Let's start with the customary check-in.
World Series Game Seven happened last Wednesday. I remember thinking on Tuesday night that if either AEW or NXT broke 900K in viewers, it would be considered a major win. Somewhat predictably, neither of them did. AEW Dynamite pulled in 759,000 viewers and NXT pulled in 580K. And yet, neither show really seemed to care and went on to put on shows that were fun as all hell despite knowing they were going to get absolutely crushed.
But this past week, while AEW Dynamite again put on a terrific show with a bunch of really good wrestling and a fantastic and chilling and exciting promo from Jon Moxley and NXT did more TakeOver-level goodness (and apparently "Baby Metal" is a thing... Jesus God, I'm old), neither of these shows is the real story this past week.
For those of you who may or may not know, there was a WWE show that happened in Saudi Arabia. It was called "A Royal Family is Paying Vince in Blood and Oil Money" or something less apropos like "Crown Jewel". It had a historic first-ever women's wrestling match between two women no one ever wanted to see wrestle again, and a bunch of stupid shit and a main even where Seth Rollins hit The Fiend with 53,629 Blackout stomps then set him on fire, dumped him in acid, tied a boulder to his leg and dropped him at the bottom of a lake and then shot him point blank in the head fifteen times John Wick-style and still The Fiend got up and beat him for the Universal Championship. So after Brock Lesnar beat Cain Velasquez in 3 minutes or some shit like that, Lesnar and Vince and Hogan and Flair and Tyson Fury all got on private planes and left. The rest of the roster stuck around for the full show, and when they got to the plane, they weren't allowed to leave.
According to WWE's official account, it was due to the plane they were flying out on having several mechanical problems. But according to some sources (one of them being a member of WWE's "Why does everyone go through our fucking table" Spanish Announce Team), Vince cut the feed of the show in the country they were in because apparently a Saudi Crown Prince who is notorious for silencing critics and then hacking them into small pieces has not paid Vince the millions of dollars that he's owed. This led to the Saudi government halting the plane from taking off for several hours while Vince and Mohammed Bin Salman arguing on the tarmac about who's worse (I'm kidding; obviously the guy who kills his critics is worse... speaking of which, has anyone heard from Dave Meltzer lately?). Eventually the plane was allowed to leave, but there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that they were going to get back to the States before Smackdown started. And when this all happened, Triple H shuffled off to Buffalo with HBK and a plan for how to make the show work with the talent they had available.
Smackdown started with Tom Phillips, Renee Young and Aiden English on commentary, so the show was already better than usual. Then Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman (clearly cutting a promo on the fly and making that shit work) showed us pretty much the entirety of the Lesnar/Velasquez match from Saudi Arabia, making us all afraid that the entire show was going to just be replays of "Murder Crown", and then saying that since Rey Mysterio is on Raw, and Raw and Smackdown are now officially split rosters, Brock was quitting Smackdown to head over to Raw to kill Rey and his first-born son. Then Bauhaus Bayley and Nikki Cross had the title match Cross had earned when she won the Six-Pack Challenge a few weeks back and Bayley who listens to Sisters of Mercy secured the victory with a distraction off Sasha Banks and hitting a really bitchin' new finisher. And the version of Bayley that listens to Joy Division hoisted the title belt high.
But then something very, very interesting happened.
From outta nowhere, NXT Women's Champion Shayna Bazsler appeared and smashed Bayley that tore down her Randy Savage poster and replaced it with a Robert Smith poster above her bed with a running high knee strike and laid out Sasha as well and stood tall in the ring, hoisting her own title up high.
Wha... what's happening?
Then the next segment was Sami Zayn backstage with Queen Cathy Kelley, an NXT backstage interviewer, and indicated that he saw other talent from NXT here and told them that he was not to be trifled with. Suddenly, Sami had noticed that both Matt Riddle and Keith Lee had sidled up alongside him, and Sami being awesome, tried to remind them both that he was once the "heart and soul" of NXT. But Lee and Riddle were having none of Sami's bullshit and chased Sami to the ring where the Original Bro hit him with the Final Flash and the Bro Derek, and while prone, Lee hit Sami with a moonsault that should have driven Sami through the ring. And Lee and Riddle stood tall.
Is... is this really happening? Am I... actually enjoying an episode of Smackdown in this day and age?
Then came Miz TV, where initially Miz was going to interview New Universal Champion Bray Wyatt but since he was stuck on the runway in Riyadh, he was going to interview... well, himself. That would have been really weird and he would have been back on the road to Heelsville had he done that, but instead it worked out much better because Tommaso Ciampa came out, told Miz that he was the Greatest Sports Entertainer of All Time, and then had an extremely impromptu match that was, despite it obviously being thrown together at the last possible minute was pretty good even though Miz couldn't quite get the leg extension needed to really sell the Fairy Tale Ending and Ciampa beat Miz.
Have I mentioned yet that the fans were popping like crazy for all the NXT talent? Have I mentioned yet that I was popping like crazy inside my own home for the NXT talent?
After that, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville were out in the ring waiting for their tag opponents Carmella and Dana Brooke, but they were... shall we say... otherwise engaged as Bianca Belair was straight-up destroying backstage as she laid some serious fists to Brooke and just tossed Carmella behind a bunch of road boxes and the only assumption that can be made is that services for Mella will be held at Omerta Funeral Home in Staten Island. To put some scrumptious icing on this already delicious cake, Rhea Ripley and Tegan Nox came out to meet Fire and Desire and while Tegan was throwing Sonya right into Renee's face, Ripley was intent on destroying "God's Greatest Gift" with a lifting inverted cloverleaf proving that Rhea Ripley is a gift that actually gives. I honestly don't remember if this was an official match, but rather a intention of disruption and destruction, it still made me pop like a firecracker. NXT was delivering the goods on the main roster.
During the course of the night, Daniel Bryan (one of the only wrestlers who didn't go to Saudi Arabia due to moral grounds and was actually allowed to do so because he's Daniel Bryan) was walking backstage looking extremely annoyed that NXT was around. He found Hunter with HBK backstage and Hunter explained that he felt like his kids in NXT were getting called out by the main roster, and he felt it was time to make something of a statement that whatever the main roster could put out, NXT was better. Of course he's right, but D-Bry still wanted a match. We had a great little fake-out moment with Shawn, but Trips just said, "Hey, Champ!" and in walked Adam Cole (BAY BAY). It was then that they wanted to make things even more interesting by having Bryan fight Cole for the NXT title. And this is how the show finished... with a 20-odd minute match between The American Dragon and The Panama City Playboy, two of the best wrestlers on the planet.
And it was goddamn phenomenal.
There were genuine moments where Bryan had me convinced that he was going to win, and I'm honestly shouting at my TV, "WHY CAN'T YOU BOOK LIKE THIS MORE OFTEN", and despite the fact that I knew that Bryan was salivating at the chance to put Cole over, it was such a competitive match that I wish that Bryan would come over to NXT and just have a slew of dream matches against some of the most talented people in the biz and be booked like he should. What was initially shocking but of course made perfect sense was that Bryan was the heel in this match and Cole, one of our best heels, was the underdog. And even though Roderick Strong came out to rep Undisputed Era with Cole, he never got involved, so we just got a clean finish that included a Panama Sunrise and a Last Shot to get the three-count on Daniel and wrapped up one of the best episodes of Smackdown I've ever seen.
What makes all of this even more extraordinary is that this was thrown together that day. All the NXT personnel they used had to be flown up from Florida that day, matches and promos had to be made on the fly, and the reason that Pat McAfee took over for Aiden English shortly after the opening of the show was because McAfee was supposed to be there the whole time, but they barely got to the arena in Buffalo on time for the start of the show. Rumor even has it that Shayna was supposed to be in her ring gear when she attacked everyone, but they couldn't make that happen because they cut it so close. This was, if you'll forgive the term, "guerrilla" wrestling.
And yes, this was a Vince show, but Vince was forced into a corner and Hunter was there to bail him out, so I'm sure that Vince was ready to say yes to having Heyman cut a 90-minute promo at that point and just have the Smackdown Women's title match and have that be it.
Seriously, take a good hard look at everything they accomplished from how it was presented, how it was booked, the time crunch they were in, and how intense and electrifying the show pretty much from the very beginning and tell me that wasn't the best Smackdown you've seen in recent years. And all of this was possible because two billionaires had a dick-waving contest while the Saudi government held the WWE talent essentially as hostages. Thank Christ this didn't become an actual diplomatic situation, because I'd be absolutely terrified at how Trump would have handled this.
For this whole situation, I must quote the great philosopher Chili Palmer and simply state, "Sometimes you do your best work with a gun to your head."
However, they tried to replicate the experience on Monday Night Raw, and it just didn't work. Like, at all. To Hunter's credit, I think he was trying his best to make it work, but I think there was too much Vince all over it.
As far as AEW Dynamite was concerned, I kind of wished that Lucha Brothers had become the inaugural tag champs, but the story here was SCU getting the win because of what Pentagon and Fenix had done to Christopher Daniels, so hats off to starting a story a few weeks back and actually paying it off in the ring. I have nothing against SCU, and I think because I don't want to see the Lucha Bros almost die and/or kill other performers every single week that this made all the sense. And hey, we had what I consider to be a pretty terrific women's match! Shanna and Shida really worked well together, as opposed to the AEW Dark match between three blonde women and Japanese Freddy Mercury. We found out that Tony Khan was not going to sanction Jon Moxley's fight against Kenny Omega, so he stormed into the ring where The Librarians were cutting a promo, gave Peter Avalon the Paradigm Shift (instantly making him the biggest babyface in the company) and then proceeded to make his fans weep with joy as he cut the best promo of his career about how, in essence, he's been getting fucked over since day one because people see him as a sideshow freak (it honestly kind of reminded me of Liam Neeson's angry monologue in DARKMAN) and if they want to make it so it doesn't count against his win/loss record (again, that's a thing in A-E-Dub) then Kenny's blood was going to be on Tony Khan's hands. It was raw, it felt real, and it rocked my world. The war between The Elite and The Inner Circle is getting hotter as Hangman Page defeated Sammy Guevara, and despite all the place setting for a truly heated contract signing between Cody and Jericho, the real shit was going down outside when Jake Hager and Sammy were beating the living shit out of Dustin, and slamming his arm in a limo door. I was just so happy to have a shenanigan-less contract signing but still have something that made Jericho look like an evil genius. And then we had The Best Friends and Orange Cassidy as Rick and Morty and Orange Rick vs QT Marshall and the Beaver Boys, and Best Friends did their Best Friends stuff, and Orange Cassidy made Jim Cornette angrily shit himself by being arguably the most over guy on the roster. And since it's AEW, there was even more tag team action as Kenny (dressed as a character from a game I've never ever heard of) and the Bucks (again as Ken and Ryu) took on Kip Sabian and The Hybrid 2. I really get a kick out of Jack Evans; he's really freakishly athletic and his character is just such a cocky cock about it that it makes me smile. It was really good television and really good wrestling and I want more.
Then there was actual NXT, where we opened with Poppy doing one of her songs while a montage of bits of NXT TV was shown, and transitioning into another one of her songs when Io Shirai came out to do battle with Candice LeRae. *insert "chef's kiss" gif here* While this wasn't as mind-blowingly awesome as their battle at TakeOver XXV, it was still a great build and LeRae only lost when Shirai used underhanded tactics, thus keeping their feud alive and escalating it even further by my Murder Queen trying to wreck LeRae with the steel chair but my Destruction Goddess Rhea Ripley came in to make the save, and again, it's not like Ripley is trying so much to save her friends but rather destroy her enemies, which is keeping the tweener vibe alive. After than, Finn came out to cut a promo which was not so much of an explanation as it was a statement of intent and while I understand people have a problem with Finn taking a shot at main roster booking regarding him and The Fiend Bray Wyatt, I thought this was by far the best promo of Finn's WWE career. Some people called it tentative, and I can understand that because the only heel we've ever seen of Fergal is him in New Japan where most of his speaking was absolutely laden with expletives so it's going to be a bit of an adjustment from Heel Prince Devitt to Heel Finn Balor because he's a bit hamstrung by the PG rating. But damn, this was just a fucking badass promo regardless. When he said, "I don't watch this business; this business watches me", I got funny tingles in my bikini area. And during his entrance and exit, no more arm-raising... just sheer attitude. And I know that Johnny is every heel's favorite punching bag and he's going to go down at War Games, but I'm really looking forward to this match, possibly more than any other. Then we got the battle of the Aussies as Bronson Reed took on Shane Thorne, and both guys looked really solid and Reed came out on top by splashing all 300-odd pounds of him off the top and onto Shane. Look, Shane Thorne is a really solid performer but I totally feel that he could start to take the Kassius Ohno role here of being the guy who can do all the good wrestling but still put some of the newer talent over, and I'm okay with that. Every brand needs that kind of performer. Then came a match that absolutely 100% should have headlined, and I kind of understood why it didn't but whatever, and that was Team Kick vs the Kabuki Warriors for the Women's tag titles. The Manager watched this with me after having seen it earlier in the evening and told me that it dragged a little, and I understand why she felt that way because it was a lot of Dakota Kai being isolated by Asuka and Kairi but that was just strong in-ring storytelling for me, and it made the hot tag to Tegan even bigger. The use and specifically the hiding of the use of the Green Mist to win the match was done better than it had been done since Asuka started using it, and it was done in a way that also made Team Kick like very strong competitors. After the champs left, it was time for Shayna and her horsies to make their appearance and they were just about to put Tegan on the shelf again when my Destruction Goddess came back in and started throwing hands which was then followed by my Murder Queen attacking my Destruction Goddess and then Bianca Belair coming out to beat up Ripley and then Candice coming out as well, and bodies were flying everywhere until Mr. Regal came out on his Tower of Power (that's what I'm calling it, and if you don't like it, suggest your own name) and said this whole brouhaha could be settled with those two little words.
And there you have it. The first women's War Games match in history, and I am psyched as all hell for this. And as of today, the battle lines were drawn: it's going to be Rhea, Candace and Tegan vs Shayna, Bianca and Io with each team being given one more person they can pick. I honestly don't know who could fill out the heel team, but it seems pretty clear that the babyfaces will probably have Dakota on their end. I would kind of love it if the heels turned to the UK and brought over someone like Jazzy Gabert or even Kay Lee Ray.
But there was more show! We were next given Cameron Grimes vs Tyler Bate, and boy howdy, I am constantly impressed by what Bate is able to do at such a young age. He may not be the best promo in the business, but he can just go for days in that ring. He's just fucking great, and I was a little bummed that Killian Dain had to get involved in this for Grimey to get the win, but I don't think I'll stop being impressed by the Cave-In as a finisher. It just looks fucking devastating and strong enough to stop someone like Bate. After that was the main event, where Undisputed Era's Fish and O'Reilly met Matt Riddle and Keith Lee and yeah, it was as good as you would think it would be. It was also a bit of a bummer that this ended with some interference but it was all a setup for Tommaso to come out to help out the faces and declare that he's going to war.
It's just these kind of things that make Wednesday nights so special as far as pro wrestling is concerned. Both of these shows have a clear investment in their talent and in their fan base, and they really want to tell stories that make you want to keep coming back. It's almost an embarrassment of riches instead of the main roster shows just being rich in embarrassment.
World Series Game Seven happened last Wednesday. I remember thinking on Tuesday night that if either AEW or NXT broke 900K in viewers, it would be considered a major win. Somewhat predictably, neither of them did. AEW Dynamite pulled in 759,000 viewers and NXT pulled in 580K. And yet, neither show really seemed to care and went on to put on shows that were fun as all hell despite knowing they were going to get absolutely crushed.
But this past week, while AEW Dynamite again put on a terrific show with a bunch of really good wrestling and a fantastic and chilling and exciting promo from Jon Moxley and NXT did more TakeOver-level goodness (and apparently "Baby Metal" is a thing... Jesus God, I'm old), neither of these shows is the real story this past week.
For those of you who may or may not know, there was a WWE show that happened in Saudi Arabia. It was called "A Royal Family is Paying Vince in Blood and Oil Money" or something less apropos like "Crown Jewel". It had a historic first-ever women's wrestling match between two women no one ever wanted to see wrestle again, and a bunch of stupid shit and a main even where Seth Rollins hit The Fiend with 53,629 Blackout stomps then set him on fire, dumped him in acid, tied a boulder to his leg and dropped him at the bottom of a lake and then shot him point blank in the head fifteen times John Wick-style and still The Fiend got up and beat him for the Universal Championship. So after Brock Lesnar beat Cain Velasquez in 3 minutes or some shit like that, Lesnar and Vince and Hogan and Flair and Tyson Fury all got on private planes and left. The rest of the roster stuck around for the full show, and when they got to the plane, they weren't allowed to leave.
According to WWE's official account, it was due to the plane they were flying out on having several mechanical problems. But according to some sources (one of them being a member of WWE's "Why does everyone go through our fucking table" Spanish Announce Team), Vince cut the feed of the show in the country they were in because apparently a Saudi Crown Prince who is notorious for silencing critics and then hacking them into small pieces has not paid Vince the millions of dollars that he's owed. This led to the Saudi government halting the plane from taking off for several hours while Vince and Mohammed Bin Salman arguing on the tarmac about who's worse (I'm kidding; obviously the guy who kills his critics is worse... speaking of which, has anyone heard from Dave Meltzer lately?). Eventually the plane was allowed to leave, but there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that they were going to get back to the States before Smackdown started. And when this all happened, Triple H shuffled off to Buffalo with HBK and a plan for how to make the show work with the talent they had available.
Smackdown started with Tom Phillips, Renee Young and Aiden English on commentary, so the show was already better than usual. Then Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman (clearly cutting a promo on the fly and making that shit work) showed us pretty much the entirety of the Lesnar/Velasquez match from Saudi Arabia, making us all afraid that the entire show was going to just be replays of "Murder Crown", and then saying that since Rey Mysterio is on Raw, and Raw and Smackdown are now officially split rosters, Brock was quitting Smackdown to head over to Raw to kill Rey and his first-born son. Then Bauhaus Bayley and Nikki Cross had the title match Cross had earned when she won the Six-Pack Challenge a few weeks back and Bayley who listens to Sisters of Mercy secured the victory with a distraction off Sasha Banks and hitting a really bitchin' new finisher. And the version of Bayley that listens to Joy Division hoisted the title belt high.
But then something very, very interesting happened.
From outta nowhere, NXT Women's Champion Shayna Bazsler appeared and smashed Bayley that tore down her Randy Savage poster and replaced it with a Robert Smith poster above her bed with a running high knee strike and laid out Sasha as well and stood tall in the ring, hoisting her own title up high.
Wha... what's happening?
Then the next segment was Sami Zayn backstage with Queen Cathy Kelley, an NXT backstage interviewer, and indicated that he saw other talent from NXT here and told them that he was not to be trifled with. Suddenly, Sami had noticed that both Matt Riddle and Keith Lee had sidled up alongside him, and Sami being awesome, tried to remind them both that he was once the "heart and soul" of NXT. But Lee and Riddle were having none of Sami's bullshit and chased Sami to the ring where the Original Bro hit him with the Final Flash and the Bro Derek, and while prone, Lee hit Sami with a moonsault that should have driven Sami through the ring. And Lee and Riddle stood tall.
Is... is this really happening? Am I... actually enjoying an episode of Smackdown in this day and age?
Then came Miz TV, where initially Miz was going to interview New Universal Champion Bray Wyatt but since he was stuck on the runway in Riyadh, he was going to interview... well, himself. That would have been really weird and he would have been back on the road to Heelsville had he done that, but instead it worked out much better because Tommaso Ciampa came out, told Miz that he was the Greatest Sports Entertainer of All Time, and then had an extremely impromptu match that was, despite it obviously being thrown together at the last possible minute was pretty good even though Miz couldn't quite get the leg extension needed to really sell the Fairy Tale Ending and Ciampa beat Miz.
Have I mentioned yet that the fans were popping like crazy for all the NXT talent? Have I mentioned yet that I was popping like crazy inside my own home for the NXT talent?
After that, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville were out in the ring waiting for their tag opponents Carmella and Dana Brooke, but they were... shall we say... otherwise engaged as Bianca Belair was straight-up destroying backstage as she laid some serious fists to Brooke and just tossed Carmella behind a bunch of road boxes and the only assumption that can be made is that services for Mella will be held at Omerta Funeral Home in Staten Island. To put some scrumptious icing on this already delicious cake, Rhea Ripley and Tegan Nox came out to meet Fire and Desire and while Tegan was throwing Sonya right into Renee's face, Ripley was intent on destroying "God's Greatest Gift" with a lifting inverted cloverleaf proving that Rhea Ripley is a gift that actually gives. I honestly don't remember if this was an official match, but rather a intention of disruption and destruction, it still made me pop like a firecracker. NXT was delivering the goods on the main roster.
During the course of the night, Daniel Bryan (one of the only wrestlers who didn't go to Saudi Arabia due to moral grounds and was actually allowed to do so because he's Daniel Bryan) was walking backstage looking extremely annoyed that NXT was around. He found Hunter with HBK backstage and Hunter explained that he felt like his kids in NXT were getting called out by the main roster, and he felt it was time to make something of a statement that whatever the main roster could put out, NXT was better. Of course he's right, but D-Bry still wanted a match. We had a great little fake-out moment with Shawn, but Trips just said, "Hey, Champ!" and in walked Adam Cole (BAY BAY). It was then that they wanted to make things even more interesting by having Bryan fight Cole for the NXT title. And this is how the show finished... with a 20-odd minute match between The American Dragon and The Panama City Playboy, two of the best wrestlers on the planet.
And it was goddamn phenomenal.
There were genuine moments where Bryan had me convinced that he was going to win, and I'm honestly shouting at my TV, "WHY CAN'T YOU BOOK LIKE THIS MORE OFTEN", and despite the fact that I knew that Bryan was salivating at the chance to put Cole over, it was such a competitive match that I wish that Bryan would come over to NXT and just have a slew of dream matches against some of the most talented people in the biz and be booked like he should. What was initially shocking but of course made perfect sense was that Bryan was the heel in this match and Cole, one of our best heels, was the underdog. And even though Roderick Strong came out to rep Undisputed Era with Cole, he never got involved, so we just got a clean finish that included a Panama Sunrise and a Last Shot to get the three-count on Daniel and wrapped up one of the best episodes of Smackdown I've ever seen.
What makes all of this even more extraordinary is that this was thrown together that day. All the NXT personnel they used had to be flown up from Florida that day, matches and promos had to be made on the fly, and the reason that Pat McAfee took over for Aiden English shortly after the opening of the show was because McAfee was supposed to be there the whole time, but they barely got to the arena in Buffalo on time for the start of the show. Rumor even has it that Shayna was supposed to be in her ring gear when she attacked everyone, but they couldn't make that happen because they cut it so close. This was, if you'll forgive the term, "guerrilla" wrestling.
And yes, this was a Vince show, but Vince was forced into a corner and Hunter was there to bail him out, so I'm sure that Vince was ready to say yes to having Heyman cut a 90-minute promo at that point and just have the Smackdown Women's title match and have that be it.
Seriously, take a good hard look at everything they accomplished from how it was presented, how it was booked, the time crunch they were in, and how intense and electrifying the show pretty much from the very beginning and tell me that wasn't the best Smackdown you've seen in recent years. And all of this was possible because two billionaires had a dick-waving contest while the Saudi government held the WWE talent essentially as hostages. Thank Christ this didn't become an actual diplomatic situation, because I'd be absolutely terrified at how Trump would have handled this.
For this whole situation, I must quote the great philosopher Chili Palmer and simply state, "Sometimes you do your best work with a gun to your head."
However, they tried to replicate the experience on Monday Night Raw, and it just didn't work. Like, at all. To Hunter's credit, I think he was trying his best to make it work, but I think there was too much Vince all over it.
As far as AEW Dynamite was concerned, I kind of wished that Lucha Brothers had become the inaugural tag champs, but the story here was SCU getting the win because of what Pentagon and Fenix had done to Christopher Daniels, so hats off to starting a story a few weeks back and actually paying it off in the ring. I have nothing against SCU, and I think because I don't want to see the Lucha Bros almost die and/or kill other performers every single week that this made all the sense. And hey, we had what I consider to be a pretty terrific women's match! Shanna and Shida really worked well together, as opposed to the AEW Dark match between three blonde women and Japanese Freddy Mercury. We found out that Tony Khan was not going to sanction Jon Moxley's fight against Kenny Omega, so he stormed into the ring where The Librarians were cutting a promo, gave Peter Avalon the Paradigm Shift (instantly making him the biggest babyface in the company) and then proceeded to make his fans weep with joy as he cut the best promo of his career about how, in essence, he's been getting fucked over since day one because people see him as a sideshow freak (it honestly kind of reminded me of Liam Neeson's angry monologue in DARKMAN) and if they want to make it so it doesn't count against his win/loss record (again, that's a thing in A-E-Dub) then Kenny's blood was going to be on Tony Khan's hands. It was raw, it felt real, and it rocked my world. The war between The Elite and The Inner Circle is getting hotter as Hangman Page defeated Sammy Guevara, and despite all the place setting for a truly heated contract signing between Cody and Jericho, the real shit was going down outside when Jake Hager and Sammy were beating the living shit out of Dustin, and slamming his arm in a limo door. I was just so happy to have a shenanigan-less contract signing but still have something that made Jericho look like an evil genius. And then we had The Best Friends and Orange Cassidy as Rick and Morty and Orange Rick vs QT Marshall and the Beaver Boys, and Best Friends did their Best Friends stuff, and Orange Cassidy made Jim Cornette angrily shit himself by being arguably the most over guy on the roster. And since it's AEW, there was even more tag team action as Kenny (dressed as a character from a game I've never ever heard of) and the Bucks (again as Ken and Ryu) took on Kip Sabian and The Hybrid 2. I really get a kick out of Jack Evans; he's really freakishly athletic and his character is just such a cocky cock about it that it makes me smile. It was really good television and really good wrestling and I want more.
Then there was actual NXT, where we opened with Poppy doing one of her songs while a montage of bits of NXT TV was shown, and transitioning into another one of her songs when Io Shirai came out to do battle with Candice LeRae. *insert "chef's kiss" gif here* While this wasn't as mind-blowingly awesome as their battle at TakeOver XXV, it was still a great build and LeRae only lost when Shirai used underhanded tactics, thus keeping their feud alive and escalating it even further by my Murder Queen trying to wreck LeRae with the steel chair but my Destruction Goddess Rhea Ripley came in to make the save, and again, it's not like Ripley is trying so much to save her friends but rather destroy her enemies, which is keeping the tweener vibe alive. After than, Finn came out to cut a promo which was not so much of an explanation as it was a statement of intent and while I understand people have a problem with Finn taking a shot at main roster booking regarding him and The Fiend Bray Wyatt, I thought this was by far the best promo of Finn's WWE career. Some people called it tentative, and I can understand that because the only heel we've ever seen of Fergal is him in New Japan where most of his speaking was absolutely laden with expletives so it's going to be a bit of an adjustment from Heel Prince Devitt to Heel Finn Balor because he's a bit hamstrung by the PG rating. But damn, this was just a fucking badass promo regardless. When he said, "I don't watch this business; this business watches me", I got funny tingles in my bikini area. And during his entrance and exit, no more arm-raising... just sheer attitude. And I know that Johnny is every heel's favorite punching bag and he's going to go down at War Games, but I'm really looking forward to this match, possibly more than any other. Then we got the battle of the Aussies as Bronson Reed took on Shane Thorne, and both guys looked really solid and Reed came out on top by splashing all 300-odd pounds of him off the top and onto Shane. Look, Shane Thorne is a really solid performer but I totally feel that he could start to take the Kassius Ohno role here of being the guy who can do all the good wrestling but still put some of the newer talent over, and I'm okay with that. Every brand needs that kind of performer. Then came a match that absolutely 100% should have headlined, and I kind of understood why it didn't but whatever, and that was Team Kick vs the Kabuki Warriors for the Women's tag titles. The Manager watched this with me after having seen it earlier in the evening and told me that it dragged a little, and I understand why she felt that way because it was a lot of Dakota Kai being isolated by Asuka and Kairi but that was just strong in-ring storytelling for me, and it made the hot tag to Tegan even bigger. The use and specifically the hiding of the use of the Green Mist to win the match was done better than it had been done since Asuka started using it, and it was done in a way that also made Team Kick like very strong competitors. After the champs left, it was time for Shayna and her horsies to make their appearance and they were just about to put Tegan on the shelf again when my Destruction Goddess came back in and started throwing hands which was then followed by my Murder Queen attacking my Destruction Goddess and then Bianca Belair coming out to beat up Ripley and then Candice coming out as well, and bodies were flying everywhere until Mr. Regal came out on his Tower of Power (that's what I'm calling it, and if you don't like it, suggest your own name) and said this whole brouhaha could be settled with those two little words.
And there you have it. The first women's War Games match in history, and I am psyched as all hell for this. And as of today, the battle lines were drawn: it's going to be Rhea, Candace and Tegan vs Shayna, Bianca and Io with each team being given one more person they can pick. I honestly don't know who could fill out the heel team, but it seems pretty clear that the babyfaces will probably have Dakota on their end. I would kind of love it if the heels turned to the UK and brought over someone like Jazzy Gabert or even Kay Lee Ray.
But there was more show! We were next given Cameron Grimes vs Tyler Bate, and boy howdy, I am constantly impressed by what Bate is able to do at such a young age. He may not be the best promo in the business, but he can just go for days in that ring. He's just fucking great, and I was a little bummed that Killian Dain had to get involved in this for Grimey to get the win, but I don't think I'll stop being impressed by the Cave-In as a finisher. It just looks fucking devastating and strong enough to stop someone like Bate. After that was the main event, where Undisputed Era's Fish and O'Reilly met Matt Riddle and Keith Lee and yeah, it was as good as you would think it would be. It was also a bit of a bummer that this ended with some interference but it was all a setup for Tommaso to come out to help out the faces and declare that he's going to war.
It's just these kind of things that make Wednesday nights so special as far as pro wrestling is concerned. Both of these shows have a clear investment in their talent and in their fan base, and they really want to tell stories that make you want to keep coming back. It's almost an embarrassment of riches instead of the main roster shows just being rich in embarrassment.
Comments
Post a Comment