The promo by itself was good for a heel stable. Going on about how yummy Excalibur is immediately after kinda ruined it, though.
https://twitter.com/kagiriarumori/status/1529484163773976576
Best of the Super Juniors has been great so far.
Three, since he was content with torching Danielson too if it meant he would get Jericho.
Good point. The whole match was pure garbage wrestling, and I loved every minute of it.
Overall, Double or Nothing was a really good show from a wrestling perspective. However, I found myself skipping through it a lot because I didn’t really have any emotional investment in like 80% of the card because many of the buildups were either underdeveloped, feuds that have already run too long, or weren’t built up at all.
I think they particularly botched the Owen’s women’s bracket. That Adam Cole was going to beat Joe was kind of a given, considering Joe already has a title and they desperately want to give Cole some legitimate hardware (The BTE Championship doesn’t really count), and with Cole winning it was obvious that Britt was going to win too since she and Cole are an off-screen and semi-onscreen couple. Had they allowed Toni Storm to beat Britt, it would have been much interesting with a novel matchup at the PPV and they could have found something else for Britt to do, i.e. build up a feud where she and Cole try to get the women’s Owen belt.
Bucks vs. Hardys was also a bit of a disappointment, and that feud was built much more on BTE than Dynamite or Rampage, kind of being kicked off in the last week or so before the PPV. It was also not anything to write home about from a wrestling perspective. Darby vs. KOR also had no reason to be on the PPV, and the Men of the Year/Sammy feud should have ended three weeks ago, preferably with Scorpio staying face and feuding with Ethan Paige. Death Triangle vs. House of Black at least was fantastic from a wrestling perspective and had a nice twist at the end, but those teams do need to stay away from each other for a long time.
I also just can’t get myself to give a rats ass about Serena Deeb. But hey, there is a new arrival in the women’s division I am very excited about.
At the very least though, MJF vs. Wardlow kept pretty much what I expected and seeing MJF get his comeuppance does good for the soul. JAS vs. Kingston/P&P/BCC was extremely entertaining in a barbaric way, and the tag team triple threat and the World Title match were very good, even if a bit sloppy.
P.S.: I fully expected to hear a coin drop after the main event, but I guess that was too much to hope for.
Cody Rhodes is absolutely insane. He went into Hell in a Cell with a torn pec. There was a very audible gasp when he took off his jacket and everyone could see his massive bruise, and it just got bigger and darker as the match went on.
He and Seth put on a fantastic show, but it was 30 minutes long! With a torn pec! By the end of the match, the bruise was almost big enough to cover up his neck tattoo.
He got a lot of flack near the end of his AEW run, but you can’t question the man’s dedication to what he does…or his madness. I hope he got to a local medical facility as soon as the match finished.
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Karen interviewed CyberFight CEO and bonafide Pro Wrestling Legend Sanshiro Takagi on her channel. Hopefully that gets her some more exposure because she is really underappreciated.
I hope Jeff Hardy can get the help he needs. I also hope he stays the hell off the road and off TV. This is his fifth DUI. He was driving a car that was supposed to have an immobilizer (but didn’t), he had a suspended license, and he had a BAC of 0.294.
I just finished Forbidden Door, the PPV co-promoted by AEW and NJPW and wow, what a show. Top to bottom fantastic matches, even the pre-show had some good ones in there. There were also some surprises that I didn’t expected. And the crowd was at a boiling point for almost the entire night. Nobody left that arena that wasn’t exhausted.
Not going to do a full rundown, but you should absolutely watch it if you are a fan of either promotion, or even just wrestling in general. Some notes:
- Overall it felt more of an AEW PPV than an NJPW PPV, but that was kind of to be expected.
- It is kind of unfortunate that Tomohiro Ishii couldn’t make it due to injury, but his replacement, recent NJPW LA dojo graduate Clark Connors really connected with the crowd.
- FUCKING KATSUYORI SHIBATA!!!
- The man everybody thought was going to be Bryan Danielson’s replacement was in fact his replacement. But man, what a pop for his debut. Fantastic match with ZSJ too.
- After the main event was a rather unnecessary brawl, but that is basically the only blemish on the PPV itself.
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Forbidden Door
Hiromu and Ishii from NJPW couldn’t make it due to injuries. Kevin Kelly, one of the the NJPW English commentators fit in really well at the announce desk. The NJPW wrestlers clearly enjoyed being able to perform in front of a crowd that’s allowed to chant and cheer (we’re still not allowed to in Japan, yet), and the Chicago crowd was on fire all night.
Spoilers
The first two matches on the Buy In sure were serviceable.
Swerve Strickland & Keith Lee vs. El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru had some really fun spots playing up the size difference between the two teams and made sure everybody looked good.
The AssClaimed vs. NJPW LA Dojo was meant to be 4v4, but the Ass Boys were lured away by Danhousen, so it ended up being Billy Gunn and Max Castor vs the lads from the Dojo, who looked fantastic. The first thing the did was toss Billy Gunn (who’s billed as 6’ 3", 260lbs, and 5 months off from 60). Gunn set Castor up to get the pin and win the match.
Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and Minoru Suzuki vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta, and Shota Umino - It’s always nice to see Murder Grandpa (he got a massive pop); less nice to see Guevara, who has the second worst hair in professional wrestling. Kingston and Suzuki are two of maybe four wrestlers who I can believe walk into the ring to commit actual violence, and they were fantastic together. Really good in-ring storytelling, especially Umino putting the Walls of Jericho on Jericho (they have history). Everybody looked good, especially the young guys.
Roppongi Vice vs. FTR vs. Jeff Cobb and Great O-Khan - Winner takes the RoH and IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team chapmionships. Unfortunately the bad kind of three team tag team match with only two people in the ring at a time. Dax Harwood of FTR went to the back early because of an “injury”. Cash, his partner, kept going back to their corner, only to find nobody there. He looked fantastic until Dax came back out with his shoulder taped up. Cobb and O-Khan were big, strong men who did big, strong man things. Rocky Romero practiced what the the announcers called “sneaky style” very well. FTR took home their third pair of tag team titles and continue to be Top Guys.
Clark Conners vs. PAC vs. Malakai Black vs. Miro - for the Atlantic Championship. Conners was a last minute substitution since Ishii injured his knee. Black continues to have the most dangerous looking kicks and knee strikes in the business and Miro looks like even more of a monster since he’s slimmed down for his return. They had a disagreement about how to best beat up PAC that Miro won. Conners got a table spot and Chicago loved it. He also powerslams nearly as good as Randy Orton does, which is saying a lot. Miro got misted by Black and PAC takes advantage to to get the pin. The crowd chanted “You deserve it” and they were absolutely correct. This was the first time I’ve seen Clark Conners, but he was really impressive and has a bright future ahead of him. It looks like they’re setting Miro up to go kill some pagan gods (House of Black) before he settles his feud with the Christian one.
Bullet Club (El Phantasmo and the Young Bucks, with Hikuleo) vs. Dudes with Attitude (Sting, Darby Allin, and Shingo Takagi) - Hikuleo is only “with” because Hiromu is out with a fever. Sting can teleport, because of course he can, but that’s only because he’s too old to jump from the rafters now. He’s 63 but he still looks great because he’s very protected and isn’t made to do too much physical work. Darby acted like the rare face with a brain by taking out Hikuleo with his skateboard after the teleport. The Bullet Club had two very fun, very silly back rakes. Two purple nurples, two nutshots, and it looked like Phantasmo lost a tooth to a headbutt. Never had to wonder whether Darby had killed himself though, which is unusual.
Jericho threw a fireball at Umino because he’s a wizard.
Thunder Rosa vs. Toni Storm - Rosa had cooler face paint than usual. Very stiff match, but pretty meh.
Orange Cassidy vs. Will Osprey with Aussie Open - JR gets a huge pop coming out to call the match. OC tried! Osprey looked fantastic, but he always does. He’s such a good athlete and such a good asshole and he spent a lot of time showboating. They did a really good job selling OC living rent-free in Osprey’s head. The ending sequence was really really fun. When Shibata (who nearly headbutted himself to death before returning earlier this year) came out during the postmatch brawl, Osprey looked like he was going to shit his pants.
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. ??? (Claudio Castagnoli, formerly known as Caesaro) - This was supposed to be a technical match with ZSJ vs Brian Danielson, but he’s injured, so we got Claudio instead, and he got HUGE applause for his debut. His music is so good. Apparently he told the music guy he wanted Andrew WK/1812 Overture. It’s called Uppercut Swingphony (on account of him uppercutting and swinging people). I’m certainly happy to see him wrestling again.
The ref had no patience for ZSJ continuing holds past the five count. ZSJ is such a dangerous bendy grapply man, but Claudio countered with muscles. Apparently his finisher is called the Ricola Bomb now, and he used it to get the win. Hell of a debut.
Jay White with Gedo vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Adam Cole vs. Adam Page - Adam Cole injured his shoulder (?), and I wish him a slow, but full, recovery because I’m glad he’s going to be off TV for a while because I think his wrestling is boring. I can suspend my disbelief for a zombie wizard, but the Panama Sunrise is only impressive in that it can make a destroyer look lame.
White just won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Okada, so this is a rematch of a sort. Lots of “can they work together” energy from White and Cole. They used to be in the same heel stable, but during the build to this match, White has been acting like Cole is beneath his notice. Cole inevitably stabs White in the back. Okada teased the Rainmaker for ages, but never got to hit it. Very sudden finish because Cole apparently got concussed at some point.
Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - Both guys looked really strong, but there was no way Tanahashi was going to take the interim title back to Japan. Moxley bled a lot, but it looked like accidental blood not on purpose blood. Very sports entertaining.
JAS comes out after the match to punch Moxley a bunch before Blood and Guts on Wednseday. BCC comes out to fight them off. Claudio swings Daniel Garcia for 30 seconds because he didn’t get to swing ZSJ enough earlier.
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Recently a scandal rocked WWE wherein it was uncovered that Vince McMahon had payed hush money to an employee who he and John Laurinaitis had sexual relationships with. This forced him to step back from some backroom roles while still retaining control of creative, as the board began an investigation. Laurinaitis for his part was removed from his position as head of Talent Relations. McMahon has now announced his retirement.
Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan (no relationship to the Khan family that owns AEW and ROH) are now Co-CEOs of the company. Paul Levesque a.k.a. Triple H, Stephanie’s husband, has also returned to the company after being forced out of it about a year ago because the plan of having NXT run head to head with AEW Dynamite failed. He is now EVP of Talent Relations.
Longtime producer Kevin “fifteen camera cuts in two seconds” Dunn is also rumored to be on his way out.
An investigation into McMahon’s hush money turned up…something else.
This was a very good weekend for wrestling. The UK got their first WWE PPV in 30 years and the crowd was white hot. Gunther and Sheamus stole the match of the night on Saturday. The boring Samoan did boring Samoan things with his boring Samoan relative whose gimmick was “I’m not like the other boring Samoans”.
AEW paid Rolling Stones royalties! For teh lulz! They licensed “Sympathy for the Devil” for an “Unknown Wrestler” who got revealed at the end of the show. “Oh, scissor me, daddy” was the most over chant of the night during what was probably the best match of the night. There was a long-built re-betrayal.
CM Punk got an undeserved win after getting squashed two weeks ago; the crowd turned on him, on CM Punk, in Chicago, and boy did he have opinions to share post match. He came out with a shovel and Tony Khan just sat there gormlessly smiling and nodding while Punk threw people under every bus he could find. He was away from wrestling for a long time and away is the best place he can go back to; he adds nothing that others can’t provide and brings a closet full of grudges.
The NXT parking lot in Orlando continues to be the wrestler with the longest undefeated streak in the world. Other than one match, WWE chose this weekend to say, "Fuck the UK (and also Ireland).|
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So All Out happened. Unfortunately it was really not as good as it could have been and now the events of the night have been completely overshadowed. Lets keep this short. SPOILERS AHEAD
Eddie Kingston vs. Tomohiro Ishii absolutely ruled and deserved to be on the main show.
Casino Ladder match was great up to the point when the Joker was about to enter the match. Then some nonsense happened with masked guys storming the ring, beating everybody down and another masked man climbing the ladder and retrieving the casino chip marking the winner. The man reveals himself to be stokely hathaway and the other people reveal themselves to be the people he has been making offers over the past couple of weeks. Only then the joker enters to Sympathy for the Devil, wearing a special mask. Takes the chip and is declared the winner. He teases to unmask himself but refuses and walks out. It was really bizarre and tanked the match IMHO. Could have easily been saved if the joker himself had climbed the ladder and taken the chip for himself.
Elite vs. Hangman and Dark order was fantastic. Reynolds and Silver looked fantastic even though they definitely had the least big match experience, and it had some great storyhooks in there.
Cargill vs. Athena was a bit sloppy and fine. Best part was unfortunately both wrestlers entrances. I thoroughly disagree with the result. A title change was absolutely necessary here because I have no idea how it makes sense to continue with Cargill as champion. It feels like her reign had run its course and there are no credible challengers left.
Swerve in our Glory vs. the Acclaimed unfortunately had a similar result I disagree with for different reasons. Strickland and Lee are good champions and can continue, but it feels like a waste not putting it on The Acclaimed there because I can’t imagine them getting any hotter than they are now. The match itself was also absolutely amazing and a star-making performance for Bowens and Caster.
The women’s four-way was good and the right person won. Enough said.
Christian Cage vs. “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry was a complete waste. Luchasaurus attacked JB during the entrance for no apparent reason and it was a minute long squash even though I think they could have had a great match. I have no idea where this storyline is going now.
Jericho vs. Danielson was very good. Allin, Sting and Miro vs. House of Black was similar but had no reason to be on the show.
Main event with Punk vs. Moxley was decent, but a very bloody schmaz most of the time and wasn’t all that interesting to actually observe. This storyline needed a lot more time to breathe (as did Punk’s conditioning), but they basically ran a “hero gets defeated, finds his groove again and wins” in just two weeks which simply didn’t work (and CM Punk’s status as a hero is now thoroughly in question after the events of the press conference, more on that in a moment).
After the main event, the arena goes dark and a voice message from Tony Khan is played. The winner of the Casino Ladder match is shown from behind, taking off his mask and putting on a scarf. Out walks MJF and the arena goes nuts. He indicates his desire for the belt as the show fades out.
MJF’s return should have been the big story here. Unfortuntely the Press Conference that followed basically turned everything upside down. Punk has his turn and unpromptedly just takes a giant dump on Colt Cabana. He then proceeds to throw Hangman Page under the bus simply because Hangman cut a promo he didn’t like during their feud. Worst of all he calls out the EVPs, meaning Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, and doesn’t even deign to refer them by name. Meanwhile Tony Khan was just sitting next to him doing nothing.
It has been reported there has been a major altercation backstage afterward between Punk and the Bucks which turned physical. It has also been reported that The Elite went as far as to threaten to walk out of the company. Just a complete shitshow. This also comes on the heels of a much smaller altercation between Eddie Kingston and Sammy Guevara a couple of weeks ago, for which both were suspended.
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In the fallout, everybody even remotely involved in the locker room brawl has been suspended. This includes backstage personnell. It has also been reported that CM Punk needs another surgery due to an injury that occurred in the ring before that. An internal investigation is ongoing.
Dynamite from Buffalo starts and Tony Khan makes an announcement that the AEW World Championship and the new AEW Trios Championship have been vacated. This seems fair and correct in my opinion. A tournament for the World title is announce featuring Hangman Page vs. Daniel Bryan, the winner of which will face Chris Jericho, and Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara, whose winner will face Jon Moxley. The final will be held at Grand Slam in two weeks and crown a new champion. A new championship team for the trios title would be crowned in the opening contest of this Dynamite between Death Triangle and Best Friends. Khan is okay but they could really use someone with more on-screen presence for these kinds of announcements. Regal would be excellent for that job but of course he is basically occupied as the manager for a stable.
MJF walks out in a Buffalo Bills jersey and gets a lot of cheers. He cuts a promo and while he fires some barbs, he is bizarrely jovial and actually kind of friendly, going for cheap pops etc. I was wondering if they are turning him face. Jon Moxley comes to the ring and MJF almost immediately reverts back. Insults Buffalo and the Bills, tears off his jersey etc. Moxley challenges him to a fight. MJF tears of his shirt but of course leaves the ring. Would have loved for Moxley to say “now that’s coward shit” but not sure how that would have ended. In any case, Moxley proceeds to cut an excellent impassionate promo. Never should have taken the title off him.
The rest of the show is also very, very good, with great matches for the trios title, Hangman vs. Danielson, and the main event in a Ring of Honor Pure title match between Wheeler Yuta and Daniel Garcia. Generally, it kind of felt like the show was telling both parties from that brawl at All Out that AEW can function without them if that really needs to be the case.
I quite honestly haven’t been watching a whole lot of wrestling recently. I’ve been keeping up with AEW but mostly just been skipping through things. The G1 was of course great in the summer, and Full Gear was a very good show, but they weren’t really that exciting to write about.
Regardless of that, I’ve been catching up with AEW’s weekly shows and on wednesday’s Dynamite there was an amazing promo segment between the new AEW World Champion MJF, and his new challenger Ricky Starks. I don’t think they are going to take the title of MJF any time soon, but if Ricky can deliver promos like this in the future and with the very decent in-ring skills he has, I wouldn’t be too mad about if the got the title in 6 months to a year.
Very good promos from both of them…then Ricky Starks speared him out of his shoes!
In other wrestle news, I’m going to Wrestle Kingdom (which is on a Wednesday because it MUST be on the 4th) and am so excited to get to see Kenny Omega (and other very good wrestlers who aren’t Kenny) live. We were going to go to Great Muta’s “Final Bye Bye”…but Kenny got announced.
The government’s even agreed to pay half the cost of the trip through Go To Travel, which is very kind of them.
Oh, congrats. Not sure if you have time for other shows during your trip, but I can definitely recommend the Tokyo Joshi Pro show that they always have starting around noon at Korakuen Hall (a 5 minute walk from the Dome) on the 4th. It’s a good warmup for WK. There is also Puwota, a site that has a schedule for all shows from all promotions throughout japan. It was incredibly helpful for my trip to WK12. If I was going to WK again, I would definitely try to go to the Noah show at the Budokan on the 1st.