Wrestling shows (AEW/IMPACT/NWA/ROH and others)

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Watched last week's episode of Impact Wrestling, which I enjoyed pretty well. Haven't seen Impact Wrestling in quite a while. I enjoy that Taya Valkyrie is aligned with Havok and Rosemary now.
 
E-Rocker said:
Watched last week's episode of Impact Wrestling, which I enjoyed pretty well. Haven't seen Impact Wrestling in quite a while. I enjoy that Taya Valkyrie is aligned with Havok and Rosemary now.
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Before she went to NXT, she and Rosemary were partners in Impact. They basically just got the band back together, and Havok just adds more muscle to their alliance.

Speaking of NXT: Supposedly WWE Released Mandy Rose after she dropped her title to Roxanne Perez last night. She has an account on FanTime (a site similar to Only Fans), and someone shared NSFW images (and possibly video) that she made available to her subscribers there. She's still listed on the roster on WWE.com at the moment, but the dirt sheets are claiming it isn't that she had a page at this site, but what she was selling. Which is (to me) hypocritical given her whole career was based on the fact she's attractive. Worse, they once told Ember Moon (aka Athena) she should try and look more like Mandy (in other worse, look sexier). Yet Jimmy Uso still has a job after multiple DUI's. Yeah, definitely a double standard if this is all true.
 
IMO, if what has been written about what she had on there is true, and if it's also true that she had been warned about it previously, then I can't fault WWE for releasing her.

There's a difference between being suggestive and being explicit, and we can debate if it should matter, but given how they're trying to stay somewhat family-friendly (and advertiser-friendly too), I can understand their reasoning.

Having said that, I could also see her returning down the line as well.
 
A FanTime or Only Fans or whatever might make her more money than WWE. She's famous, she's pretty, and probably built up quite an audience for it.

I read about the release, didn't hear about this being the reason. Kinda weird to see the outpouring of support for her (as opposed to the many other releases in recent years), but maybe she's super-nice IRL?

urbwar said:
Worse, they once told Ember Moon (aka Athena) she should try and look more like Mandy (in other worse, look sexier).
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They = Johnny Ace?
 
I had not seen in any of the reports I read that she was warned about it previously. Even today, there is conflicting reports on whether she found out Tuesday or they worked it out before hand or they mutually agreed on her leaving. So the whole story isn't really known at this point. It's all speculation (including my own earlier post).
 
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Back in October, Jericho was watching a match between QT Marshall and Action Andretti, who was 0-3 on Dark at that point. Andretti lost, but the crowd loved him. He's another high flyer, but he looked really good in his match with QT. Jericho saw something in Andretti, and decided he was going to help make this kid a star. Last night on Dynamite, he did just that. Now, will AEW actually follow through and push this kid? Here's clips from that match

 
So last night, I went to see AEW here in Portland. It was both Rampage and Battle of the Belts live, and they were filming episodes of Dark and Dark Elevation.

The Dark tapings were mostly squashes, save for two tag matches. Of the squash matches, one stood out. Juice Robinson wrestled someone named Travis Williams. The fans were cheering him, so I suspect he's a local wrestler (there were a few of them on the tapings last night). This kid got in a lot of offense, and looked pretty good too. I suspect he's on their radar.

The two tag matches were Ruby Soho and Willow Nightingale vs Diamante & Emi Sakura. Soho got the first loud pop of the night when she came out. The other match was Claudio & Yuta vs Butcher & Blade. B&B dominated most of the match, with Yuta constantly getting knocked to the floor as Claudio played face in peril. BCC still won, but it was a decent match.

Rampage opened with Top Flight vs Danielson and Moxley. This was a really good match, as Top Flight took it to the main eventers. Dante did an aerial move off the ring steps on Moxley before he even made it to the ring, and it just got better from there. Danielson and Moxley were the crowd favorites, but Top Flight definitely got the fans behind them early into the match.

Brit Baker & Jaime Hayter took on the Renegade Sisters in another good match. I would have thought they'd dominate, but that wasn't the case. The crowd was pretty much behind Baker and Hayter.

The weak match came next, with Preston Vance squashing local luchador Sonico.

Darby Allin defended his newly won TNT title against Mike Bennett of the Kingdom. Another decent match. Darby wrestled his first ever match in Portland, so the crowd was 100% in his corner.

Up next was Battle of the Belts. It started hot with The Acclaimed defending their tag titles against Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal. The highlights of the match (to me) was Billy Gunn using Jarrett's guitar on Santam Singh, Max Caster using the Angle Slam, pretending to pull down his straps, then slapping on the Ankle lock on Jarret, and Aubrey Edwards (who was the most over ref to the crowd) snapping Sonjay's pencil after he put on a ref shirt to try and count a pinfall for his team. She also did a scissor with Gunn and The Acclaimed afterwards.

Here's Max Caster's pre-match rap. If you look closely, Santam Singh actually smiles during part of it.


Jade Cargill wrestled Sky Blue. Except for a cool sequence by Jade at the end to finish, this was a typical Cargill match. She mostly dominated, with Blue getting in offense here and there. Red Velvet came out (as I guess she's on the outs with Jade like Kiera Hogan is), but played no part in the outcome at all.



Orange Cassidy took on Kip Sabian for the All Atlantic belt last. Decent match that saw the Bunny come out and be ejected, Danhausen brawl and get whipped by Butcher & Blade (who then sat at ringside), and Best Friends come out to brawl with B&B to the back.

After that, I left, because I had to be up early for work this morning. I think Tony Khan came out to address the crowd before they taped the Elevation matches. About half the crowd looked to be leaving after the Cassidy match though lol.

Glad they finally made it to Portland, and I hope we get Dynamite some day, because Wednesdays are better for me than a Friday night to see live wrestling.
 
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urbwar said:
So last night, I went to see AEW here in Portland. It was both Rampage and Battle of the Belts live, and they were filming episodes of Dark and Dark Elevation.

The Dark tapings were mostly squashes, save for two tag matches. Of the squash matches, one stood out. Juice Robinson wrestled someone named Travis Williams. The fans were cheering him, so I suspect he's a local wrestler (there were a few of them on the tapings last night). This kid got in a lot of offense, and looked pretty good too. I suspect he's on their radar.

The two tag matches were Ruby Soho and Willow Nightingale vs Diamante & Emi Sakura. Soho got the first loud pop of the night when she came out. The other match was Claudio & Yuta vs Butcher & Blade. B&B dominated most of the match, with Yuta constantly getting knocked to the floor as Claudio played face in peril. BCC still won, but it was a decent match.

Rampage opened with Top Flight vs Danielson and Moxley. This was a really good match, as Top Flight took it to the main eventers. Dante did an aerial move off the ring steps on Moxley before he even made it to the ring, and it just got better from there. Danielson and Moxley were the crowd favorites, but Top Flight definitely got the fans behind them early into the match.

Brit Baker & Jaime Hayter took on the Renegade Sisters in another good match. I would have thought they'd dominate, but that wasn't the case. The crowd was pretty much behind Baker and Hayter.

The weak match came next, with Preston Vance squashing local luchador Sonico.

Darby Allin defended his newly won TNT title against Mike Bennett of the Kingdom. Another decent match. Darby wrestled his first ever match in Portland, so the crowd was 100% in his corner.

Up next was Battle of the Belts. It started hot with The Acclaimed defending their tag titles against Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal. The highlights of the match (to me) was Billy Gunn using Jarrett's guitar on Santam Singh, Max Caster using the Angle Slam, pretending to pull down his straps, then slapping on the Ankle lock on Jarret, and Aubrey Edwards (who was the most over ref to the crowd) snapping Sonjay's pencil after he put on a ref shirt to try and count a pinfall for his team. She also did a scissor with Gunn and The Acclaimed afterwards.

Here's Max Caster's pre-match rap. If you look closely, Santam Singh actually smiles during part of it.


Jade Cargill wrestled Sky Blue. Except for a cool sequence by Jade at the end to finish, this was a typical Cargill match. She mostly dominated, with Blue getting in offense here and there. Red Velvet came out (as I guess she's on the outs with Jade like Kiera Hogan is), but played no part in the outcome at all.



Orange Cassidy took on Kip Sabian for the All Atlantic belt last. Decent match that saw the Bunny come out and be ejected, Danhausen brawl and get whipped by Butcher & Blade (who then sat at ringside), and Best Friends come out to brawl with B&B to the back.

After that, I left, because I had to be up early for work this morning. I think Tony Khan came out to address the crowd before they taped the Elevation matches. About half the crowd looked to be leaving after the Cassidy match though lol.

Glad they finally made it to Portland, and I hope we get Dynamite some day, because Wednesdays are better for me than a Friday night to see live wrestling.
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I've not seen Claudio Castignoli wrestle live in years. I'd go to an AEW show just to see that. I mean, I'd have to walk out before Orange Cassidy and Kip Sabian on principle... But otherwise that all sounds like a pretty fun night.

Billy Gunn still looking like a tank?
 
Chaotic Wooster said:
I've not seen Claudio Castignoli wrestle live in years. I'd go to an AEW show just to see that. I mean, I'd have to walk out before Orange Cassidy and Kip Sabian on principle... But otherwise that all sounds like a pretty fun night.

Billy Gunn still looking like a tank?
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Claudio didn't really get to show how good he is in this match, as he was the "face in peril" for the match. He still got to do some stuff, but no swing. He did hit the flip the opponent up in the air then uppercut him though. I kind of wish they'd bring in Chris Hero just to see the Kings of Wrestling together one last time. I loved that tag team.

Gunn was wearing a pink t-shirt, but last time I saw him wrestle (before his sons turned on the Acclaimed), he looked ripped. He got in a really good guitar shot on Santam Singh last night, and the big guy fell back into the corner.

Cassidy wasn't doing much in the way of comedy last night; I've noticed he's been a bit more serious in matches. Sabian on the other hand, did some of Cassidy's old lazy strikes, which ticked Orange off lol. The Acclaimed match was the best of Battle of the Belts, with Cassidy vs Sabian being second (cause no matter what, no why Skye Blue was beating Jade Cargill, who is now 48-0). I wonder who will hand Cargill her first loss.

Rampage (other than the Preston Vance squash match) was better than Battle of the Belts by far. These were literally all secondary belts for the most part on BotB.
 
A Kings of Wrestling reunion would be good. Doesn't seem impossible, either. Though the clock is probably ticking on it now. Has Hero done anything since leaving WWE?

Gunn probably had to swing the guitar full force for Singh to notice and sell it.

Jade Cargill's win streak has been handled well, and she is slowly getting better. I don't know why she's got the spot she has, but that goes for half the roster, so what do I know? Her first loss, when it comes, ought to be a big deal. I'm conflicted in my feeling that she needs to be the dominant women's champion when the loss comes, but that she's nowhere near good enough yet (and the booking of the women is bad, and the women's roster isn't full of great workers to prop her up) for that.

While I've no interest in Sabian (sorry to my fellow Brit), I liked him shooting down Lacey Evans' recent horseshit about autism.
 
I'm kind of hoping someone like Jaimie Hayter is the one to end Jade's streak. I didn't pay attention to her at first, but as she slowly moved into winning the Women's world title, I see she's pretty badass. She's pretty smashmouth, and seems the kind of person Jade could have a good match with if they do more brawling. I totally agree about her streak. It started much like Goldberg's, but she's had better competition, and I think her short feud with Nyla Rose helped. I think her actually working with Danielson has helped her a bit; that last spot in her match with Skye (in the video I linked) could have gone horribly wrong. The fact she pulled it off shows she has gotten better in some respects (even if she's still kind of one dimensional), and Skye trusted her enough to do that sequence on her. It was something I was glad to see live.

I haven't been following what Hero has done since he was last in WWE. I know he was in NXT UK before he got released, and that was it.
Kudos to Sabian for calling out Evans on her BS. She's an idiot for that. I also think it cost her another push. Everytime is seems WWE is going to pull the trigger on her, she posts something stupid online, and they pull back on pushing her. She has only herself to blame.

Santam is a beast. After that shot, he did Chokeslam both of the Acclaimed, and even a ref. I hope when he finally gets to wrestle, he's not another Khali though.
 
AEW has a handful of decent-to-good women to build a division around, but the overall booking has been bad for a long time. Though, it seems improved of late, which is a good sign. I'm just so used to every company dropping the ball or returning the bad booking that I refuse to get too excited yet. Maybe 2023 will the be the year AEW starts to take the women's division seriously. But since it's always (sadly) the ratings low point of the show, I don't know. My simple logic would be to focus on the few really good women you've got, and chuck the rest back to the Indys and Japan. AEW's logic is to put them on before the main event every week.

Yeah, Hero did a short stint in NXT UK. I haven't seen anything of him since.

Lacey Evans is... Weird. You'd think she'd be good at this wrestling stuff. She's pretty tough, not too small, athletic and so on. But it's just flop-repackage-flop-repackage-flop. It feels like her recent restart has floundered too, but maybe it's just been slowed due to the festive season and the lack of a PPV. Personally, I'd fire her for her stupid twitter rants, but I'd fire a looot of wrestlers if I did that every time. Sabian deals with mental health/learning disabilities, it's my professional field. I've no time for her kind of stupid either.

*sigh* Singh chokeslammed the ref? Oh, for an ounce of realism here... Laying a hand on an official really needs to start warranting punishment again. AEW's referees are even more of a joke than the WWE, and that's saying something. I'm expecting nothing from Singh. He's huge, he looks like he's another Omos, but he's every chance to prove me entirely wrong by being even just halfway good. Guess we'll see.
 
Chaotic Wooster said:
AEW has a handful of decent-to-good women to build a division around, but the overall booking has been bad for a long time. Though, it seems improved of late, which is a good sign. I'm just so used to every company dropping the ball or returning the bad booking that I refuse to get too excited yet. Maybe 2023 will the be the year AEW starts to take the women's division seriously. But since it's always (sadly) the ratings low point of the show, I don't know. My simple logic would be to focus on the few really good women you've got, and chuck the rest back to the Indys and Japan. AEW's logic is to put them on before the main event every week.
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Yeah, They've been haphazard with their booking of the women's division. It also doesn't help when Khan invests in Thunder Rosa, then cools on her before she gets injured. These interim championships were also a stupid idea. I'm interested in seeing where this thing with Saraya and Shida goes, if it is anything (ie her not looking pleased when Saraya chose Storm as her partner against Baker & Hayter).

A prime example is Mercedes Martinez. She ends up RoH women's champ. Has what? 1 or 2 matches before dropping the belt to Athena. Martinez can go in the ring, and they haven't used that. Same with Serena Deeb. Two quality wrestlers hardly ever on screen. Deeb's feud with Shida months ago was gold, and only Shida is still around.

Chaotic Wooster said:
Lacey Evans is... Weird. You'd think she'd be good at this wrestling stuff. She's pretty tough, not too small, athletic and so on. But it's just flop-repackage-flop-repackage-flop. It feels like her recent restart has floundered too, but maybe it's just been slowed due to the festive season and the lack of a PPV. Personally, I'd fire her for her stupid twitter rants, but I'd fire a looot of wrestlers if I did that every time. Sabian deals with mental health/learning disabilities, it's my professional field. I've no time for her kind of stupid either.
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She was getting some traction on house shows as a face with her Marine gimmick. Then they stopped using her for a bit. Then she came back a heel. Poor booking for her. Of course, her posting dumb shit doesn't help.

Chaotic Wooster said:
*sigh* Singh chokeslammed the ref? Oh, for an ounce of realism here... Laying a hand on an official really needs to start warranting punishment again. AEW's referees are even more of a joke than the WWE, and that's saying something. I'm expecting nothing from Singh. He's huge, he looks like he's another Omos, but he's every chance to prove me entirely wrong by being even just halfway good. Guess we'll see.
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It was an anything goes match, so hitting the ref was within the rules. Lethal took out the first ref when Caster had Jarret in the Ankle lock, then Singh later chokeslammed the second ref to prevent a loss for his guys. Aubrey came out after Sonjay put on his ref shirt and tried to do a pinfall for Lethal and Jarrett. He got in Aubrey's face, and she broke his pencil over her knee before shoving him to the mat (which was kind of funny, if pointless to the overall story of the match).
 
urbwar said:
Martinez can go in the ring, and they haven't used that.
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The best match I've seen live was Mercedes Martinez vs. Kylie Rae in a no-ropes, submission-only match for the Phoenix of Rise Championship at Rise 13: Legendary. Went for something like 45 minutes and was entertaining throughout.
 
E-Rocker said:
The best match I've seen live was Mercedes Martinez vs. Kylie Rae in a no-ropes, submission-only match for the Phoenix of Rise Championship at Rise 13: Legendary. Went for something like 45 minutes and was entertaining throughout.
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I enjoyed watching her in NXT. She had an excellent match with (iirc) Shayna Bazler in the second Mae Young Classic.
 
Mercedes Martinez and Serena Deeb are both such good veterans. If they're not running weekly (mandatory attendance) classes for the other girls, they should be. Saraya has been... Bad. Just seems to have lost whatever she had in NXT/WWE. Maybe she needs to get back into the swing of things, maybe she needs more guidance and production than AEW has to offer. But we got the now cliche 'big pop then nothing' that marks way too many AEW arrivals.

Martinez was THE wrestler to build the RoH women's division around. A tough, bad-ass veteran that the audience can totally buy. I'd pitch Athena as the challenger who can't quite get a clean win over the champion for a long while. I'd also tell her to calm down in-ring and hopefully reduce the number of injuries she causes.

urbwar said:
It was an anything goes match, so hitting the ref was within the rules. Lethal took out the first ref when Caster had Jarret in the Ankle lock, then Singh later chokeslammed the second ref to prevent a loss for his guys. Aubrey came out after Sonjay put on his ref shirt and tried to do a pinfall for Lethal and Jarrett. He got in Aubrey's face, and she broke his pencil over her knee before shoving him to the mat (which was kind of funny, if pointless to the overall story of the match).
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'Anything goes' should not include knackering the referees. I mean, without going down Cornette's "No DQ, Laaazy booking!" rant, AEW has so many No DQ (or variations of same) matches, the referees get laid out so often, and the pre/post/backstage attacks are just endless... Not that it's just an AEW problem, of course. But AEW's issues haven't festered for decades and could easily be fixed.

Who'd referee a match when you can get wiped out by any of the idiots involved without repercussion? I'd bring a baseball bat to protect myself and just start swinging the moment they came near me. After all it's 'anything goes', right?
 
Chaotic Wooster said:
Mercedes Martinez and Serena Deeb are both such good veterans. If they're not running weekly (mandatory attendance) classes for the other girls, they should be. Saraya has been... Bad. Just seems to have lost whatever she had in NXT/WWE. Maybe she needs to get back into the swing of things, maybe she needs more guidance and production than AEW has to offer. But we got the now cliche 'big pop then nothing' that marks way too many AEW arrivals.

Martinez was THE wrestler to build the RoH women's division around. A tough, bad-ass veteran that the audience can totally buy. I'd pitch Athena as the challenger who can't quite get a clean win over the champion for a long while. I'd also tell her to calm down in-ring and hopefully reduce the number of injuries she causes.
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I'm in total agreement here that Martinez was the person to build a roster in RoH around. Khan dropped the ball here, going with someone who might be more recognizable, but not as polished in the ring.

I do believe Deeb (and Madison Rayne) are helping train the women's roster. Cargill was working with Danielson awhile back, so she might still be doing that.

I know Saraya admitted that her match with Baker going well was all due to Baker. I think that's why they've been steering her into working with Storm, so the can have here there, but not so much in the ring.

Chaotic Wooster said:
'Anything goes' should not include knackering the referees. I mean, without going down Cornette's "No DQ, Laaazy booking!" rant, AEW has so many No DQ (or variations of same) matches, the referees get laid out so often, and the pre/post/backstage attacks are just endless... Not that it's just an AEW problem, of course. But AEW's issues haven't festered for decades and could easily be fixed.

Who'd referee a match when you can get wiped out by any of the idiots involved without repercussion? I'd bring a baseball bat to protect myself and just start swinging the moment they came near me. After all it's 'anything goes', right?
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I didn't know the refs being taken out was legal until I found that clip of Lethal elbow dropping the ref while Jarret was in a submission hold. Again, I agree it makes little sense, but that was the rules. I was surprised that Sonjay didn't try anything on Edwards after she broke his pencil. Singh was behind her, and he looked mad at her, but he didn't touch her either.

On the good side, Jarrett & Lethal are 0-2 against the Acclaimed, so no more title shots for them. Time to find a new opponent for them. I'd love to see them feud with Top Flight, but they just went 0-2 themselves against the Blackpool Combat Club. Too bad they've been jobbing the Workhorsemen (JD Drake & Anthony Henry), as they're a decent team that I think could put on good matches with them.

That's another issue with AEW; the tag scene feels like 3 or 4 top teams, and the rest never do well enough to be a threat to those top teams.
 
Jay Lethal... The guy is still really good. But when I see him I just get flashbacks of TNA at it's worst. Not his fault, but that's what happens every time.

Same thing for Jeff Jarrett, but I'm confused as to why he's even on TV. What he's got to offer is in backstage and production roles, not in the ring. Not that he can't still go in the ring, but no-one really wants to see it, do they?
 
Chaotic Wooster said:
Jay Lethal... The guy is still really good. But when I see him I just get flashbacks of TNA at it's worst. Not his fault, but that's what happens every time.
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Lethal was an integral part of RoH before Khan bought them out. He had been a upcoming player in it years earlier, before he was TNA full time. I met him at an indy show once, and he was a nice guy

Chaotic Wooster said:
Same thing for Jeff Jarrett, but I'm confused as to why he's even on TV. What he's got to offer is in backstage and production roles, not in the ring. Not that he can't still go in the ring, but no-one really wants to see it, do they?
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Given the crowd reaction Friday, he can still draw massive heat from a crowd. They went nuts when Caster did his Angle homage on him (not to mention his pre-match rap). He can still go in the ring for his age, and is in decent shape. I think his ring style is too old school compared to the people he's been facing though, which can take away from a match. Plus him being on tv means someone else isn't, so that's another reason not to use him on screen too often. With their bloated roster, other people need the exposure more imho
 
Lethal has always seemed pretty cool. But TNA just carries a stink it's hard to scrub off. He's way too good to be jobbing as much as he is in AEW. The only real hope here is to get RoH that elusive TV deal and make Jay a fixture of that roster. He's damned good and even if less people see it on an RoH program, he'll be a better fit and maybe fit into a solid gatekeeper veteran role for up and comers.

J.J. is very old school for this day and age. But now you say having him on TV means someone else isn't, I'm more inclined to keep him there, haha. Given the choice between Double J and another random high school friend of the Bucks, I'll go with ol' slapnuts.
 
Chaotic Wooster said:
J.J. is very old school for this day and age. But now you say having him on TV means someone else isn't, I'm more inclined to keep him there, haha. Given the choice between Double J and another random high school friend of the Bucks, I'll go with ol' slapnuts.
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I was thinking more like guys with some talent. Like Brian Cage or Keith Lee. Dark and Dark Elevation are fine for all the Buck buddies :tongue:
 
I really wish Max Caster was scheduled for tonight's Dynamite, because I want to hear him rap about it. Fuck, throw in a quick tag team squash match.

BONESAW ME, DADDY SAUD!
 
Even odds on there being a 'blood money' reference on tonight's show.
 
Also, the next time MJF brings up the 'bidding war of 2024', someone will probably respond with something along the lines of 'yeah, I'm certain the new owners of the other company would just love to have a nice Jewish boy like you.'
 
In other wrestling news, Mercedes Mone (fka Sasha Banks) vs Kairi helped sell out the NJPW event in California coming up. No other matches were announced yet.

There was also a lot of (supposedly false) news going on that with VKM back on the board at WWE, it was sold to the Saudis. I was LMAO at all the triggered fanbois whining about it on facebook yesterday.
 
Yesterday Jay Briscoe, one half of the RoH World Tag Team Champions, was killed in a car accident. His two daughters were in the car with him, and one is in critical condition. He was 38.
 
I watched Ric Flair's Final Match today. The undercard had some really good matches on it. The Briscoes took on the Von Erichs, Motor City Machine Guns vs American Wolves (who despite not teaming together for about 5 years, looked good together), Jacob Fatu vs Josh Alexander for the Impact title, some NJPW guys tearing up the pre-show, and GCW invading the Bunkhouse Battle Royal (which also featured Bully Ray and James Storm), and Killer Kross vs Davey Boy Smith jr. There's a few more, but those were some of my favorites.

It was a very cross-promotional event. Mick Foley and Undertaker crowd, as was DDP. Some other WWE guys like Cody, Dolph Ziggler and Shawn Michaels made video tributes, as did Sting. Kind of bummed Steamboat didn't do one.

As for the main event: Flair obviously didn't do alot of things he used to. He still chops like crazy, and he bled. Lethal and Jarrett really sold the whole heel aspect (with the backstory that Flair told Lethal he wasn't a "main event guy" while they were training together, so Jarrett got with him, and they attacked Flair to set up the match). Andrade looked good in the ring, but he played second fiddle for the most part. Flair has history with Jarrett and Lethal, so they used that to tell the story. Andrade did his part (I really want to see an Adrade/Lethal feud, even if they are both heels in AEW), as did Flair's other daughter and her husband (who set up the show). A revolving group of commentators joined Tony Schivonne and one of the Crocketts (I forget which one).

For an indie show, it wasn't that bad. Honestly, it was better than some shows by the regular promotions
 
I've been making my way through NJPW's Battle in the Valley. Decent card so far. Their live show in the US kind of reminds me of Ring of Honor when I'd see them live. Also started watching a recent episode of STRONG, the tv show for their US branch
 
Prestige Wrestling here in Oregon posted some videos from previous shows on their Youtube channel. Since Tulpa Girl is a Maki Ito fan, I figured I'd post the two matches they have up.
The more recent one was vs Mia Yim before she returned to WWE:


The night after that match, she took on Miyu Yamashita:
 
So I watched the 5 most recent episodes of NJPW Strong on Youtube, along with Battle in the Valley. NJPW Strong reminds me of Ring of Honor in many ways. They have their own titles (some of the more recent Strong episodes featured one of the semi-finals and finals of the Strong Open Weight tag team champions being crowned). It was interesting seeing Fred Rosser (fka Darren Young) as the main singles champion on Strong. I like that the focus is a mix of their American roster and wrestlers who come over from Japan. Kushida headlined one episode in a tag match with Ren Narita vs The Workhorsemen (one of my favorite indie tag teams). Dax Harwood of FTR had a great singles bout with Rocky Romero in another one.

One guy I was pleased to see is Fred Yehi. I saw some matches of his online early in his career, and became a fan. He was in Evolve for awhile, but he definitely fits the NJPW style. Had two good matches; the first against Tyler Batemen, the second a title shot against Rosser for the Open Weight title. Someone to keep an eye on.

The ppv had some great matches. The women's title match was shorter than I hoped, but it was interesting seeing Mercedes Mone (fka Sasha Banks) wrestling more of the NJPW style in her match with Kairi. Of course Okada and Tanahashi had a banger in the main event. I would say not on par with matches they've had in Japan, but still a great match.
 
Watching NXT: Stand & Deliver. So far, it has delivered. There hasn't been a dull match yet
 
While I know this isn't really a thread for posts about the 'E, my comment is really NWA related. Should Cody Rhodes win the title tonight, he will be the first person to have held both the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship and the W(W)WF/E Championship who has never used the "Nature Boy" gimmick at some point. Yes, that includes AJ.
 
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