Right Hook Weekly Review (4/22/2024 to 4/26/2024)

Monday Night Raw

Gunther returned to declare himself for the King of the Ring, hopefully they make it a full tournament PPV again, after losing to the New Day Kaiser attacks Vinci. Drew McIntyre/Sheamus interaction was good followed by Nakamura vs Sheamus which also was a good match.

Chad Gable’s promo turning on Alpha Academy was great hopefully this means we will get a Team Angle like situation with Gable and Greed Brothers as a heel group. Becky Lynch wins the battle royal to become the new  women’s world champion. Not totally surprised but wished someone else won like Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, even the choice of Chelsea Green or Liv Morgan.

NXT: Spring Breakin’

The Triple threat match for the NXT Women’s title was a good match. Perez is winning me over every time as a heel and hopefully they stick with the plan for Tatum Paxley. Jaida Parker is going to be something special and big deal potentially sooner than expected. The NXT underground set up was cool, Natalya Lola Vice revealing that Shayna Baszler would be in her corner adding some more of that MMA vibe to the match which I love.

The main event was great Ilja Dragunov just brings the best out of his opponents, the match was hard-hitting big fight or crowning moment feel right away. Trick overcoming the battle to beat Dragunov and become the new NXT champion finally giving us that moment while starting a new era for the black and gold brand.

AEW Dynamite

Right away I am a fan of AEW being a Daly’s place in Jacksonville it just works. Instead of big arenas or mid-size venues just go back and do Dynamite in Daly’s until business picks back up. Swerve Strickland opening the show with no real big celebration was another misfire for me, the match with Kyle Fletcher was ok but Swerve with the championship just looks right.

Anna Jay is always a plus when she’s on TV. Yes, I’m being a guy here I guess so sue me (laughs) Willow Nightingale having a celebration instead of Swerve was puzzling but was done for Mercedes Mone to come out and set things up. Hopefully Mone has at least 1 match before Double or Nothing and hopefully picks it up before it all turns on her.

Ospreay winning the multi person number one contender match was fine, have to say it but the audio issues took a lot away throughout the show especially here.  But Ospreay vs. Roderick Strong for the international title sign me up! Jericho comes out doing his same lame-o stuff.  The way Jericho trademarks every bad idea he has he should just trademark the name “The Trademark” because that’s all he does now, and poor Big Bill just why do this him? He’s beyond unwatchable and needs desperately go away for a bit.

Speaking of being unwatchable and needs to badly go away, Moxley and Hobbs for the IWGP title was to be expected just same ole Moxley style match that kills the opponent which in this case Hobbs doesn’t need let alone deserves that. Now to big ending of Dynamite where throughout the show the Young Bucks, Jack Perry and Tony Khan would be in talks about Perry’s potential return.

Perry hits the ring calls out Khan to apologize and be reinstated to AEW where they hugged only for Perry to hit Khan in the Stomach where the Elite came out to presumably yell at him only to give Khan the Meltzer or TK driver laying him out and brought out the locker room and his father for the first time. This certainly has people talking like they want but the follow up and everything else is going to be telling like always with AEW and after the NFL draft, I think we are going to be disappointed or frustrated as usual.

Friday Night Smackdown

We end the week with the start of the WWE draft which had some surprises. Triple H comes out and announces the first picks for the brands who were Bianca Belair to Smackdown, Jey Uso to Raw, Seth Rollins to Raw and… Carmelo Hayes to Smackdown calling out Cody Rhodes for a match later that night after his contract signing with AJ Styles for Backlash.

Santos showing the backstage of Carlito attacking Dragon Lee after the tag match was pretty predictable with Carlito running into the crowd just keeps this going I suppose. Bron Breakker beats Cedric Alexander quickly and then was drafted to Raw, Michelle McCool and Torrie Wilson to announce the round of picks that were Randy Orton and Nia Jax to Smackdown while Liv Morgan stays on Raw.

Kevin Owens attacks Solo and Tama backstage leading out to the ring when Orton comes to help Owens setting up a tag match at Backlash which should be good. Stratton vs Naomi was not an ideal match but Jax attacking Bayley from the crowd certainly establishes the title pictures for the WWE women’s championship.

JBL and Teddy Long came to tell us the fourth set of picks where Raw selected Alpha Academy and NXT ‘s Kiana James while Smackdown picked AJ Styles and Andrade. The main event was Cody Rhodes vs. New Smackdown member Carmelo Hayes and was a good match, certainly an excellent showing/ first impression of Carmelo to a larger audience along with establishing him a big deal to come.