As someone that saw this play out it is well worth a look.
Not following WWE. Just checked on SummerSlam to see if they finally ended the Bloodline Story like they should have done months ago. At least this time they could have done a cathartic thing and let Jey win the title. Nope, still doing the same thing.
I have a theory that the WWE will leave the title on Roman until MJF comes over (if he does) his debut match comes in and pins, we have the “I’m better than you, and you know it” reign.
I hope that also means you’re also going to All In tomorrow; if so, enjoy!
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Live events are a unique experience. One memory I will treasure forever was being able to catch a WWE Smackdown taping back in 2006-2007. I had seen The Undertaker’s entrance countless times on tv and PPV, but getting to see it live was an experience I will never forget…
Finally taking time to recap what I did last weekend where I traveled to London primarily for wrestling.
Flew out on friday as budget Airline RyanAir offers a direct flight from my hometown Klagenfurt to London Stansted. However, this being Stansted it also takes a while to get into London with the Stansted Express and the tube. Also didn’t help that the flight was delayed for an hour.
Saturday morning I went some sightseeing and shopping, including the London Lego Store and the London Warhammer Store where I picked up some Forge World models that I plan to work on in the fall.
Saturday Night I had a ticket for RevPro’s 11th Anniversary show in the Copper Box Arena. The match that made me buy the ticket was of course Shingo Takagi vs. Will Ospreay, but the card was pretty stacked without me knowing that as I don’t follow the promotion. The six-man scramble for the Cruiserweight belt was an amazing spot fest (which I like), Katsuyori Shibata’s entrance blew the roof off as everyone went mad (including myself). Tomohiro Ishii vs. Luke Jacobs was unbelievable. I also thoroughly enjoyed chanting “Fuck the Tories” during Zack Sabre Jr.'s match.
The semi-main event was a title match between Michael Oku and Trent Seven with just the right amount of overbooking to make it fun soap opera wrestling and Oku is really fucking over. And then of course the main event between Ospreay and Shingo which held what it promised from their previous encounters, but it was quite a sprint as they finished in just barely over 20 minutes. Afterward Zack Sabre Jr. came out to challenge Ospreay, and separate from that Chris Jericho showed up to attack Ospreay ahead of their All In match.
The show was fantastic top to bottom. The only negative I can say is two stupid groups of fans, one of which I sat almost directly next to, who were chanting “Hardcore Country” back and fourth during the women’s threeway match with Mickey James, basically ruining that match.
On Sunday, as a warm up, I went to tiny Indy show in the Stanley Arts centre in Croyden, which seats only about 50 people with the ring in it. It was promoted by Colosseum Wrestling and I only went there because SuperEyepatchWolf was working the show in his heel persona as Lesly Bestington.
The show however was great with some fine wrestling on display. I particularly liked a four-way match between JJ Gale (who worked the RevPro show the night before), Scotty Rawk, and two others I unfortunately don’t know.
Bestington showed up, interrupting a women’s match trying to recruit either but then introducing his own combatant there. This was really fun with SEW getting thrown around at one point. Just fun heel shenanigans with comeuppance.
Unfortunately I “had” to duck out of the show early. I wanted to get to All In early to see the pre-show, but that would be in vein anyway.
At Wembley I found out that my backpack was too large so I had to take it to a drop-off point with an enormous queue. This meant I only barely made it into the arena for the first match on Zero Hour with MJF and Adam Cole beating Aussie Open for the ROH tag straps.
The show was fantastic top to bottom to the point where I am not sure where to start. Unfortunately the match outcomes were largely predictable but that doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing. It does annoy me though that they used Shida as a transitional champion just to hand a “feel good moment” to the crowed in the women’s four-way match with Saraya getting the belt. At least it fuels a good story as Toni Storm is fun in her heel antics.
The Stadium Stampede match had a lot of fun moment, even though we spotted Sue’s van from the stands. Not much wrestling in here, but adding a bit of hardcore garbage for variety is always fun.
But nothing could possibly beat the drama of the main event between Adam Cole and MJF. I really, really enjoy this storyline and they were my favorite segments when I was catching up with the TV shows in the weeks ahead of this weekend. The match itself was some great drama and you could really see how Cole was escalating things here and MJF was just wanting a friend really. Just fantastic character work from all around. The only thing I don’t like is how it completely emasculates Roderick Strong in the entire thing who I think is kind of wasted.
All In was fantastic and just being part of it in the stadium was thoroughly worth the entire weekend. Having gotten to see a bunch of fantastic wrestling live adds just the cherry on top.
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One thing I didn’t talk about regarding All In, as it didn’t directly pertain to my personal experience in the moment, was an event that happened backstage. Apparently CM Punk started a confrontation with Jack Perry as Perry was coming from his match and Punk was going to his match during the Wembley Show.
This has lead to an internal investigation resulting in CM Punk being fired from the company. A very bold move particularly with two shows in Chicago immediately afterward. However, the only correct one in my opinion.
CM Punk has to be the biggest idiot in wrestling. He comes back. He gets everything he wants, has a program for the ages with MJF. He gets crowned champion and even is held on during injuries. He even gets off the hook for the first fight he started at All Out last year, and the whiny ass airing of dirty laundry. He still gets brought back, gets his own TV show where he gets to decide who even is in the building. And he has to ruin it with bullshit.
I hope at least Tony Khan learns something from this ordeal.
I’m biased. I have no nostalgia for CM Punk because I didn’t watch any of his stuff in RoH or WWE. I never liked him, and I’m glad he’s gone. He was a constant source of problems backstage despite, as you said, being given everything he could possibly want.
He forced Tony’s hand; this was his second violent altercation with coworkers in a year’s time, and he allegedly lunged at Tony too. He had to go.
Judging by Collision, even Chicago understands. They could only muster up a ten-second “CM Punk” whimper.
I look forward to dirt sheet gossip being about the 50/50 chance of Booker T having a reasonable or idiotic take on something again.
It’s official, CM Punk has lost Chicago. There were a few weak “CM Punk” chants during All Out, but the crowd was chanting “Oh, cry me a river” (the phrase that sparked Punk’s second bout of violence and subsequent firing) during the Young Bucks’ (two of people on the receiving end of his first bout of violence) match.
Watched All Out tonight. Holy crap, Omega vs. Takeshita was a total barn burner. Easily a contender for MOTY.
I also wondered what they would set as the main event with three suitable matches including the above and Danielson vs. Starks. But I think they absolutely made the right choice with having Moxley and Orange Cassidy close the show. Even if it was from a technical point of view a weaker match, but man those emotional stakes on even a rather short build. And what a war of attrition the match turned out to be.
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This is an absolutely genius idea. No notes. Perfection.
I wonder if some other live entertainment could also host events in unusual venues to sell tickets. Instead of seeing your favorite band perform at a concert venue, you could see them on a train, at an aquarium, or an ice skating rink.
The closest to this I’ve seen are DJs throwing parties at swimming pools.
All that said, I don’t think any other kind of live entertainment is going to take advantage of the unusual venue nearly as well as pro wrestling. It just gets even better if the venue lets you damage their stuff, or lets you put in props and such. Just imagine pro wrestling in a grocery store. Smacking each other around with some frozen turkeys. Body slam into the cereal display, and the shelves go over like dominos.
Waste of perfectly good food, though.
Pro wrestling also has the advantage that there is a lot of novelty in being so close to the action.
DDT has actually been doing this kind of stuff for years. This includes a match wrestling through an empty Tokyo Dome, wrestling at a camp site, and the direct predecessor of the above match, a “train match” where they are on a train and at each stop more wrestlers enter the match.
No need to imagine that, Stone Cold and Booker T did that in 2001.
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That’s awesome, but it wasn’t a public event where they sold tickets and we could all go to the grocery store and get rowdy.
I don’t think a grocery store wouldn’t work too well for a live wrestling match because the shelves would block line of sight. A mostly open space, like when Taskmaster rented out Gatwick when it was closed, would be perfect.
Ok, I got it.
A whole ass building, like a mansion, school, office, whatev. All the ticket holders are there and so are the wrestlers. You set it up like one of those murder mystery dinner party deals. Everyone is free to walk about the place, but you never know when there’s gonna be some wrasslin’!
That’d work much better. Have a few big names and a bunch of indie wrestlers as plants to do “spontaneous” wrestling with.
I imagine a legit attempt at one of those 24/7 title shots at a convention. Starts at the line for autographs and works its way through the entire event with a ref and camera trying to capture it all, people’s footage on social media supplements the other angles. Pin comes unexpectedly in a random hallway or central area where people are chasing to see the action