff)

Verdict: Even though builds to PPVs with many multi-person matches are often lackluster, this card is worth watching. It sets up WrestleMania. It has the first ever Women’s Chamber. The Men’s Chamber should be really good. (I’m very curious to see how Seth Rollins does in it, even if Roman is the likely victor.) And it’ll be the first time we see Rousey since her Royal Rumble debut. This show looks to be worth watching.

Monday

Raw (USA Network)

Here’s your fallout from the Chamber PPV. With the Universal title match now set, they start building it.

Verdict: The fallout will depend on the happenings at the PPV, but this is likely one to tune in for.

Tuesday

SmackDown Live (USA Network)

SmackDown has been hard to watch lately. The storylines are dull or non-sensical. They’ve been running this Shane McMahon/Daniel Bryan angle in place for months now. It’s been an unexciting two hours of wrestling.

The main story is the 5-way title match set for Fastlane between AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, and Kevin Owens happening on the show currently. Expect them to just face off in different random variations until they have their match at the PPV.

The women will probably run some tag match as they build to Ruby Riott vs. Charlotte at the PPV. And we’re likely working towards a multi-team tag match at the PPV.

I’m not going to even get into the US title feud.

Verdict: I can’t in good conscious recommend watching this show live. They’ll get their stuff together eventually, but wait to hear about that first.

Mixed Match Challenge (Facebook Live)

This is the first week of round two. Finn Balor and Sasha Banks will take on Asuka and Miz.

If I had to describe the style of this show, it’d be dumb fun. It’s pretty much a silly house show match and the participants have been focusing on the character aspect more than the match given the limitations of a mixed tag bout.

Verdict: It’s worth checking out if you’re not doing anything at 10 pm and you have a Facebook account. It’s not must watch overall with no impact on any greater storylines, but it’s fun.

205 Live (WWE Network)

This is also the first week of round two for their tournament to crown a new cruiserweight champion. This week, Roderick Strong will face Kalisto and TJP will face Cedric Alexander.

They can’t keep the two a week pace if they are going to stretch this out until Mania though. Eventually this show is going to have to start focusing on some other things as well.

Verdict: This has been very match heavy since the change of tone and most of the matches have been good. Jack Gallagher vs. Mustafa Ali last was really great. Both of these matches this week have the potential to be great as well. I’ve been watching 205 more lately and I’m digging it.

Wednesday

NXT (WWE Network)

After a HUGE turn in the Johnny Gargano story last week (damn you, Ciampa!), NXT turns to the women this week. After the events of two weeks ago where Kairi Sane saved Ember Moon from a Shayna Baszler beating, we’ll get a rematch of the Mae Young Classic finals when Sane and Baszler go head to head.

Verdict: I think it’s worth tuning in for an MYC finals rematch.

Thursday

Impact Wrestling (Pop TV)

When it comes to a big episode of Impact, that’s actually the one in two weeks at their Crossroads show.

But this week, they’ve already advertised some matches for this week to keep our interest until then.

• Rosemary vs. Hania no DQ
• Eddie Edwards vs. Sami Callihan
• Joseph Park vs. Kongo Kong (this is part of the story of Jimmy Jacobs trying to bring out Abyss)
• Laurel Van Ness Commitment ceremony (not sure what this means, but it’ll probably work into her feud with Allie)
• Ishimori responds to Matt Sydal’s X Division title challenge

Verdict: Last week was one of the more engaging episodes of the new era. While this episode doesn’t jump off the page, and certainly isn’t a must watch, I’d think about at least paying attention to what their doing. Match wise, Eddie vs. Sami should be good. Rosemary and Hania seemed to lack chemistry their first match, but maybe the no DQ stip will change things.

---

If I could only watch one thing this week, it’d be:

Elimination Chamber

I have a feeling this is going to be a very enjoyable show. The Chamber match is one I’ve definitely enjoyed in the past and I’m curious to see what both the men and the women will do with it. It’ll be interesting to see Rousey again, especially how they present her to the crowd and how that crowd in turn responds.

Plus, we’ll have a clearer picture of the Mania scene after this. Yes, I’d be surprised if Roman doesn’t win the Chamber. But after they booked Seth like a madman on Monday, I’m very interested to see how he’s treated in the match too.

Let us know what you’d choose below.

---

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!