Kofi Kingston, Batista Get Their Shots As RAW, SmackDown Hit WrestleMania Homestretch

The Blue brand used their two hours well this week and beginning to turn the tide and get Kofi Kingston into the WrestleMania match for the WWE Championship.

Vince McMahon plays his role as the non-believing and all-powerful owner well and has really helped give Kofi the push to ride off the organic love from the crowd.

Having The New Day explode and take people out to help get Kofi his opportunity is perfect and exactly what an over babyface stable should do. He will assuredly win his gauntlet match on Tuesday and be set to face Daniel Bryan in what could be a show stealer at WrestleMania.

The women continue to highlight SmackDown by discussing the RAW championship. Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair were pure gold in their segment and have the crowd regularly eating out of their hands. It will be interesting to see what both shows can do to keep all the talk from getting stale by April 7^th.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Shane McMahon and The Miz finally set the table for their match at WrestleMania after Shane attacked Miz’s father at Fastlane. I expect them to put on a solid match, but Shane’s turn has been a little bit forced for someone who used to so seamlessly play both sides of the fence.

And slowly and almost quietly setting the slow burn for the big show has been Randy Orton and AJ Styles, expertly playing the long game and building toward a match that could be a real barnburner with The Viper’s super-fast in-ring pacing and The Phenomenal One’s meticulous attention to in-ring storytelling.

Their promo was so good because so much of it was true and both are one-of-a-kind performers that have gotten to this point in their careers in very different ways. It is highly unlikely the payoff to this will disappoint.

It will be interesting to see what roles Mustafa Ali and Kevin Owens play going forward if the move into a firm Bryan vs. Kingston match in New York.

RAW Top 10

1. Batista
2. Triple H
3. Ronda Rousey
4. Seth Rollins
5. Roman Reigns
6. Bobby Lashley
7. Finn Balor
8. Braun Strowman
9. Kurt Angle
10. Aleister Black and Ricochet

SmackDown Live Top 10

1. Kofi Kingston
2. Daniel Bryan
3. Becky Lynch
4. Charlotte Flair
5. AJ Styles
6. Randy Orton
7. The Miz
8. Shane McMahon
9. Samoa Joe
10. Kevin Owens

Overall Top 5

1. Kofi Kingston
2. Daniel Bryan
3. Becky Lynch
4. Batista
5. Charlotte Flair