Hello WWE fans, today we will look at the results of recent WWE shows, Finn Balor losing the WWE Intercontinental Championship, The Grizzled Young Veterans and NXT, the next WWE Championship/Universal Championship defense, Windham’s (Bray Wyatt’s) future, and the latest WWE 2K22 patch.
RESULTS
WWE Friday Night SmackDown
4/15/22
Rhea Ripley (w/ Liv Morgan) defeated Naomi (w/ Sasha Banks)
Madcap Moss defeated Humberto (w/ Angel)
Drew McIntyre defeated Sami Zayn via countout
WWE Intercontinental Champion Ricochet defeated Jinder Mahal (w/ Shanky)
Riddle (w/ Randy Orton) defeated Jimmy Uso (w/ Jey Uso)
RESULTS
WWE RAW
4/18/22
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Naomi & Sasha Banks defeated Liv Morgan & Rhea Ripley
Veer Mahaan defeated Jeff Brooks
Ezekiel defeated Chad Gable via disqualification
The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) defeated RK-Bro (Randy Orton & Riddle)
Theory defeated WWE United States Champion Finn Balor to become the new WWE United States Champion
Cody Rhodes defeated Kevin Owens via countout
Finn Balor is one of WWE’s best talents and I prefer to see him with a title, so it’s displeasing to see Balor lose the WWE United States Championship. However, a former WWE Universal Champion, he is above the WWE United States Championship. Theory is the one who needs it to go to another level in WWE, not Balor. He already is at the level that WWE wants Theory to be at. Balor should be going after top singles gold, which he probably won’t be utilized as a serious contender for until Roman Reigns loses either the WWE Championship or the WWE Universal Championship since Balor has already been fed to him. But hopefully when that day comes, Balor will be one of the first wrestlers to “stand up” and be in line for a title shot.
Falling down is how we grow. Staying down is how we die. STAND UP pic.twitter.com/CsV4XPfvbg — Finn Bálor (@FinnBalor) April 19, 2022
RESULTS
WWE NXT 2.0
4/19/2022
Tiffany Stratton defeated Sarray
Grayson Waller defeated Sanga
Legado del Fantasma (Cruz Del Toro & Joaquin Wilde) (w/ Elektra Lopez & Santos Escobar) defeated The Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson)
Carmelo Hayes (w/ Trick Williams) defeated Santos Escobar
Natalya defeated Tatum Paxley
Xyon Quinn defeated Wes Lee
Roxanne Perez defeated Jacy Jayne (w/ Gigi Dolin & Mandy Rose)
WWE NXT Tag Team Champions Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson) defeated Dexter Lumis & Duke Hudson (w/ Indi Hartwell & Persia Pirotta)
After losing to Legado del Fantasma, The Grizzled Young Veterans stated that the NXT Universe will no longer see Drake and Gibson. While this could indicate name changes for the two or a move to the main roster, I think a smart move would be for Drake and Gibson to return to NXT UK. There are still new ways to utilize them there that fans would enjoy. For example, there was never a Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Gallus match while they were in NXT UK previously- the only times the two teams were in matches against each other were when other wrestlers were also involved in the match.
MORE WWE
Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will be on, “WWE Friday Night SmackDown” this week, and it is very likely that we will find out who his next challenger will be. When we last saw Reigns, he was being confronted by Shinsuke Nakamura. So I think he will be the next challenger. Usually, I like seeing Nakamura in the top singles title scene. But currently, basically, all of Reigns’challengers are fed to him, making Reigns look increasingly dominant as time goes on. Nakamura has earned better (such as being WWE Intercontinental Champion again), so in this case, I would rather not see him be the next challenger. Right now is a perfect opportunity for The Miz to be in the top singles title scene. He’s a utility player in WWE. If they’re looking for someone to feed to Reigns, The Miz is the right person for the job.
The latest rumor regarding Windham’s (Bray Wyatt’s) return to pro-wrestling is that he is interested in returning and has a high asking price. Whether or not all of this is true, I think that the pro-wrestling company Windham would truly be happy in is WWE, no matter how much a different company is willing to pay him. WWE is the only pro-wrestling company Windham has worked for, and during that time he portrayed a character that continued to be developed for nine years. After portraying Bray Wyatt/The Fiend for so long, I doubt Windham feels that this character’s story has been completely told. And WWE is the only place where its story can continue to play out. I don’t think it’s going to happen in the immediate future, especially since he is reportedly working on a Hollywood project currently, but I think WWE will eventually re-sign Windham.
There has been another patch release for WWE 2K22 this week, and you can read the patch notes