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WWE Monday Night Raw Review

I attended tonight's Monday Night Raw with Blvd Ave's own Tim Collins aka @OldManLogan83 and six other friends.  The night started with an appearance by The WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar and his advocate Paul Heyman.  Heyman addressed Lesnar's previous battles with smaller wrestlers like former WWE Champions AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan as well as former Universal Champion Finn Balor.  While in the midst of acknowledging how Brock was able to overcome them, Drew McIntyre made his way out on the ramp.  I thought that we might see some physicality between The Beast and The Scottish Psychopath, but Seth Rollins appeared and brutalized McIntyre with a steel chair.

Rollins made his way to the ring, and the electricity in the crowd picked up, but Lesnar left the ring as Rollins stared down his WrestleMania 35 opponent with slay the beast chants ringing down.  Finn Balor came out next to a good pop from the crowd at the Allstate Arena.  As Balor was cutting a promo about his quest to regain The Intercontinental Championship, the current IC Champ Bobby Lashley and his hype man Lio Rush came out.  This led to Balor introducing Braun Strowman as his tag team partner.  After having no success against the larger Strowman, Lashley was able to take control for his team by isolating Balor.

Balor would eventually tag Strowman in after a missed frog splash attempt by Rush.  Strowman came in and took over from there, and even a spear from Lashley could not slow him down.  Rush ended up looking like road kill after Strowman powered out of his frog splash and hit a running powerslam for the win.  The former five time WWE Women's Champion Alexa Bliss was out next for her talk show segment A Moment of Bliss.  Elias is announced as her guest and after taking a shot at the hometown Chicago Bears, he is interrupted by No Way Jose which leads to a match that was won by Elias.

Elias has a gimmick in which he plays a guitar and his song or pre match promo usually includes a shot at the hometown team which is similar to what Dwayne The Rock Johnson did at times.  Elias announced that he would be performing at WrestleMania 35, and I expect a segment between him and The Great One. WWE Hall of Famer and Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle is out next to a huge ovation and thank you Kurt chants.  Angle announced that his retirement match at WrestleMania will be against former Raw general manager Baron Corbin which did not go over well with the crowd.  Chad Gable came out next to face Angle in a match that started off slow, but picked up in the end with Angle and Gable countering each other's moves.  Gable went high risk and a missed moonsault led to Angle putting on the ankle lock for the tap out.

Corbin made his way out to a chorus of boos after the match and I could barely hear what he said as vocal we want Cena chants broke out.  This could be a fitting end for Angle's last match in WWE because Cena's first televised match on WWE's main roster was vs. Angle on an episode of SmackDown in 2002.  WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Bayley and Sasha Banks made their way to the ring and ended up exchanging words and fists with Beth Phoenix and Natalya.  This led to a singles match being announced between The Boss and The Queen of Harts.

I thought that this was going to be an extended bout, but it ended up being interrupted by a Nia Jax bragging about how she has already accomplished more than WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix.  Jax's partner Tamina ended up attacking everyone at ringside causing a disqualification.  Ricochet vs. Jinder Mahal is next.  Despite the fact that we have never seen J&J Security and The Singh Brothers in the same place at the same time, Ricochet was able to battle through their outside interference.  The One and Only hit an amazing cartwheel into a back flip over the top rope and landed his 630 splash to defeat the former WWE Champion.

Batista added fuel to the fire for his WrestleMania match vs. Triple H stating in a promo via satellite that the latter just uses people and does not care about whether or not they have potential.  After a back and forth with Cole, Batista abruptly ended the segment which came off much better than him throwing a temper tantrum last week to get his match vs. The Game at Mania.

Ronda Rousey is out next to a mixed reaction from the Chicago area crowd.  Dana Brooke cut a backstage promo saying how no one expects her to have a chance.  This match took less time that WWE's into for Raw and it was over in about 15 seconds.  Rousey retained her Raw Women's Championship, but went off on WWE officials again by slapping one and then laying into security at ringside as she was stopped mid kiss with her husband Travis Browne.  Browne also laid out a security guard after he grabbed Rousey to stop her from beating down another guard.  It will be interesting to see if WWE decides to have Browne be in Ronda's corner at WrestleMania for her triple threat vs. Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair.

Apollo Crews vs. Baron Corbin is up next and we once again heard we want Cena chants directed at Corbin for the former to face Angle instead of him.  Corbin egged on the crowd, but he got overconfident and Crews picked up the surprise win.  McIntyre vs. Rollins in the main event is up next.  McIntyre bragged about causing Roman Reigns to be checked out by doctors after he was beaten down by him and challenged him to a match at WrestleMania.  McIntyre and Rollins went back and forth and the larger man Drew McIntyre seemed to have a counter for every big time move that Rollins attempted.  When Rollins went for a moonsault on the outside, McIntyre stepped to the side and The Architect went crashing into the floor.  When Seth went for a suicide dive, he was caught mid air and slammed into the barricade.

Rollins eventually got on track when McIntyre sought revenge for the steel chair attacked earlier in the night and ate a superkick from Rollins in the process.  Rollins then hit two suicide dives and a sling blade, but once again, McIntyre was able to counter Rollins' attempted boot the face into an Alabama Slam.  After Rollins was able to catch McIntyre off guard for a Falcon's Arrow that only led to a two count, it looked like Rollins was going to put him away with a curb stomp.  Brock Lesnar's music hit and he made his way to the ramp with Heyman which caused a distraction.  This led to McIntyre hitting a Claymore kick for the win.  Even though there was the threat of Lesnar coming to attack Rollins, it was surprising to see Rollins lose so close to WrestleMania. 

It will be interesting to see of Rollins can even the score with Lesnar before WrestleMania in three weeks after being hit with six F5's in January and the distraction tonight.

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WWE Fastlane Review

WWE's last pay-per-view before WrestleMania 35 took place tonight in Cleveland, OH, and the night started with The SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos vs. Shane McMahon and The Miz.  Unlike their previous championship match last month at The Elimination Chamber event, The Usos took control early on.  McMahon was isolated by the twin sons of WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi, but he eventually made the hot tag to the hometown star and his tag team partner.  Shane continued to put it all on the line when he appeared to be going for a coast to coast dropkick in the corner to Jimmy Uso, but he intercepted Jey Uso with a dropkick in mid air to prevent him from putting the nail in the coffin with a splash to The Miz.

The finish of this match saw The Miz try an unusual high risk maneuver from the top rope, only to be rolled up for a pinfall victory and The Usos retained their championships.  After the match, Shane blindsided The Miz following an embrace between the latter and his father who was sitting ringside.  I expected this heel turn to happen, but hopefully WWE lets The Miz be similar to Chris Jericho during The Attitude Era on the mic and play the smart mouthed babyface.

Asuka defended her SmackDown Women's Championship against Mandy Rose in the night's second match.  After Asuka started the match on fire with knee strikes and kicks, Mandy was able to take advantage of Sonya Deville's outside distraction.  It's obvious that Mandy's time will come, but tonight was not her night.  As Deville went underneath the ring to grab a kendo stick, Mandy slipped on the ring skirt which led to Asuka retaining her championship.  Despite the tension between the former Tough Enough competitors, I expect Deville and Rose to be in contention for The Women's Tag Team Championships next month at WrestleMania.

Kofi Kingston was led to believe that he was getting a shot at The WWE Championship after a backstage encounter with Vince McMahon, but this led to a handicapped match vs. The Bar.  Cesaro and Sheamus put Kofi to rest despite a valiant effort and an attempt by Kofi's tag team partners Big E and Xavier Woods to make the save, but they were attacked from behind by Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura.

The first match of the night from Monday Night Raw saw Aleister Black and Ricochet and Bobby Roode and Chad Gable challenge The Revival for The Raw Tag Team Championships in a triple threat match.  The Revival isolated Ricochet early on with classic tag team wrestling.  Gable inserted himself into the match by taking advantage of the rules and tagging Dash Wilder of The Revival.  Ricochet was eventually able to make a tag to Black and despite a breath taking flip over the turnbuckle and out to the floor by Ricochet, The Revival was able to retain their championships.  After the match, chaos ensued with Roode hitting a DDT on Scott Dawson only to turn around into a Black Mask kick from Black and a 630 splash from Ricochet.  This finish leads me to believe that we will see a rematch at WrestleMania with another team possibly being added.

Samoa Joe defended his newly won United States Championship in a fatal four way vs. Andrade, Rey Mysterio and R-Truth.  This was a hard hitting match which included a hurricanrana from Rey to Andrade as he was on Truth's shoulders.  Joe dived outside of the ring and showed that a 280 pound man can do more than be a power threat inside the squared circle.  A match like this could draw more attention to The U.S. Championship which has been lacking for the most part since John Cena and Kevin Owens did battle in 2015.

Bayley and Sasha Banks defended The Women's Tag Team Championships for the first time against Nia Jax and Tamina.  Despite the size differential between the champions and the challengers, the champs battled through and were able to retain after Bayley countered a powerbomb attempt by Nia into a hurricanrana and a pin.  After the match, Jax and Tamina took out their frustrations with a beatdown on Bayley and Sasha until Beth Phoenix who was a guest commentator stood up to them.  Jax and Tamina were too much for the youngest hall of famer in WWE history, and future hall of famer Natalya tried to make the save, but Jax and Tamina stood tall.

WWE's version of Captain Planet also known as Daniel Bryan defended his WWE Championship vs. Kevin Owens and Mustafa Ali in a triple threat.  The vocal crowd in Cleveland chanted for Kofi Kingston throughout the first 10 minutes of the match after his was mislead into believing that he would be a part of the match after his conversation with Vince McMahon.  Despite this, the three men were able to put on a competitive back and forth battle with Ali and Owens looking like they were going to win on different occasions before Bryan's bearded brother Erick Rowan got involved.  Ali, Bryan and Owens won the crowd over and the we want Kofi chants eventually turned into this is awesome chants due in part to a top rope spring board tornado DDT by Ali onto Bryan and a plancha by the 265 pound KO.

I imagine that WWE will book DB vs. Kofi for The WWE Championship at WrestleMania after DB retained tonight.  It is hard to believe that they will not capitalize on the momentum that Kofi has picked up in the last month even if this singles match doesn't see the 11 year veteran leave Newark with the most prestigious championship in the company,

Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair took place to see if the most charismatic wrestler in WWE today would be added to Flair vs. Ronda Rousey for The Raw Women's Championship at WM 35.  Flair took advantage of Lynch's injured knee early in the match.  Lynch would continue to fight back with everything she had despite being on one leg.  As Lynch was going for her armbar finisher, Flair was able to counter into The Figure Four leglock until Rousey caused a disqualification by elbowing Lynch thus adding her to the match.  This finish made both women look strong heading into WrestleMania.

Elias got heat throughout the night with his songs aimed at hometown start The Miz, Cleveland sports teams and The Man Becky Lynch.  After being interrupted by Lacey Evans who apparently is working on becoming a runway model, Elias was hit with an RKO by Randy Orton.  Orton then turned around to a Phenomenal Forearm by AJ Styles after weeks of interrupting his backstage interviews.  Orton and Styles have only had one singles math on TV since the latter signed with WWE in 2016 which was won by Orton, and these 15+ year vets are on a collision course for a match next month at WM 35.

Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins reunited one last time to reform The Shield and faced Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre in a six man tag.  There was chaos towards the end of this match which saw Rollins jump from the front row of the crowd onto Lashley and McIntyre.  Reigns appeared to be in a dire situation as Corbin, Lashley and McIntyre tried to triple powerbomb him through a table, but their plans backfired.  McIntyre was eventually driven through a table and Lashley suffered the fate of a curb stomp from Rollins on a table.  Corbin was left to fend for himself and suffered a triple powerbomb and The Shield wrapped this one up.

I expected Ambrose or Reigns to turn heel or a possible appearance from The Wyatt Family to attack The Shield after the match, but the hounds of justice stood tall to end tonight's event.  Rollins' road to WrestleMania is already set in stone as he will face Brock Lesnar for The Universal Championship.  It will be interesting to see if Ambrose (who is reportedly leaving WWE next month) and Reigns will possibly face each other or go after The Raw Tag Team Championships.  It will also be interesting to see what happens with McIntyre who had a wave of momentum heading into January's Royal Rumble pay-per-view. 

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Box Office RESULTS: "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World." Take the #1 spot

Debuting with an impressive, $55.5 million is DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. The performance led the weekend box office, closing out the final weekend within what has been a rough start to the first two months at the domestic box office this year. The weekend also saw MGM's expansion of Fighting with My Family, which debuted at the lower end of industry expectations, while Roadside's Run the Race found itself within the top ten from just 853 locations.

With an estimated $55.5 million, Universal's release of the DreamWorks Animation title How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World delivered not only the #1 movie at this weekend's box office, but the largest debut of the year so far, surpassing Glass by more than $15 million. The opening is also the largest debut in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, topping the $49.4 million opening for How to Train Your Dragon 2 back in 2014. The film's overall domestic performance so far totals over $58 million once you include the $2.5 million it brought in from an exclusive Fandango event earlier this month. The question now is to wonder how the film will perform from here.

Following a $43.7 million opening, the first film went on to gross over $217.5 million in 2010, a nearly 5x multiplier. The second film, while still strong, mustered a 3.58x multiple and just over $177 million for its domestic run. Like its predecessors, Hidden World received an "A" CinemaScore and was well received by critics, earning a 91% score at RottenTomatoes. Here are the top 10 films at box office this week at a glance:

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World	Uni.	$55,527,000	-	4,259	-	$13,038	$58,027,000	$129	1
2	1	Alita: Battle Angel	Fox	$12,000,000	-57.9%	3,802	+12	$3,156	$60,681,068	$170	2
3	2	The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part	WB	$10,015,000	-51.9%	3,833	-470	$2,613	$83,619,039	-	3
4	40	Fighting with My Family	MGM	$8,012,000	+5,673.2%	2,711	+2,707	$2,955	$8,227,021	-	2
5	3	Isn't It Romantic	WB (NL)	$7,510,000	-47.3%	3,444	-	$2,181	$33,768,742	-	2
6	4	What Men Want	Par.	$5,200,000	-51.3%	2,389	-523	$2,177	$45,061,066	$20	3
7	5	Happy Death Day 2U	Uni.	$4,988,000	-47.5%	3,212	+5	$1,553	$21,611,880	$9	2
8	6	Cold Pursuit	LG/S	$3,300,000	-44.8%	2,320	-310	$1,422	$27,085,567	-	3
9	7	The Upside	STX	$3,210,000	-41.5%	2,148	-633	$1,494	$99,749,409	$37.5	7
10	N	Run the Race	RAtt.	$2,273,050	-	853	-	$2,665	$2,273,050	-	1

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