It has been another wild week, both in and out of the professional wrestling world. There is a ton to talk about, and as always, I have a bunch of questions to ask. With everything that is going on, I don’t want to waste any more time, so let’s get crackin’, shall we?
NXT (8/26)
(Writer’s Note: This was typed before the current week’s episode of NXT aired, so some/most/all of this NXT section might be outdated or irrelevant by the time you read these words.)
How bad do you feel for Karrion Kross? He busted his ass to get to the top of NXT, putting on some of the best work of his entire career along the way, and he wins the NXT World Title in his first shot… and he gets injured in the process. We still don’t know how much time he’s going to miss, but it’s enough time that the company felt they couldn’t just keep him in the background for a while. If he was only going to be gone for a couple weeks, you could just have him cut a promo or two and make some appearances. As the brand’s top guy, he doesn’t need to wrestle to make a difference. You have to now assume that it will be a couple months, at the very least, until we see Kross step into an NXT ring again. Even if you aren’t a big fan of the guy, you have to feel for him here. That’s some shitty luck. Not saying it’s the same situation, but it’s like when Finn Balor won the Universal Title and then had to drop it right away due to an injury. His career wasn’t quite the same after that. You can have Kross continue receiving a push when he returns, but there’s no guarantee that the momentum will be the same. Chances are, everything will be fine, and Kross will return and go after the person who has the NXT Title at the time. Either way, I feel bad for the guy.
How much could Breezango’s title victory have been enhanced by a live crowd? Live crowds, but especially NXT live crowds, love Tyler Breeze and Fandango. The story being told here was that Breezango, as always, were the lovable underdogs. Breeze hasn’t had any sort of title since July 2012 when he and Roman Reigns (then known as Leakee) dropped the FCW Florida Tag Team Titles at an FCW live event to CJ Parker (now known as Juice Robinson) and Jason Jordan. It has been an even longer wait for Fandango, who hasn’t had a title since he and Derrick Bateman (now EC3) dropped those same FCW Florida Tag Team Titles to Wes Brisco and Xavier Woods in November 2010. Having them team up to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions is a moment that could’ve blown the roof off of the arena at Full Sail. It becomes yet another victim of the world we’re currently living in. While we’re talking about that, look at how forgettable Imperium’s reign as the tag champs were. They won the titles back in May, defeating Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher, while Thatcher was filling in for Pete Dunne when Dunne was unable to return to the United States due to the Covid travel ban. It would then be a month until they defended the titles… and then another month until their next match. Then they had a title defense that was merely used as background noise to further the feud between Adam Cole and Pat McAfee, followed by another month until their next match, which was their title loss. They won the belts in the middle of everything being shut down, and then spent more time off of television than on, before dropping the belts in their third defense. It’s one of those reigns that will come up randomly, say, a year from now, and you’ll have totally forgotten they were even the champions. Bad deal.
Did Jake Atlas piss someone off? Obviously, it was all a part of Tommaso Ciampa’s big return to NXT, meant to show him off as a intensely focused animal, but Atlas took a brutal beating to get that point across. Atlas has looked really good in the limited amount of time he’s had on NXT television recently, but he’s still low enough on the proverbial totem pole that he works as the beating victim for Ciampa without any pushes being stunted. Kudos to Atlas for taking the guillotine catapult into the steel beam under the ring. That looked like a million dollar move, and Atlas sold it like it was worth more. It’s good to have Ciampa back. It’s especially good to have the Psycho Killer back.
How ’bout that Ironman Match? Adam Cole. Finn Balor. Johnny Gargano. Tommaso Ciampa. A 60-minute Ironman Match for the NXT Title. That has “Match Of The Year Candidate” written all over it. If you’re in charge of NXT, you should see what it would take for the USA Network to give you the entire second-hour of the show without any commercials. If there’s a match that doesn’t need the momentum killer that a handful of commercial breaks will be, it’s this match. A full hour for the match alone, plus extra time for the entrances and whatever happens in the post-match, means you’re looking at a lot of breaks. The second-hour of this NXT episode saw five commercial breaks. Think of all the WWE matches we’ve seen that had just two breaks, and how the overwhelming reaction to that is how much those breaks hurt the flow of everything. Five would be a total killer.
Is Rhea Ripley going to have anything left after feuding with two “monsters” at the same time? She’s a special talent, but feuding with Mercedes Martinez and Raquel Gonzalez at the same time is a very daunting task. It’s a weird booking spot for NXT, as they definitely want to make Ripley look strong again, but you also want to make sure Gonzalez and especially Martinez look strong, as well. I’m really looking forward to seeing all of this go down, and that isn’t even counting the fact that Io Shirai and Dakota Kai, at the very least, will also be involved in the mix. The Women’s Title scene in NXT has been constantly entertaining over the last few years, no matter who is involved.
Dynamite (8/27)
Was that a good way to delay the inevitable Young Bucks vs FTR match? That’s the big tag “dream match” for many wrestling fans, and it would’ve been sad to have it happen in the middle of a Gauntlet Match on a random episode of Dynamite with no real build. Having Hangman Page interfere and cost the Bucks their match, right when they would’ve gone on to face FTR, was a great idea. For one, it keeps the tag match available for a higher profile spot. Two, it helped set in motion the move to kick Page out of The Elite later in the show. Finally, it provides a mystery… why did Hangman do it? After the match, he wasn’t exactly gloating like his master plan was underway. He looked upset, and couldn’t even look Matt and Nick Jackson in the eyes. When they kicked Page out of the group, he once again looked upset about what he was doing, and looked like he was ready to deliver an explanation before they kicked him out, threw a drink in his face, and stormed off. It was a simple move, but that one move set off a potential domino effect that will be seen in multiple ways in the future. That’s good writing.
Can we just get Brian Cage vs Lance Archer now? I don’t know about all of you, but after their brief encounter, I’m totally ready to see Cage and Archer feuding now. A lot of matchups these days get driven into the ground. WWE wants people to face each other 54 times during their feuds. AEW is often taking guys that have already faced each other countless times on the independent scene, or in other promotions, and putting them together. It happens. Looking it up briefly will show you that Cage and Archer have only been in one match together, and that was a Four-Way (also featuring Jeff Cobb and Sam Adonis) for Warrior Wrestling a few weeks ago. No singles matches. No tag matches. Nothing at all on a bigger stage. Let’s get their showdown in the Casino Battle Royale at All Out over with so we can move on to them having a proper feud. Tony Khan had better find reinforcements for Daily’s Place if it happens, though, because those two monsters might very well tear the place down.
How old school was that sneaky setup from Jon Moxley? Having Moxley sneakily add something to his contract to get a match with MJF’s lawyer is a tale as old as time in this sport. Fans want to see the heroes have a chance to get physical with the managers and other non-wrestlers in feuds. That’s why it was so popular back in the day to have matches where the face would get a match, or at least five minutes alone, with the heel manager if he defeated the heel he was feuding with. That’s why it was popular to put heel managers in shark cages above the ring during matches, where at some point, they would be trapped animals and receive a beating from the face in said match. It’s a harmless bit of fun that will provide some joy when we get to watch Moxley destroy the obnoxious lawyer, and then it shifts back to seriousness for the AEW World Title match at All Out. No harm, no foul.
Did we witness the worst match in AEW history? That Big Swole vs Reba and Penelope Ford match was atrocious. Reba makes The Great Khali look like Juventud Guerrera with her movements. Her timing was off in just about everything she did. It goes back to what I said in the previous entry about Moxley. We’re going to get enjoyment out of Moxley beating up a “non-wrestler” because, chances are, the lawyer isn’t going to get any offense in. If he does, it’s probably supposed to be ineffective and won’t be sold by Moxley. Big Swole had to sell for Reba. She had to try her absolute best to make it look like Reba was connecting and hurting her. It was bad. At least now we’re going to get the payoff between Swole and Britt Baker, so we can hopefully put this all behind us forever.
Do we feel bad for Matt Hardy and Sammy Guevara? Their main event Tables Match was butchered due to the show running out of time, clocking in at under seven minutes. Not that I want to watch Matt Hardy in any sort of 30-minute singles match or anything, but this is something that should’ve been a bigger deal. Matt getting busted open the hard way due to carelessness by Guevara, followed by Matt (and Reby Hardy) teeing off on Sammy on social media, meant that this match should’ve been longer, more violent, and ultimately, have meant more. They got less than seven minutes, Matt didn’t get his revenge, and it won’t even be remembered in the end, because it was basically used as a setup for Orange Cassidy attacking Chris Jericho at the commentary table after the match. *shrug*
Smackdown (8/28)
Is Vince McMahon sick? I don’t mean in the head. We already know the answer to that. I’m talking about physically sick, like having a cold or the flu or something worse. Any time he was talking, I was having a difficult time understanding him, and it had nothing to do with TV volumes or microphones picking things up. I thought it was nothing, but then I saw tweets, Facebook posts, and reviews mentioning the same thing. People mentioned just how old Vince was sounding. I get it… he’s 75 years old. He isn’t going to sound, look, or be anything like the 52-year-old he was after the Montreal Screwjob, or the 47-year-old he was when Monday Night Raw first aired. I just don’t need to be reminded of how fucking old I’M getting by watching and hearing Vince McMahon turn into The Cryptkeeper from Tales From The Crypt.
Is Smackdown now to be referred to as Splitsville USA? Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville split up. Lucha House Party seems like they’re about to be split up. Seeds were planted on this episode for a possible split between Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura. We might be in the middle of a split between Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross. Many people are still expecting a split to take place with The New Day. Even more people are expecting a split with Heavy Machinery, probably with Tucker turning heel to cost Otis his Money In The Bank cash-in out of jealousy. It’s not a good time to be a member of a tag team or a stable on The Blue Brand.
Does anybody know when Chad Gable’s contract is up? That guy is so incredibly talented in the ring, but he’s being reduced to being job fodder and being named Shorty G because he isn’t as tall as the average pro wrestler. At the very least, he’s a Intercontinental/United States Title guy if you’re going to keep him as a singles performer. He’s already shown that he can be successful in a tag team, so he can be beneficial to your company there. Nope. Let’s just have people make fun of him every week, and then have him lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, and then lose some more. AEW would be a great place for him if his contract is coming to an end soon. He would also be able to make a killing on the indies if everything starts going back to normal with Covid at any point soon. New Japan would be a great place for him to shine, as well. Just about anywhere would be better (although perhaps not financially) for him than where he is now.
Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman?!? This one was so big that it makes up for the fact that there’s only four questions listed for Smackdown. After years of asking for it, we really were given a heel Roman Reigns. If there was ever a moment that should’ve been saved for live audiences, it was this. Can you imagine the reaction from an arena full of fans when the camera pulled back to reveal that Paul Heyman was sitting there with Roman Reigns? Like it or not, this is one of the biggest wrestling stories of the last decade, and it happened… to some canned crowd noise and no visible reactions from any actual people. That blows my mind when I really stop and think about it. It’s something that everyone and their mother saw needed to happen. People shouted it from the tops of mountains. People typed it in all caps at every opportunity they got. Vince McMahon knew Roman Reigns needed a heel turn. Roman Reigns knew Roman Reigns needed a heel turn. It could’ve happened at least 20 different times, but it didn’t until nobody was around to react to it. Perhaps that was the point. Maybe the decision was made to just let loose because there wouldn’t be any fans around to “hijack” anything now. You know that there’s a certain portion of the WWE Universe that booed Reigns every single week, but as soon as he would’ve turned heel, those same people would cheer him like crazy. Now WWE can control the narrative, at least for a little while longer. All in all, I think this is a great decision for all involved. It will definitely provide a chance for Reigns to just go out there and do what he does, and not have to worry about any “sufferin’ succotash” moments like WWE can’t help but script for their faces.
Payback (8/30)
Do we get a different Apollo Crews now that he lost the United States Title? WWE gave Crews an actual push, giving him the United States Title, but nothing about him changed. His character was exactly the same, solving precisely zero of the issues many people had with his presentation since signing with the company. He was largely successful in his feud with The Hurt Business, winning matches and regularly making the group look stupid, but what happens now that he dropped the title? Does he continue smiling and being a nice guy? Does he show off some sort of edge and get vicious in his quest to regain the title? This is a very important time for Crews. He still has all the talent in the world, but if fans aren’t given anything to sink their teeth into, I’m not sure that he can really go any higher. I will fight for him until the day he retires. I’m also a realist, and I understand what it takes to be successful with this company. He has what it takes to be a true main event guy with WWE. He really does. I just hope these writers and idea people can come up with something for him to work with so that he isn’t just floating out there with nowhere to really go.
Can we just get Shayna Baszler to defend the Women’s Tag Team Titles by herself? I get the purpose that Nia Jax serves. She’s listed at six-feet-tall, and has been billed at 270 pounds. She absolutely towers over the rest of the women’s roster. Having a “giant” for everyone to try and conquer has been one of the easiest money-makers in wrestling for decades. There isn’t a woman employed by WWE right now that is even close to Nia’s size. That’s super, but let’s be honest with each other right now… Nia isn’t very good. We’re coming up on five years since Nia made her televised debut for NXT, and we’re a little over four years since she was a part of the 2016 WWE Draft, officially bringing her up to the main roster. Can you say she’s made a ton of improvements in those four years? Shayna Baszler, on the other hand, is only getting better and more comfortable, even though she’s 40 years old. I rambled for this entire paragraph to say that Nia bad, Shayna good.
Is Keith Lee a “made man” now? We’ve seen people make their main roster debuts with a splash before, but Keith Lee’s debut has been something special. Showing up and immediately stepping to Randy Orton, who is the latest person that WWE is trying to attach the “best ever” tag to, is one thing. Following that up by defeating Orton in less than seven minutes means that the company sees something in him. For good reason, might I add. He’s a special talent. These aren’t moves that WWE would take with someone that’s going to be feuding with R-Truth for the 24/7 Title in a month or two, you know? If I had to take a guess, I would say that Lee is the odds-on favorite to win the 2021 Royal Rumble right now, but a lot can change. That’s still five months away. That’s five months for him to mow through people on the Raw roster, though. At that pace, he might look like a world beater by the time the Rumble rolls around.
So… do we get Dominik Mysterio winning titles soon? I said before that I think the smart idea is for Dom to go and get some more training after this feud with Seth Rollins is over, and I still stand by that, but I’ll be damned if he isn’t looking better and better all the time. If he’s going to stick around, would it surprise anyone if he was competing for the Tag Team Titles, whether it’s with Rey Mysterio or someone else? Would it surprise anyone if he was eventually moved into the United States Title picture? Are you telling me WWE wouldn’t trip all over themselves to book Dom against Bobby Lashley in a “David vs Goliath” feud? It’s only a matter of time before the next steps in his career are taken.
Was that a genius plan by Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman or what? Let’s forget the fact that Roman’s participation in the match would’ve been null-and-void once the opening bell rang without him signing the contract. Don’t worry about that. What happened was just good heel work. The type of good heel work to show that Roman has really changed. It isn’t just “Roman’s with Heyman now, but he’s the exact same person as he always was.” Even when Reigns was a heel as a member of The Shield, he was all about showing up for the fight. This was something he never would’ve done. It makes Heyman look like a mastermind, as it will undoubtedly be framed as his idea. I’ve seen a bunch of people complaining about how Reigns “barely did anything” and won the title, so they’re upset. That’s the point now, isn’t it? This isn’t “I don’t like this face” anymore. This is “the heel did something that pisses me off” for a lot of folks. That’s a GOOD thing, and it’s both funny and sad to see so many people fail to understand that.
Raw (8/31)
Can we get more television episodes that feature matches that have major stakes on the line? One of the major complaints people have with Raw and Smackdown over the last several years is that the majority of the matches we see don’t really mean anything. Wrestler A is facing Wrestler B with nothing on the line. Wrestler B cheated to win, so the following week, we get Wrestler A vs Wrestler B again. This time, Wrestler A pulls out the victory, but Wrestler B attacks them after the match, only for Wrestler C to save Wrestler A. The next week, it’s Wrestler A and Wrestler C vs Wrestler B and Wrestler D, with B and D winning, which gives us Wrestler A vs Wrestler B again the following week. No titles on the line, no title shots on the line, no nothing. If you’ve seen one match, you’ve seen them all. There was a step in the right direction this week. We got three singles matches, with the winners going on to face each other in a Triple Threat, and the winner of THAT gets a WWE Title match at Clash Of Champions. We got a tag match where the winners got a Tag Team Title shot and the losers got disbanded (more on that later). We also got a match where, while it wasn’t specifically stated this way, was painted as though Wrestler A (Mickie James) would get a match against Wrestler B (Natalya) if Wrestler A could defeat Wrestler C (Lana), and the match between A and B would be for a Raw Women’s Title shot. That’s what I’m talking about, WWE! It wasn’t perfect, but you’re giving people reason to pay attention to the matches that are taking place. Let’s keep that going, shall we?
A Mickie James push? Did you know that, since dropping the Smackdown Women’s Title in November 2017, Natalya has been featured in six different televised title matches and lost them all? Did you know that, in that same time frame, Mickie James has been featured in two televised title matches and lost them both? There’s no real point in me bringing those stats up, other than to say we’ve seen Natalya get way more title shots recently. Yes, some of that may have to do with Mickie going over 16 months without wrestling any sort of televised matches due to being pushed down the card and then tearing her ACL, but facts are facts. It has been ten-and-a-half years since Mickie James has been a champion in WWE, and seven years since she has been a champion anywhere. That’s a long time. She is an easy choice to be a WWE Hall Of Famer one day, and is one of the greatest women’s wrestlers that WWE has ever seen. Why not push her again? Even if she doesn’t take the title off of Asuka, it would be fun to see her in the spotlight again.
Did the wrong tag team get disbanded? The chemistry between Peyton Royce and Billie Kay is off-the-charts good. Sure, Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan work well together, but they’re not on the same level as the IIconic duo. On top of that, a(nother) heel turn has been hinted at for Ruby recently. With that said, of course it was Royce and Kay that lost their match on Raw and were forced to split up as a team. By now, we’ve all seen the reports that Vince McMahon is a very big fan of Peyton Royce, so you have to assume that she’ll be just fine as a singles wrestler. Billie Kay probably doesn’t have the same future ahead of her. She’s definitely the funnier of the two, so… women’s version of R-Truth? I mean, that’s working for R-Truth, but he has also been a champion five times in WWE before the 24/7 Title ever came along, to go with five title wins (including two NWA World Title reigns) in his time with NWA-TNA. I’m not exactly hopeful for Billie’s WWE future.
So, we have to sit through more Retribution nonsense, huh? Here I was, stupidly thinking that WWE would be smart enough to scrap the almost universally panned Retribution idea. They weren’t appearing on shows as frequently, and had missed two straight Sunday shows, which made me wonder if they were connected to the United States Postal Service. We got through most of this episode of Raw, and I was starting to nod my head approvingly, and then… America’s Least Wanted decided to show up. They attacked faces AND heels! That’s so wild! Now we’re going to see more of Misfortune, for sure! When are we going to get more than random attacks, WWE? When are we going to find out about who these people are, why they’re on WWE programming, and why you have the worst security teams ever? We’ve had to deal with the Second Shitty Saints for a full month now, with most weeks seeing multiple appearances, and we’re in the exact same place as we were when it all started. I don’t mind the slow build sometimes, but this is getting ridiculous. Can we get a leader reveal? How about a random member or two? How about someone cutting a promo about why they’ve been wasting so much of our time every week?
All that rigmarole to give us the WWE Title match we all knew was coming? Drew McIntyre beat Randy Orton at SummerSlam, but then Orton turned around and “injured” Drew, putting him on the shelf for a bit. We knew, right then and there, that McIntyre was going to defend the WWE Title against Orton again when he was “cleared” to perform. So, while I appreciate the whole “having matches with stakes” thing as I previously mentioned, I can’t help but feel it was a lot of trying to get from Point A to Point B by driving through Point H, circling back at Point L, taking a pee break at Point F, running out of gas at Point D, and then having to get out and push your car right into Point B before you pass out from exhaustion. We sat through four total matches, with a final running time of about 32 minutes of in-ring action, just to get exactly where we were at the end of last week’s episode of Raw. Again, it’s a start, but we probably could’ve had that “singles matches leading to a three-way match leading to a title shot” story for other titles. If you wanted to get extreme, you could’ve said McIntyre wasn’t able to defend so he needed to be stripped of the title, and the Raw matches were to crown a new WWE Champion. That would’ve received a lot of groans from “smart” fans, and would’ve been weird timing with what’s going on with the NXT Title, but at least it would’ve been different. Yeah, yeah… Orton would’ve won that, too, setting up his rematch with McIntyre, but work with me a little bit, huh?
NXT (9/1)
They’re really building Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, aren’t they? If you look at Santos Escobar’s time with NXT, you’ll see that his televised record is 8-2, with his only two defeats coming at the hands of “Swerve” Scott. Even though he has defeated Scott in both singles and six-man (although Escobar pinned Tyler Breeze there) matches, but an ego can only take so much. Seeing those two losses on his record is exactly the type of thing that could/would/should drive Escobar crazy. We’re three months into Escobar’s NXT Interim Cruiserweight Title reign, but it really does seem like NXT is building Scott to be the man to take the title off of him. I dig it. He’s one of the most gifted in-ring performers in all of NXT right now, and he’s becoming one of the most popular (at least with the “fans” in attendance these days), as well. If someone is going to end Escobar’s very entertaining time as champion, and if it isn’t going to be Jordan Devlin once the travel ban to the United States is over, it should definitely be Scott. He’s put in the work and he deserves it.
Rhea Ripley and Mercedes Martinez inside a Steel Cage? I’m not 100% sure that Full Sail can withstand it if these two are going to brawl inside a cage. I’ll be watching this one very closely. You have two people who you have to assume NXT is serious about pushing. Martinez is a full 16 years older than Ripley, so her push can’t be pushed back too far. However, Ripley has been cooled down so much since being, arguably, the hottest female act in the business at one point in late-2019 and early-2020, so what would having her lose do to her future, even if it’s at the hands of Raquel Gonzalez/Dakota Kai/Robert Stone Brand interference? NXT has to tread very carefully with Ripley, who many feel is the future of women’s wrestling for WWE. Maybe I’m overselling Mercedes Martinez because I’m a fan of hers. I just think there’s money to be made in her as an unstoppable threat, winning the NXT Women’s Title, and looking like nobody can beat her for a while. I think Ripley will be fine with a loss, as long as she isn’t losing matches to Emily Andzulis in a month’s time as she slides farther and farther down the ladder. Regardless of who wins, this is going to be an insanely physical match, and it has the potential to be one of the better women’s matches we’ll see on WWE programming this year.
Commercial breaks during the main event? Ugh. A grand total of five commercial breaks, counting ones of the picture-in-picture variety, took place during the main event. That can’t happen for matches like this. Someone in WWE needed to get in touch with someone at the USA Network and make it so that the second hour of this episode was commercial-free. It’s the kind of thing that can be used to bring in extra viewers for something special that calls for it. Five commercial breaks during a single match is just absurd.
All that rigmarole to give us no decision and make us wait for another week to crown a new champion? Admittedly, I just wanted to use the word “rigmarole” again. I’m just not a fan of hyping this match up like they did… only to have it end the way it did, with no winner. But… that’s what happens when you have strict television time and don’t have the capability to have lengthy overruns like WWE shows used to. If you have to end at two hours on the dot, you’re pretty much choreographing that the Ironman Match is going into Sudden Death if you get it started too early. That’s why, despite not liking the decision, I’m not all torn up about it. I understand why it was done from that point-of-view. I still think the match should’ve had a winner after 60 minutes.
Where does this Ironman Match rank on the list of best matches in NXT TV history? Dave Meltzer has Tyler Bate and Trent Seven vs Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong from the July 11th, 2018 episode of NXT as his top NXT TV match of all-time, receiving 5 stars from him, being the only non-Takeover NXT match to receive that rating. My own personal choice might depend on what mood I’m in when you ask me. Sometimes, I’m partial to Ricochet vs Pete Dunne from the episode on September 19th, 2018. Sometimes, it’s Tyler Bate vs Pete Dunne from December 20th, 2017. Other times, it’s Adam Cole vs The Velveteen Dream vs Ricochet vs Aleister Black vs Matt Riddle from March 20th, 2019. Sometimes, it’s Johnny Gargano vs Andrade “Cien” Almas from February 21st, 2018. This match had the potential to be the best NXT TV match of all-time, from the competitors to what was at stake. Potential isn’t always reached, though. I can’t help but dock it a little bit for the “60 minutes to decide nothing” aspect, and then, fairly or unfairly, dock it some more for having all those fucking commercial breaks. If you were to tell me you wanted to give the match 4 stars, I wouldn’t be mad at you. I’d give it slightly less than that. I’ll call it 3.75 stars and keep it moving.
It was another jam-packed week of wrestling, and I want to take this time to thank each and every one of you that took time out of your schedules to review it with me. I’ll be right back here in this spot on Saturday night with a running diary for AEW’s All Out pay-per-view. I’ll also be back soon with some non-review and non-running diary content, so keep your peepers peepin for those. Until next time… I’m taking out this time to give you a piece of my mind.
This Week’s Playlist: “He’s A Mental Giant” by Tech N9ne… “Red Nose” by Tech N9ne… “Whatchuwando” by Krayzie Bone & The Game… “WIN” by Jay Rock… “All The Stars” by Kendrick Lamar & SZA… “I Want’a Do Something Freaky To You” by Leon Haywood… “Sirius” by The Alan Parsons Project… “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC… “Highway To Hell” by AC/DC… “You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC… “My Posse’s On Broadway” by Sir Mix-A-Lot… “Dream On” by Aerosmith… “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith & Run-DMC… “Rock Box” by Run-DMC… “Down With The King” by Run-DMC, Pete Rock, & CL Smooth… “18 & Life” by Skid Row… “Dr. Feelgood” by Motley Crue… “Heaven” by Warrant… “Unskinny Bop” by Poison… “Hysteria” by Def Leppard