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The Wrap Up: Family Feud

Reverse Hipster

Updated: Mar 29, 2023


Reverse Hipster's Highlights


6. (SmackDown) I'm Gonna Tell Your Father

Dominick finally figured out how to piss Rey off enough to fight him at Wrestlemania. Dominik disrespected his mother and his sister, which was Rey's last straw. Rey knocked Dominik on his back, and the crowd erupted. Rey is ready to beat his son up at Wrestlemania, and now the match is official.


5. (NXT) The Ideal Battle

NXT has a wonderful cast of characters, allowing them to have unique matchups. Schism vs. Chase U is undoubtedly a unique matchup. Schism is a cult that wants to gain influence over the NXT roster and bring everyone to their way of thinking. Chase U is a wrestling university that is about empowering its students to be their best selves. Schism wants to destroy the competition and prove their way is the only way.

On the other hand, Chase U wants to beat Schism and defend the honor of the university's ideals. However, since Schism has already beaten Chase U a couple of times, they had to wager a lot to get their chance to beat Schism. Chase U has put its school on the line. This is a very interesting stipulation. If this were happening on the main roster, I'd say there is no way Chase U would lose. However, NXT has proven to be more unpredictable. NXT already split up Legado in a stipulation like this so that anything can happen. Also, with the school on the line, I'm really hoping Duke Hudson can be trusted.


4. (NXT) Carmelo Hayes & Bron Breakker vs. Pretty Deadly

Carmelo and Bron ran through Pretty Deadly. The whole match was like a big hot tag. Carmelo had an amazing aerial offense, and Bron had an incredible burst of power and agility. This is a great preview of the skills that will be used in the NXT Title Match at Stand and Deliver. Pretty Deadly may have lost, but they are great workers and heels, which is why they found themselves in a main event match with the two heavyweights.


3. (Dynamite) The Gunn's Are Firing on All Cylinders

The Gunns, Austin, and Colton Gunn beat Top Flight in a thrilling match with the help of the Kingdom. People doubted the Gunns, but they are having a DX Outlawz-type run right now. They are getting in the ring with big names and excellent wrestlers, and they are coming out on top, and people hate it. However, slowly but surely, they are proving they belong.

The Gunns aren't done pissing people off, though. FTR came out after the match to challenge the Gunns for the AEW Tag Team Titles, but they refused until the FTR put their AEW careers on the line. This is a huge stipulation. The Gunns are pretty early on in their run. Are they transitional champs, or will they be the ones to send FTR packing? On Dynamite, They literally spit in FTR's face before running away. At Double or Nothing, they look to figuratively spit in the face of everyone when they send FTR away.


2. (Dynamite) Showcase

Kenny Omega had a match with Vikingo; frankly, I didn't know who Vikingo was. However, Vikingo quickly had me on the edge of my seat with his daring and innovative offense. Vikiningo is insane! He jumped backward off the top rope, landing on Omega's shoulders, and then Vikingo used his legs to throw Omega backward on his head. It was crazy. Vinkingo didn't stop there, either. He jumped off the second rope out of the ring into a 450 front flip splash on Omega, putting him threw a table—Vikingo dove with the grace of a diver avoiding the ring apron by inches. Eventually, Kenny Omega got control and won the match with his one-winged Angel. Kenny may have won the match, but Vikingo won the crowd.

After the match, the Blackpool Combat Club got their receipt from last week. They beat the crap out of Omege while sporting some cool new club hoodies. The Blackpool Combat Club's new look and attitude fit them really well. They are just kicking ass and taking names, and nobody, not the Elite, not the Dark order, will stand in their way. However, who else would show up to do the impossible but Adam Page with his old music( greatest run in music today) and a foreign object. However, it appears Don Callis doesn't want the Elite to reunite with Page because he pretended that Page hit him, causing a rift between Omega and Page when Omega came to.


1. (Raw) Cody Rhodes & Roman Promo

I'm not going to lie. The build to this Undisputed Universal Title match needed to be more exciting. However, this promo segment fixed that. Roman Reigns verbally violated Cody's entire career. He made fun of Cody, saying he couldn't get over in either AEW or WWE, and he ran from both. However, Cody made it interesting when e fired back and showed he belonged in the ring with Roman and could handle the moment. He admitted that there was truth to what Roman said. Cody owned his journey, and he didn't try and hide anything.

Cody also flipped the pressure back on Roman. He pointed out how Roman's whole family is built on a house of cards, and the moment he loses those titles, it all falls down. The Uso's leave, Paul goes back to Lesnar, and Solo leaves too. Then in an interesting twist, Cody compared Solo's position in the Bloodline to Cody's position in Legacy with Ted Dibiase and Randy Orton. He said he's been where Solo is, and Solo might think he's ready, but he's not. There were a lot of layers to this promo segment, easily the most compelling piece of storytelling this week.


Rob’s Lowlights

3. Top Flight, AEW Dynamite

Top Flight lost a championship qualifier match to The Gunns, and right now, they are stuck in everyone’s least favorite club in wrestling. There are so many talented wrestlers we know can have the match of the night any second, and yet, they are stuck losing every consequential match they are in. In this segment, Top Flight was used as a pawn in another feud, and it’s hard to stay rooting for a team that is seen as that by management.


2. Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley, WWE SmackDown

One week away from WrestleMania, it’s unclear if WWE even has a plan for this program. Charlotte Flair returned as a “babyface” to take the title off of heel Ronda Rousey, but Rhea Ripley has been a better babyface during the entire program. Flair cut a promo this week that sounded like the same old heel Flair, talking about her family legacy and greatness. This has to be the most disappointing build to any match on the WrestleMania card.


1. Bron Breakker and Carmelo Hayes vs. Pretty Deadly, NXT

While NXT is usually putting on a master class in how-to book characters, this main event feud is completely missing the mark for me. NXT decided to revert to standard booking by making them team up to fight Pretty Deadly in the main event. Pretty Deadly have been the MVPs of the tag division and are now stuck as the hosts of NXT Stand and Deliver and ate the loss in this matchup. The contrast between Bron Breakker and Carmelo Hayes is clear, but there is no conflict or stakes to latch onto besides that both guys want to be champions.


Rob’s Winners of the Week

6. With WrestleMania around the corner, it seems like nobody told WWE SmackDown. Half the segments were almost completely meaningless, while everything besides the Mysterios felt like it was just holding the feud for a week.

5. AEW Rampage didn’t have much to talk about, and the wrestling was good, not great.

4. Impact Wrestling often gets by being a solid wrestling show, but with so much going on in the other promotions, it wasn’t one of my favorites this week.

3. WWE Raw came back after a bad show last week, but it still felt like they were holding back when the go-home show for WrestleMania is next week.

2. AEW Dynamite had some of the best wrestling this week, held back by a lack of storytelling and some mediocre segments.

1. Even though NXT’s main event left something to be desired, their other segments were great heading into a weekend where they can try to regain their reputation as stealing WrestleMania weekend away from the main roster.


Reverse Hipster's Weekly Rankings

6th Place Rampage

After taking a step forward last week, Rampage took a massive step back this week. There was nothing special on the card. Plus, there were no women's matches or segments, and the potential of the AEW women's division remains untapped. As for the matches that were on the show, the TNT title match was the only one that had a chance to be a highlight, but there were so many shenanigans that the match didn't even matter by the end.

5th place Impact

Impact was an average show. There was nothing bad on the show, but it was too cookie-cutter to make any highlights. You could skip this episode of Impact, and you wouldn't have missed anything significant story-wise.

4th Place SmackDown

SmackDown has been weak for weeks. Roman doesn't have a hot opponent on SmackDown anymore. Cody is there, but he takes a back seat to Sami or saves the good stuff for Raw. The Tag Titles are in an enviable position where we all know the next step but aren't there yet. The IC Title has been doing a flimsy build for a triple-threat match that will turn out to be a great match with a crappy build. Charlotte vs. Rhea has been pretty pedestrian as a build. Stars that used to make SmackDown great, like Liv, Bray, and Ronda, feel off to the side. Plus, the Women's tag team title picture needs to be fixed. We have champions, but they aren't defending the titles as of now. So the women are having an exhibition four-way at Wrestlemania basically to fill a quota. There are real teams that could be made, like Nikki and Candace or Dana and Emma, but instead, WWE is doing random, last-minute tag teams like Shotzi and Natayla just to get them on the Wrestlemania card. At this point, the NXT Women's Tag Team Titles need to be the only Women's Tag Titles. The only compelling thing on SmackDown is Rey and Dominik, and that's reflected in the highlights.

Third Place Raw

Raw had the biggest highlight in a light week, but the rest of the show was just average. The title picture is intricate, but the rest of the stories are dull and repetitive. Asuka and Omos are the worst examples. Omos is building a match with Lesnar just cause he is big, and it's boring because he has zero character. Asuka, who is a really good babyface or heel, has Alexa Bliss Syndrome. She is a ghost in a shell. She is loved by everyone and in a prominent spot on the card, but it's hollow. WWE has done absolutely nothing to develop a character for Asuka during a world championship feud.

I say this as a huge fan of Asuka. It's horrible. She deserves some creative direction. Winning matches and attacking Bianca after their tag match isn't character development. Anybody could do those things. What about Asuka's actions have been specific to her? Why does she do the things she does? What does this match mean to her? Does she have a problem with Bianca, and what's with her new look? These are all questions worth answering before a World Title match. And let it be known Asuka is not a monster heel. Monster heels have a backstory like Kane, Yokozuna, and Masha Slamovich.

Second Place NXT

NXT wasn't that strong this week, but it was better than it has been. In the build to Stand in Deliver, NXT has had some entertaining segments, and explosive set-up matches that have me hyped for the NXT go-home show and Stand and Deliver.

First Place Dynamite

Last week I said Dynamite was way above the other shows. It's still the top dog, but it was close this week. AEW has a lot of good things going for it and clearly some great things as well. Picking up the women's division would make it a truly unstoppable show because there would be so many great storylines from many different divisions. The Outcast spot this week was fine, and Toni helped show Skye Blue's skills before beating her, but AEW has been doing that with the women for a year now. They have a chance to have a superstar act with the Outcast, and they need to cash in on it. Fine segments won't cut it. The women need that same creative energy that has made this excellent Combat Club vs. Elite feud.


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