AEW
TV Deal
I don’t have much to add about the new TV deal that hasn’t been said. I’m happy for AEW, although according to Wade Keller over at PWTorch.com, they’re looking at less than 2,000 people for Dynamite this week. Sure, it’s on Tuesday, which is not their usual night and baseball playoffs are happening, but it’s in Spokane, Washington. The Seattle Mariners aren’t in the playoffs, so that can’t be the issue. It’s not inspiring to see a company that just got a huge deal draw so little. We’ll see how many walk-ups there are.
Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet
I didn’t start watching New Japan Pro Wrestling until around 2018, so I missed the much ballyhooed Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet match from Best of the Super Juniors. With that said, I thought the match itself, work-wise, was fine, but who would think it wouldn’t be? My 12-year-old daughter made a comment as she watched the match with me. When Will and Ricochet did their spot where they matched flips she asked, “Daddy, what is this, a gymnastics match?” Out of the mouths of babes as, God rest his soul, my father would say.
The double crap finish is annoying. When you build up a match between two people as they did with Will and Ricochet, you treat your audience with more respect when you pay it off with a decisive win. That tells them that when a big match is advertised, your time watching the match will be worthwhile because you will get a resolution. You may not like the resolution, but the conversation about that is better than discussing what they did. The winner goes on and the loser of the match has to bounce back, which is always a fun story to tell. Instead, the match was used as a backdrop to set up a triple threat with Konosuke Takeshita. Most AEW fans will rationalize and say, “oh but that will be a good match, so I’m ok with that finish.” I don’t like that booking philosophy. Basically, I feel like I wasted my time watching the match.
The Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, and Wheeler Yuta situation
I know people are intrigued by what’s going on with Jon Moxley and company, and I’m mostly in that camp. The problem for me is, I still don’t understand their issue. What caused this change? What do they ultimately want? To take over AEW? Didn’t we have that earlier in the year with The Young Bucks and Jack Perry? It’s interesting how Wheeler Yuta is so central to this issue, but he is holding the Trios Championship with Claudio Castagnoli and Pac. I think eventually Yuta caves in and devotes himself to Moxley’s crew. Bryan is going to need some allies. Maybe a returning Eddie Kingston is one of them? If memory serves, didn’t they work out their differences?
Darby Allin, Shelton Benjamin
I’m sorry, but I liked Darby’s promo last week. He felt like a real person telling a real story. Who is his open challenge? I think everyone’s call is a newly signed Bobby Lashley. I mean, it’s always fun to see someone debut somewhere else, but I’m not sure of Lashley’s long term value in AEW. I’m more positive with MVP’s leadership, but doesn’t that feel like a WWE retread? He’d have to beat Darby, right?
Speaking of MVP, while I’m always happy to see Shelton Benjamin, it’s yet another WWE cast-off. On the positive side, Benjamin might be better suited for AEW. MVP, Benjamin, and Lashley might get to do more of what they could have done during their time as the Hurt Business in WWE. Let’s not forget, they were under Vince McMahon leadership and it was during the pandemic. Like a lot of acts that come in, I just worry that they’ll be in moth balls after a month once TK gets bored or forgets about them.
Private Party
I mean, you got to give AEW credit for trying to make Private Party relevant again. The problem is they’ve been so defined down for so long that it’s hard to take them seriously out of the blue. It was crazy five years ago for them to go over The Young Bucks in that initial tournament but at least then it felt like they were really behind these guys. Since then, they were involved with Matt Hardy, and I think Isiah Kassidy was Brother Zay and God knows what else? I know there were injuries and unfortunate circumstances, but it’s going to take a minute for me to care about them again.
Danielson vs. Okada
I was annoyed about the Continental Championship only being on the line for the first 20 minutes, but I got over it watching the match. They delivered, but would one expect otherwise? They have another match in them if they want, but who knows how much time Danielson has left.
WWE
Smackdown
A.J. Styles, Carmelo Hayes, L.A. Knight
According to Dave Meltzer over at f4wonline.com, the ankle injury suffered by A.J. Styles in the match against Carmelo Hayes was supposed to be a work. It is in fact legitimate and an MRI is on the docket for A.J. It’s obviously unfortunate with it being his return to television. With that said, when Nick Aldis said he’d talk to Carmelo next week about facing L.A. Knight for the U.S. Championship since he technically beat A.J., I’m wondering if he’ll have to have one more match against Andrade. That series is even at three wins apiece, so it would give them a reason to have one more match. They do Andrade vs. Carmelo VII on Smackdown and maybe the title match is at Crown Jewel? (No crappy finishes leading to a triple threat please.)
Chelsea Green Stinks
I could care less about Chelsea Green and the fact that she stinks because of being tossed in the dumpster. Now, I’d be a hypocrite if I crapped on people that like this because as I said earlier, you like what you like. For me this stuff really stinks. It’s not what I want in my wrestling. This reminds me of what I hated about WWE when Vince McMahon was in charge. HAHA, CHELSEA SMELLS SO BAD BECAUSE SHE WAS IN A DUMPSTER. THAT’S SUCH GOOD …. (you know what).
WWE Tag Team Championship
The triple threat ladder match was perfectly fine. I’m numb to these matches because we see so many, so it’s hard for me to watch and pick out things that stand out. Plus, there was zero chance Tama Tonga & Tonga Loa were losing the titles to either the Street Profits or DIY. I understand it as a main event on a go-home show to a PLE. They seem to use the Smackdowns before as a PLE-addendum.
Bad Blood
Hits
CM Punk defeats Drew McIntyre in a Hell in a Cell. This feud probably expired after the Strap Match at Bash at Berlin, but with Bad Blood around the corner we all knew they would likely find themselves in the Cell. The violence was a little more than what I like in my “blood feud matches,” but, it had to be that way to end this deal once and for all. Now, I’m going to call out WWE the way I called out AEW for the Hangman Page vs. Swerve Strickland match. I don’t give a (blank) if the toolbox was gimmicked. You’re still hitting someone square in the head, like Hangman did to Swerve in their match. Either we are worried about concussions or we’re not and I have a firm stance on that. I don’t like it and I don’t care if it served its purpose. Anyway, my other issue is I wish weapons would be left out of these Cell matches. You have a cage around you. That’s your weapon. I understand it’s baked into these matches and has been for a while but that doesn’t mean I can’t call it out.
Damian Priest defeats Finn Balor. This was fine, but can we have one match without interference? Can two parties just settle their differences without having this one or that one sticking their nose in the match? I understand Priest split off from Judgment Day recently, but it just feels there’s always interference from whomever is not in the match.
Cody Rhodes & Roman Reigns defeat Solo Sikoa & Jacob Fatu. I almost want to call this a miss because the match was way too drawn out, but it picked up at the end and overall, it was perfectly fine. Jimmy Uso’s return was well executed and it was interference that was warranted. I’m glad they didn’t act like Cody was all of a sudden best buddies with Roman and Jimmy. Roman not helping Cody right away worked because it felt like something natural to their relationship. Rock’s return was interesting. It didn’t feel like this was the spot for it, but you never know when he’s available, so they have to take advantage of it when they can.
Misses
Nia Jax defeats Bayley to retain the WWE Women’s Championship. The match was bad, the finish of course involved a distraction, and the Tiffany teased cash in was dumb. Why would she try to cash in with a downed referee and try to make it a triple threat? Nia Jax sitting up like the Undertaker was so phony and Tiffany continues to look like a chump when she told Nia she wasn’t going to cash in. I thought Tiffany was taking a step forward on Smackdown when she stared down Nia after her altercation with Bayley, but she took a step back later when Nia confronted her. “Of course not, my queen” had me shaking my head when Nia made her say she’d never betray her. I understand the story they’re trying to tell and maybe Tiffany will come out of this as a big babyface, but it’s hard for me to get behind someone being so subservient for God knows what reason.
The Crown Jewel Championship announcement. This is the pits for me. Forget all the Saudi Arabia feelings, we know what comes with that. That’s been talked about until the cows come home. I thought we got rid of the champion vs. champion matches. Here’s the problem. When you have a champion defeat the other champion you’re saying the quiet thing out loud. What do I mean? Let’s be honest, WWE views one champion higher than the other. As fans we think the same thing. That’s the nature of having multiple world champions. The winner tells us that they view that champion at a higher level, so why should I care about the other. This is what killed Drew McIntyre as WWE champion in 2020. The same thing happened with Big E in 2021. This is to please the Saudi Arabia contingent and I hate it.
Rhea Ripley defeats Liv Morgan via DQ. Liv retains the Women’s World Championship. This is another match that was bad and I got taken out of it first, when Dominik fell out of the shark cage. It looked so phony and contrived like he just threw himself out. Second, I hated when Rhea asked the referee on his camera (why do they have that camera to begin with?) not to count her out because she needs to take care of Dominik. When you allow something like that you teach your audience the match doesn’t matter, the championship doesn’t matter, and what you’re watching is not to be taken seriously. Every wrestler should ask referees, moving forward, to stop counts so they can do whatever they want on the outside. The championship didn’t even matter in this match. Why should I care about it moving forward? Then the return by Raquel Rodriguez was obviously bad and botched (no need for me to recap it) and you get another title match that’s decided by interference. Here’s the bigger issue. The crowd did not care about Raquel’s return. They acted like they didn’t even know her. I understand they need depth on the Raw women’s division, but I’d be very concerned about the tepid reaction to her.
Raw
You wonder what’s next for CM Punk and it looks like it’s Seth Rollins, but we don’t know when that will come to fruition. I feel like they want to hold it off until WrestleMania because a match between them feels like it belongs there. Rollins has Bronson Reed in the meantime. Maybe after said time off they go with Punk vs. Gunther? Punk doesn’t have to win the title and he can circle back to Rollins after that. They also might spin him into a brief run on NXT to work with Ethan Page given he was the referee in the match where Page lost the championship back to Trick Williams. So, they have some options.
Silly me thought Bron Breakker was turning babyface and maybe that’s eventually happening, but apparently not right now. I suppose you can tell a story that he showed respect to Jey last week, but after simmering for a week on losing the IC Championship, it was back to his old ways? That happens with people.
It’s too early to tell where it’s going, but I’m curious about Cody vs. Kevin Owens because it’s a different kind of way to tell that type of story. Heel turns (if in fact this is a turn for Owens) are usually done on camera.
Sheamus beating Pete Dunne is a perfectly fine TV match. I’m not sure how much WWE is invested in Pete Dunne because with him having more years in front of him than Sheamus, you’d think they’d want to put over Pete. Who knows, maybe Sheamus is being lined up as a challenger for Gunther. It’s been a minute since they tangled.
Speaking of Gunther, beating Sami Zayn was expected and I don’t mind the “passing out” by Sami. For me, that protects the loser and boosts the winner more than interference. You knew there was no chance for Sami to win, but given their history, you still want to see the match play out. They’re already building to Crown Jewel with the standoff between Gunther and Cody Rhodes. I wonder if they’ll bring up Gunther starting the Royal Rumble in 2023 and Cody winning from #30 as they build up their match at Crown Jewel?
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